WEBVTT

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if we could get your name

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position , I am Sergeant Peterson

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Desmond . Uh , that is P .

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E . T . E . R . S . O . N . First name

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is Desmond , D . E . S . M . O . N . D .

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And I'm with the full first civil

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affairs battalion out of Rochester new

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york

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30 yes

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to 10 and 11 .

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Yes . Uh yes . How'd you

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guess ?

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Uh

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reserve ?

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Uh ,

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what are you doing your civilian uh

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civilian civilian career ? I worked as

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a police officer for the Buffalo

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Special Police and I'm also a

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substitute teacher for high schools .

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All

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right . Uh oh

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uh oh yeah ,

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there are kids is just more or less , A

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lot of them are very anxious like when

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we go out there today , I was saying

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they're asking the Children a lot of

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questions of , they know how to do one

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plus one and you know , do they not

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speak english and any points ? And most

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of them all was able to count to 10 in

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english . So you know , I went over

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that with them a couple of times and

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you know , kind of talk about how to

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say my name in english and you know

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recognize certain different

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terminologies and stuff socialize

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similar because there are anxious to

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learn um more like the kids that in the

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US there , you know , you want to get

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younger ages , they're really anxious

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to learn different things and like

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these Children here , they were very

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anxious to try and find out what's

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going a very curious and stuff of that

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nature . Why is that important to , you

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know relationships .

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Um uh in my opinion , I think that the

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best way to the kind of

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infrastructure more situated here is

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kind of get the kids to understand that

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we're here to help them get the parents

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to understand that we're here to help

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them , that we're not the bad men that

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people tend to try and say that we are

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portrayed as we are , but our main

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focus is really just trying to rebuild

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the infrastructure , get the government

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stepped back up , let them know that

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you know what it takes in order to

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govern themselves and control

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themselves . You think we're doing that ?

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Uh in my opinion , I think we're doing

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a pretty good job at um what what

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happened out there today today today

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was our humanitarian day in my in my

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opinion is it was more of a day for us

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to go out and uh joe's populist kind of

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get put different face on the military ,

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whereas the military , a lot of times

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people see us , you know , see most of

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soldiers , they're going out there

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chasing down um you know , the bad guys

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trying to get them out of the country ,

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but today was our opportunity to go out

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and and deal with people who had issues

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in terms of health issues . Let the

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kids see us in a different light . So

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they don't see it as , you know , these

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guys run around here with weapons and

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stuff of that nature . They actually

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see soldiers as human beings and that

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we're here to actually truly help them

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and not hurt them . Uh what do you

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think are the biggest challenges ?

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Uh the biggest challenges

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um right now is just really just

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determining

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uh

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can you repeat that for me ? Sure . One

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of the biggest challenges facing the

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missions that we're trying to do is

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uh

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um the biggest , I guess one of the

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biggest problems that I've seen and it

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was just kind of being resolved now is

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the missions of trying to communicate

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with them , trying to get them to

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understand that we are here to help ,

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you know , trying to get people out of

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the house is because I kind of larry ,

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they're kind of like what are they

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doing ? You know , why they hear what

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they're looking for , they're coming

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here to bother us or whatever and

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trying to understand that that's what

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we're here for . We're here to help and

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convey that to them , say , look , you

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know , come out of your house , you

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know , talk to us let us know what's

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going on . How can we , what can we do

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to actually help you , What can we do

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to make life better for you and you

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know , healthy government established

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that means and continue to establish

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that means so that you know that this

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this government can survive on its home

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without our help . Do you have any ,

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anything that you would like to

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uh

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to be a part of this ?

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Uh

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I feel about it is basically when I

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first came when I first told I was

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being deployed , I was like man I leave

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my family , I got to go . Um

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But the more I've been over here the

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more I've come to realize that uh it's

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actually it's actually worth doing .

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You know we're actually achieving a

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goal , we actually achieving the

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mission and I'm actually kind of happy

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that I'm here because we actually I'm

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actually able to help someone you know

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a lot of eyes a lot of soldiers here ,

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we're all heroes , you know some of

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them you know they want to go home ,

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some of the entire um but spirits are

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high amongst a lot of them and they

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actually see the good that they do when

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they look at the Children , they look

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at the families and the families , a

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lot of them come out and say thank you ,

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you know just for being here , you know ?

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Uh So in terms of being here I think I

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think definitely doing a lot a lot of

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good and I'm kind of happy that I came

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that actually got an opportunity to

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contribute to this situation . And I

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know when I go home I feel a lot better

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because then I know I said look you

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know in my life actually put forth an

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effort to do something make a change

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somewhere instead of just going on my

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everyday normal life a more

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uh yeah how do you think

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uh

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this is this nature definitely takes

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the aspect of uh

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U . S . Soldiers to a different level .

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Um Most most soldiers most people view

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us soldiers as um uh like

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fighters constant fighters . Yes . You

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know we're trained to fight . That is

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one of our one of our primary mission .

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However the civil affairs is the goal

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is to actually go out and put a

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different face on that . You know to

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let people know that that's not what

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we're here for . We're here to actually

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help you rebuild your infrastructure ,

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rebuild your community . And you know

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basically just kinda explain to them

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that we're not exactly just out for war .

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Were out to actually do something to

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make a good make a difference . Uh