Back when I was in basic training, I had a drill sergeant, Hernandez [hereafter DS Hernandez] who was, to me, a diamond in the rough. Now generally, I was pretty damn intimidated by all the drill sergeants – because when you’re in that state of mind, that’s the image they are trying to portray. Let us just say, training is very effective.

While I was still very much intimidated by DS Hernandez, there was also a high level of respect I had for him, and I think it was mutual on my part as well. He was the one who appointed me to squad leader, which would lead to my promotion later, kept me on the inside with all the training and drill information, and even had me into his tent to give me the rundown on the final days of basic, something which I thought was unheard of.

He was the positive reinforcement I needed to make it through basic training not just in the sense of survival, but excelling beyond peoples expectations. Of course I wanted to do good for my friends and family, the thought of sticking my tail between my legs and crawling home humiliated because I couldn’t make it was unacceptable, but deep down I also wanted to do well because I wanted to show DS Hernandez that I am a damn good soldier and I wanted to have both me and my squad exceed his expectations. I think we generally did.

Needless to say, I was quite surprised to learn that he is now rotting away in Ft. Leavenworth, the Department of Defense’s maximum-security prison. Apparently, when he was stationed in Alaska, he got into a bar fight and killed two people. This may sound crazy to you, but as an army soldier trained like him, I am sure it was part just immediate reactions that have been burned into his head. In days like this, in the Army, deployment is always a single letter in the mail away. Soldiers in today’s day and age need to be ready to take orders, kill, and survive at a moments notice. The fact that he killed two people was no shock to me, almost kind of delighted that he was a man who practiced what he preached.

What shocked me was that afterwards he fled, went home, and somehow managed to get back to Ft. Benning, Georga – where there’s the Infantry training school. I am not sure the timing of the story, but I imagine that there was not enough evidence left to tie the murders to DS Hernandez.

When he was back in Ft. Benning, he got drunk one night, raped his 13 year old step-daughter, and when the cops were called was so belligerent that he thought they were after him for the murders in Alaska. High-speed pursuit with Ft. Benning police later, he was arrested and charged with so many violations I doubt he will see outside the walls in Leavenworth till I have kids in college.

I honestly feel bad for him. Sure, you probably think he’s a horrible person, but I always think I’m a good judge of character, and his downfall to me seems like nothing than one large fail. No matter what is going on in your life, soldiers have the most stress than anyone of us. Imagine being a tightly wound spring, ready to explode, but if you do the possibility of someone getting killed is astronomically high. You are a spring designed to kill – how could anyone expect different?

What lesson can we learn from this? Stress is a serious problem that can make ordinarily good people do drastic things. Stress causes us to drown our sorrows and problems in alcohol which does nothing but causes that spring to let loose. We as humans are designed to deal with stress but we need our outlets. For most of us, that is eating, but for the few of us that follow our genetic programming, we have learned the awesome power that comes with focused, hardcore exercise. On top of that, following the rules of intermittent fasting, we give our sympathetic nervous systems a chance to recuperate and rebuild and thus we are better at dealing with stress than the normal over-fed fat-ass.

Don’t be like DS Hernandez – eat right, exercise, and train your body and mind to deal with stress correctly so you don’t end up killing two dudes in a bar fight.