I am the first to say that I hold certain people to a higher standard than others. As a former Army soldier, I saw first hand how this is true. As a basic trainee and later an Infantry Drill Instructor, we were taught to have a warrior ethic. We defend our country and our way of life. We do things in the military like standing at attention in blazing sun and chilling cold without moving a muscle. You’d expect we would be incapable of ever doing wrong.

But this is the furthest from the truth. Yes, for those who choose to do right and honor the code, this is completely true and should be acknowledged as hero status. But I’ve seen where this wasn’t true. I helped apprehend and escort a fellow basic trainee who went ballistic while in the field until the Military Police could arrive. As a platoon leader’s driver, I had to drive soldiers in handcuffs to Mannheim Disciplinary barracks in Germany for charges of theft, rape, aggravated assault, and drug abuse. I personally had to issue Article 15’s and other charges to soldiers for various offenses. And I’ve seen my share of parties get out of hand and many crazy things to blow off steam. We are far from perfect.

The truth is, even though many positions are held higher, the percentage of crime per population is fairly similar in these fields of occupation to your average citizen population. Police, firemen, clergy, teachers, academia, doctors, lawyers,…all these professions can still have their bad apples. It should still shock us that these honored professions could stoop so low. But it happens and we shouldn’t be surprised.

People are never perfect. We all have something in our lives that darkens us. We strive to be an honorable person who is respected in other’s eyes. But we all fail.