That said, I have an entire chapter in my book called The Downward Spiral which talks about my trying to cope with the stress through drugs and alcohol. I was generally pretty safe physically during my time there with a few exceptions but nothing that left me debilitated or maimed. Because I kept it turned up to 11 the entire time I was there.
What is tougher? The mental or physical toll? Whether that be via the terrain or a virus (which I got and almost killed me) that is not common for a midwest guy like me. Add to that the fact that Afghanistan in and of itself is trying to kill you every chance it gets. Which is why it is so important to maintain sound tradecraft and stay off the radar. Then you add in the idea that you are CIA and that puts a tremendous target on your back. Well I was a warzone Case Officer (C/O) so you can imagine that it is already dangerous by proxy of being in a warzone. Which, for me especially, was a good thing given that I was just an average guy from the Midwest. That way everyone is starting on a level playing field. Yes, the military would help to a degree but in order to be a case officer, which is what I did, you really can't prepare for it ahead of time. There are no skills that you can learn per se prior to joining the Agency that will make you a stronger candidate. And I kept it from them by telling them I was a low level sales guy - which I also told everyone else - and since that's pretty boring, their truthfully weren't a whole lot of other follow up questions. I just told my mom and dad last week. It's also a gigantic weight off my chest that I have been carrying for the past ten years. So for context, since you asked about family - I classify that as solely my mom and dad. It probably helps that he's single with no kids, but any relationship starts with a lie which must have been gut-wrenching. He hid his identity for 10 years from everyone except his brother. We've pulled our favorite exchanges from this AMA, which is filled with enough acronyms to make your head spin.
My final assignment was with a top secret task force operating amidst the Syrian Civil War. I was in Afghanistan throughout President Obama's 2010 Afghan Surge, during which time I worked on eliminating the most deadly improvised explosive device (IED) network in the world as well as the removal of numerous al-Qaeda and Taliban High Value Targets from the battlefield.I was in Kandahar, Afghanistan during Operation Neptune Spear which resulted in the death of UBL in Abbottabad, Pakistan. I was a Central Intelligence Agency Case Officer who served in the Directorate of Operations (DO) with multiple tours in Afghanistan and throughout the Middle East.
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