When Ted Corcoran joined the Army in 2000, he needed a steady job and a place to live.
"I wish I had a noble reason for joining the military, but in reality, I was very poor, and I didn't have a whole lot of options," Corcoran said.
He trained to be a medic so he would have a skill set that he could immediately put to use in the civilian world. As he neared the end of his stint in the Army, he was working as an EMT and preparing to transition out of the reserves. He never expected to be sent to Iraq.
But in 2005, he got a letter in the mail telling him to prepare for deployment.
"It was a real simple choice, it was show up a Fort Jackson, or there will be a warrant put out for your arrest for desertion," Corcoran said.
At first, he thought he'd just keep his head down and focus on the mission, but as his work roles changed during his deployment, his world view changed as well.
This conversation was produced by North Carolina Public Radio/WUNC – as part of StoryCorps’ Military Voices Initiative, and made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.
