Entering the war was a way for Jake Dube to get away from his life back home. He was born in Lawrence, Mass, with a mother named Marilyn who was a teacher and a father, my uncle, named Lionel Dube who was a policeman and builder. After he graduated high school he claimed that he was doing “nothing good” so he enlisted for the army, passed his first test, and was off to his first camp in Atlanta Georgia.

He began basic training in Atlanta and volunteered to be a ranger and also in the air force. After he passed basic training, he was sent off the Fort Lewis in Washington, which “is as far as it gets,” according to him. He claimed that he remembered two instructors who were strict. The first one was Drill Sergeant Vinny, which was his basic training sergeant. He taught him a life lesson that will never leave him, “The best way to save your own life is to violently defend yours,”  which is probably true when you go and fight in the real war. The second instructor was a man, he does not remember his name, but Dube specifically remembers having trash cans thrown at him and a lot of yelling.

Dube enlisted to be in two wars; Iraq and Afghanistan, he was stationed in Thailand and then the Middle East. He claims “Thailand was the time of my life, the people there were so nice and I had the best experience there,”.

The Middle East was a whole other story, Jake witnessed things that he never thought he would see in his lifetime. It was scary for him, yet he was grateful he was able to experience the real world because it gave him a whole new view on life.

Dube has made many new friends that he has kept for a long time. He has friends from the ranger unit that he still tries to talk to today, and a few from the air force that he keeps in touch with as well. He was able to get close with these boys because they were bonding over the service they were doing. Some of his buddies are still fighting in Afghanistan, others died a few months ago which broke Dube’s heart. He says, “This war is still going on, people are fighting for something that they believe in please let others know this”. He is thankful for all of the friends that he made throughout this experience and is happy he got to meet these people that help him grow into the man he is today.

While I was interviewing Jake one thing he mentioned really stood out throughout the rest of the information he has said in this interview. Dube claims that all war really is about is people fighting for money. “Everything in this universe is all about money,”  people view war as something completely different than what it really is. Everything Dube was doing was all for money which in the end made him pretty upset. It was really complicated for him to comprehend but he was able to understand it and learn about the goal.

In conclusion, Jake Dube is a fascinating human being, for fighting in two wars. It showed him some perspective of what the world really is like. It gave him lessons he thought he would never learn and situations he never thought he could witness. When I asked him to say one thing that he would like to pass on to people reading this article he stated, “Think for yourself, don’t let other people influence what you think even when it might be for some reward,”.