Quintus Gore I first became interested in joining the military when we had recruiters from the Army, the Navy, the National Guard, the Army Reserves come to our school. They brung along a pull-up bar. I really didn't have intentions of joining. I just wanted to do pull-ups in front of the ladies. So I signed up for every single one of them so I could do the pull-ups.
They started actually calling. They asked me if I was still interested in receiving information about the branch. Just not to be rude, I said yes to all of them. They started telling me how they would pay for my college. I started thinking, "Maybe I should pursue this," and trying to figure out which was the best branch for me.
I want to go to college point-blank. But I was thinking, "How am I going to pay for this?" We're nowhere near having that type of money. I didn't want to get into loans. The National Guard was like, "We'll pay up to University of Wisconsin tuition for you." I was thinking that would be good. That was just my main focus -- getting college paid for.
I got a recruiter named Timothy Montgomery. I started meeting him in person. He would come over, and talk to me about the National Guard, and what types of things I would be doing. I ended up taking a test called the ASFAB. At first I was nervous about it. He said, normally kids from Custer score a 4 or 5, but you need a 31 to qualify. I took the test and ended up getting a 54. My recruiter said "You got a 54! You're good enough to get in the Army. You're good enough to get any job you want. You're good enough to also get the bonuses! You need a 51 to get the bonuses." I got a 54.
My basic family, me and my brothers and my mother -- we're all dispersed through Milwaukee. I rarely get to hear from them or see them. There are 5 of us -- Kenny, JR, Dante, me, and then I have a little brother, Warren, who was put up for adoption.
I live with my auntie. With my family, the way I always view it is -- our family was like a marble. And this giant rock came down and crushed it. When that happened, all the pieces were scattered. I kind of have resentment towards my mother because of that -- because of her drug addiction, and the way she used her money. It just caused us all to scatter. Me and my brother Dante ended up going to a foster home when I was 5. Most of our lives were in foster homes just moving from home to home to home.
Once we hit 12, we got a chance to go back home. So I went back home with my mother for another year. I realized there was the same stuff going on that got us taken away in the first place. I just thought, "I don't need this stuff." I was trying to get into high school. I ended up moving in with my oldest brother, Kenny. He was 28 at the time. I lived with him my whole freshman year, and then I cam back to my auntie because I didn't have nowhere else to go. So I ended up coming to my auntie.
There with my auntie I was able to focus on being a normal kid. I didn't have to worry about, "What am I going to eat tonight?" or, "I got no detergent to clean my clothes." I could start playing football. I could start paying attention to school. I could start talking to girls. I could just be a normal kid. That's where I'm at now--just being Quintus Gore with my auntie.
I know I'm most likely going to go to Iraq sooner or later. I know there's a chance I could lose my life. But there's a big chance I could come back home. I figure that I'm going to do this contract. Get college paid for, and I'm going to walk away and just forget that whole 8 years.
One of the things I'm worried about -- I'm not hardcore religious -- but I do believe in God, is wondering if I kill somebody, if that's counts as a sin. If I'm called upon to kill a female or a young child, I worry about that because that kid or that woman is another person's kid, or another person's wife, or husband or son. Could I handle that? Could I handle a kid who's running at me with an IED strapped to him, who's probably like 12-years-old, who doesn't really understand the situation? Would I be able to take that person's life? I don't really know how I'm going to handle that yet.
They started actually calling. They asked me if I was still interested in receiving information about the branch. Just not to be rude, I said yes to all of them. They started telling me how they would pay for my college. I started thinking, "Maybe I should pursue this," and trying to figure out which was the best branch for me.
I want to go to college point-blank. But I was thinking, "How am I going to pay for this?" We're nowhere near having that type of money. I didn't want to get into loans. The National Guard was like, "We'll pay up to University of Wisconsin tuition for you." I was thinking that would be good. That was just my main focus -- getting college paid for.
I got a recruiter named Timothy Montgomery. I started meeting him in person. He would come over, and talk to me about the National Guard, and what types of things I would be doing. I ended up taking a test called the ASFAB. At first I was nervous about it. He said, normally kids from Custer score a 4 or 5, but you need a 31 to qualify. I took the test and ended up getting a 54. My recruiter said "You got a 54! You're good enough to get in the Army. You're good enough to get any job you want. You're good enough to also get the bonuses! You need a 51 to get the bonuses." I got a 54.
My basic family, me and my brothers and my mother -- we're all dispersed through Milwaukee. I rarely get to hear from them or see them. There are 5 of us -- Kenny, JR, Dante, me, and then I have a little brother, Warren, who was put up for adoption.
I live with my auntie. With my family, the way I always view it is -- our family was like a marble. And this giant rock came down and crushed it. When that happened, all the pieces were scattered. I kind of have resentment towards my mother because of that -- because of her drug addiction, and the way she used her money. It just caused us all to scatter. Me and my brother Dante ended up going to a foster home when I was 5. Most of our lives were in foster homes just moving from home to home to home.
Once we hit 12, we got a chance to go back home. So I went back home with my mother for another year. I realized there was the same stuff going on that got us taken away in the first place. I just thought, "I don't need this stuff." I was trying to get into high school. I ended up moving in with my oldest brother, Kenny. He was 28 at the time. I lived with him my whole freshman year, and then I cam back to my auntie because I didn't have nowhere else to go. So I ended up coming to my auntie.
There with my auntie I was able to focus on being a normal kid. I didn't have to worry about, "What am I going to eat tonight?" or, "I got no detergent to clean my clothes." I could start playing football. I could start paying attention to school. I could start talking to girls. I could just be a normal kid. That's where I'm at now--just being Quintus Gore with my auntie.
I know I'm most likely going to go to Iraq sooner or later. I know there's a chance I could lose my life. But there's a big chance I could come back home. I figure that I'm going to do this contract. Get college paid for, and I'm going to walk away and just forget that whole 8 years.
One of the things I'm worried about -- I'm not hardcore religious -- but I do believe in God, is wondering if I kill somebody, if that's counts as a sin. If I'm called upon to kill a female or a young child, I worry about that because that kid or that woman is another person's kid, or another person's wife, or husband or son. Could I handle that? Could I handle a kid who's running at me with an IED strapped to him, who's probably like 12-years-old, who doesn't really understand the situation? Would I be able to take that person's life? I don't really know how I'm going to handle that yet.
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