Nate Pontius

But yeah, when I turned 18, it just turned out that the Marine Corps infantry was going to afford me that ability to go and fight bad guys.

And so I got to go do that and it was great and all.

And then it's not until...

really after everything that you have, after the dust has settled, really, that you like start to think about the things that you did over there and like how if the shoe was on the other foot, maybe all of the experiences that you had, you had those for a reason.

I start to think about, you know, just living out on my farm with my family now and like,

way that we used to just roll up on these houses and these families and just take over like we we certainly weren't winning any hearts and minds and we just couldn't understand why we were losing so badly over there and it was exactly why i think about somebody rolling up on my farm and doing those sorts of things to my family i was like no wonder we got this sort of responses that we got and why it felt like we were constantly moving backwards in in afghanistan but

I'm glad I joined.

A lot of who I am now is due to those experiences and how the Marine Corps molded and shaped me for better and for worse.

Oh, I do.

And having kids will open that door wide open.

Because you have a daughter now, right?

I do.

She's a little bit younger than your boy.

How's that been for you?

Well, I mean, like you just said...

Prior to her, the only tool I really had in my toolbox to solving problems was a hammer.

Anything gotten put in front of me, it just took a hammer and just started smashing everything violently.

Once she came along, it forced me to...

get in my toolbox and figure out different tools.

Like I don't need to use a hammer for problems that require a paintbrush.