In Baghdad, Aaron Milliman stood by himself for four days with barely any food or water watching the enemy. His troops said they would come back for him but Milliman didn’t expect it to take this long.

The skills that he learned during his time in the military would help him to become a successful college student at Valencia.

Milliman, 38, recently went back to Valencia College because he claimed he was a “working class nobody” who wanted to become a police officer.

Although Milliman stated that he would go back to the military, he did discuss that he went through some struggles and one of those struggles was going to Iraq in 2003.

“I didn’t know the area I was going in, didn’t know the language, and I didn’t know the culture,” Milliman said. “I couldn’t let my guard down for a split second.”

Milliman did enjoy a lot in the military though. One of the many things that he enjoyed was the training that he was given.

“You learn a lot about yourself,” Milliman said. “I was 18, almost 19 years old and they made me a squad later which put me in charge of 12 other Marines and at the time, I could barely finish my homework let alone be in charge of 12 other people. I had to learn how to make it happen which was very rewarding.”

Milliman put emphasis on his lessons in patience, listening to direction and being able to follow through oun orders.

“One of the things I had to learn was patience. We hit the gates of Baghdad in 2003 and I was dropped off at a four way intersection and was told that nobody gets through. I was told to stay there and that they would come back for me. I had less than a day’s worth of water and one meal worth of food on me.”

He went on to say:

“The Marines had dropped me off and went a half mile up the street and started building camp and also a bridge.  I could not leave my post under any circumstances. It was four days before they came back for me. Mind you, that was four days and four nights that I had to walk around. I couldn’t rest. During that time, I learned about patience on a whole different level.”

Thank you Aaron Milliman for your service. You will forever be a true Veteran.