By Abby LaForest

Journal Staff Writer

MARQUETTE — Brendan Ruth moved to the Upper Peninsula when he was 16, relocating from his hometown of Fowler in lower Michigan. Ruth, now 23, served in the U.S. Army for a little less than four years, enlisting in 2019.

Following his father’s footsteps, Ruth was inspired to join the Army based on the stories he’d heard about the military growing up.

“I wanted to join and be a better soldier than my father was. When I was growing up, I always heard about how he was a soldier and I was like ‘I’m going to be like him,’ and then I found out he wasn’t a very good person, wasn’t a very good soldier,” Brendan recalled. “And I was like ‘I’ve always wanted to join, I know what I’m doing, I’m going to give myself the opportunity to join and show to myself that I can be better and do better and do the things I had heard of growing up and be that person…”

During his service, Ruth’s Military Occupational Specialty was serving in 11B (pronounced eleven bravo) as an active duty combat infantryman. He was deployed in the Middle Eastern Theater, or space where important military events occur or are in progress, during his service. Before his deployment, Ruth went into detail about his memories of being in basic training, both the positive and negative.

“I went into basic training with a very different mindset than a lot of people,” Ruth mentioned. “It was something I knew I always wanted to do and I’d say that the greatest part [of basic training] was just accomplishing that, because I went in there with a very solo mindset…I went there for me and I knew it, so accomplishing that was the best part.”

Despite entering basic training with a solitary mindset, Ruth recalls how some of the better moments were made when he forged deep, meaningful bonds with some of the people he’d met during boot camp.

“It’d be hard to pin down just one [good moment.] A good moment was realizing for the first time that I’d made lifelong bonds with people, just things that I know wouldn’t be broken, no matter how far any one of us would travel,” Ruth explained. “We keep in touch, so I’d say that’s the best part I could think of. A really fond memory I have is developing the first friendship that you find, which is usually around basic training or the completion of it.”

Brendan didn’t spare the more difficult details of basic training, however, and explained what his situation as an infantryman was like while stationed at Fort Benning (now renamed to Fort Moore as of May 2023) down in Georgia.

“We’re [infantrymen] one of the only jobs in any branch right now that does OSUT, or One Station Unit Training, and you’ll conduct your entire basic training and specific job training…at that [same base.] You don’t leave, you don’t go anywhere else, so you’re kept at the same base privileges,” Ruth detailed. “We got privileges, but in comparison to places where you leave your base and go to your Advanced Individual Training, their privileges would be [something like] get[ing] their phones or they get day passes, weekend passes maybe. Us, it was like ‘you get longer to shower, you’d go from 30 seconds to two minutes’ [or] ‘you get seven and a half minutes to eat your food, ballpark dimes, instead of two minutes,’ things that may seem insignificant but were bigger to us at the time than anything else. Those felt pretty awesome.”

Thinking back on one of his largest sacrifices while he was in the military, Ruth chose something that may come as a surprise to some.

“Sleep, honestly. You lose so much of it when you’re out there that when you get back, that’s all I want to do sometimes…” said Ruth. “Before the Army, if I had some free time, I’d want to go and like, read a book or play a game or something, but now I’m like ‘I can get some sleep.’”

Aside from just sleeping in general, the conditions that Ruth had to sleep in weren’t the typical comfortable bed and warm blanket either.

“That’s one of the things I miss[ed] the most was being able to sleep with something above my head or indoors. Not even [missing] AC really, just no bugs on you. In Fort Benning, everything was sandy. It was down in Georgia, Fort Benning, and they had sand pits everywhere, and I don’t even think about it as the worst memory in the world. Everything would get coated in sand, so you’d go to bed covered in sand…You have a roof above your head, you’re fine, but you’re just in sand. Sleeping comfortably, that is something I missed the most, and it’s something I don’t take for granted anymore either.”

One thing Ruth talked about was how nice sleeping out on deployment was, despite the accommodations not being what civilians are typically used to.

“You have to really take care of yourself and clean up a little more out there [in the Middle East], but where we slept, we did have nicer barracks in the wire,” Brendan explained, with the wire referencing the perimeter of the military base. “Outside of the wire, you’re sleeping on rocks, in rocks, up against rocks, anywhere you can. It’s hard to even think of it poorly because everything is the same out there, like if I’m getting sleep, that’s awesome…I do really miss just sleeping out there and feeling like I got a full night’s sleep in two hours because that was just energizing.”

Ruth, who was discharged in 2023, has had evolving thoughts about his time in the service and whether or not it’s something he’d sign up for again. A few of the factors influencing his decision include the services and help available to veterans after they transition to civilian life.

“Up until this year, I think I would’ve told everyone that I would have done it again, but that wouldn’t have been true. I think I would’ve said it, and I think I would’ve been lying. I don’t think I would do it again, nor would I ever advise anyone to subject themselves [to] a direct fire MOS in any branch,” Ruth revealed. “There are good jobs in the military, no matter what anyone says. There are good careers in the military, but I wouldn’t tell anyone to do that again, not even myself. [It’s] not even for the horrors you see out there or anything, but to come back to a country that no longer supports these people is insanity…the country doesn’t care anymore and [either] the support chains aren’t there or they are there but they’re overburdened.”

When it comes to the perceived lack of support when veterans return to civilian life, Brendan discussed how it can be difficult because of outside issues that aren’t immediate fixes.

“Most people don’t have the willpower to fight [for their benefits] anymore, and I don’t have the time to fight that. I have to work. I’ve been looking forward to using the one benefit we do have for now which is free college, just so I can have enough free time. I want to be a full-time student just so I have enough free time to pursue my VA claims, which is crazy to think about, but there just isn’t the time with the way today’s economy and society and everything is, let alone specifically veteran problems.”

Despite some of the struggles he’s faced both in and out of the military, Brendan’s pride for the work he’s done and how he was able to serve his country solidifies the meaning of his service.

“I think I signed on to exactly what I wanted to do, I had the opportunities to do exactly what I wanted to do, and I did them,” Ruth claimed. “To me, the meaning of where I served will never change, because that’s something that’s important to me, that no one else gets to decide and no one else gets to change. I think I was able to accomplish exactly what I wanted to do, and even if it ended a little quicker than I wanted, I don’t think the meaning will ever change. I did what I told myself I could do, wanted to do, and got it done.”