‘It was worth it’: Purple Heart veteran reflects on Afghanistan
LAKEVILLE – The only indication that Holmes County-native Michael Allison was shot was the loud banging of a gun, but even then he didn't know a bullet passed through his lower back.
A few moments before the cascade of small arms fire surprised his platoon in Ghazni, Afghanistan, Allison and his platoon leader, Lt. Yi, were calmly talking about everyday life. Now bullets peppered his platoon.
“I learned later that they didn't actually see us; our outside team was past them and we were right on top of them,” the 33-year-old Allison said, thinking back to his experience in 2013. “They didn't see us, we didn't see them, but, unfortunately, they saw us first.”
Allison's body reacted for him, moving behind cover and making himself small to avoid a second bullet. Within crawling distance was his platoon leader who did the same.
At that moment he remembers looking to the side. He saw bullets hit the ground where he once stood. Then the pain caught up with him. “When I told my platoon leader that I was shot, he was in disbelief,” said Allison, a former U.S. Army specialist with the 54th Engineer Battalion. “He opened my vest and said, ‘Oh my god.' Even with all that training and because he was my team leader and a good friend, he was in shock and distraught with what he saw.”
Allison remembers a medic from North Carolina named Sgt. Frank who provided combat lifesaving, picked him up and carried him away.
“I just remember all the things he was doing to me, he ran through it like he had done it a million times,” Allison said. Once Frank patched him up, Allison was flown to Bagram Air Field just outside Kabul.
Eight years after the incident, the women and men in the helicopters that secured his position and those in similar platoons were evacuated out of the south central Asian country. The U.S. presence in its longest war seemingly is at an end.
The Taliban stormed the country in a matter of weeks last month, culminating in the capture of the country's capital, Kabul, reversing America's gains in its 20-year war.
Now years after he left the military with a Purple Heart, Allison, like so many other veterans are coming to terms with recent events.
The longest war in US history
When President Donald Trump announced the first stages of the U.S. withdrawal in 2020, Allison was pleased.
“I thought we've been over there so long, that it would just feel great if everybody could just come home,” he said.
While Allison believed that his presence helped communities, he questioned the longevity of the war that began in 2001, when he was in eighth grade.
“I felt like, even when I was there, you know, how is this place ever gonna be able to function on its own?” Allison said. “Should we have to be there holding their hand forever?”
When Allison joined the military in 2009, he was stationed in Germany before his deployment to Afghanistan. He
entered the military because he wanted to do something important and make a difference, like his relatives who also served, he said.
But he was struck by one glaring fact — the war that started eight years earlier was still raging.
“At the time in eighth grade, I remembered 9/11 being a big deal, but I didn't give it much thought,” said Allison, a West Holmes High School graduate. “I honestly never imagined that eight, nine years later it would still be going on.”
Since the U.S. entered Afghanistan two decades ago, tens of thousands have died.
Nearly 2,450 American soldiers, 3,846 U.S. contractors, 1,144 allied servicemen and women, 66,000 Afghan police and soldiers, 51,191 Taliban and opposition fighters, 444 aid workers and 72 journalists died in the conflict, according to an Associated Press report.
Women and men lost the war abroad and at home
What keeps Allison up at night is that many of his friends and colleagues died in Afghanistan while many are still fighting that war at home.
“We're talking about lives, the lives of young men and women who had so much potential,” Allison said. “Not all my friends came home, but I've had friends come home, and not make it because of the things that they experienced.”
In talking with other veterans and in his own experience, readjusting to civilian life was a war of its own, he said.
“You come back and things are not the same, and they never will be because it changes the way you look at the entire world,” he said. “It's not like, ‘Oh I had one bad event, and I'm now I'm messed up for the rest of my life;' “it changes the whole idea of even being home.”
Returning to his home in Holmes County, Allison, like some of his friends didn't enjoy activities or the little things that they once did.
Compared to many veterans, Allison believes his return to civilian life was smoother than most.
Nearly 14% of deployed and nondeployed
veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq screened positive for PTSD, according to a 2014 study that looked at 60,000 veterans from both conflicts.
“As many as 500,000 U.S. troops who served in these wars over the past 13 years have been diagnosed with PTSD,” the 2014 study stated.
To get through the difficulties of post-war home life, Allison gave himself a new purpose. He joined the Apple Creek police force in Wayne County on a part-time basis where he still works.
He attributes his mental and physical healing from the wounds he endured in Afghanistan in part to his wife, Rhea, and his three children.
“I really feel like because my wife was there by my side, that I healed that much faster,” Allison said, referring to when he flew to a hospital in Germany to heal from his gunshot wound. “It was that emotional support.”
Was it worth it?
Ever since the Taliban took Kabul in August, Allison has asked himself the same questions. Was the war worth it? Was his service worth it?
At first, he wasn't sure what to think about recent events. It was a tragedy, he said, but he wasn't sure if it was worth 20 years of conflict and so many lives lost.
“I've had to search and think about this because at some point somebody is going to ask me what do I think,” Allison said. “What puts the lump in my throat is the sacrifice; what hurts is to see how much we put in this only to watch it slip away.”
But he believes that he made a difference in the communities he directly worked with, and for him, that was worth it.
When he reflects on his time in Afghanistan, he remembers his friends, colleagues, allies and the communities in Ghazni province that he got to know.
“I could never look at helping another human being as not being worth it,” Allison said. “The life that they had because we were there was stable, there was democracy and we helped them, so it was worth it.”
Reach Bryce by email at bbuyakie@gannett.com
On Twitter: @Bryce_buyakie