HUGHESVILLE, Pa. — Travis Harman served in the Pennsylvania National Guard for 13 years as part of the 103rd Armor Regiment out of Lewisburg, retiring as a staff sergeant. In 2008 both Travis and his father served in Afghanistan together.
"In the back of my head, it does linger, like, what was it all for?" Harman asked.
Harman spent about a year in Afghanistan and saw a lot in that time. He and his division were there to fight the Taliban, but for a lot of them, the main goal was reconstruction.
"They would build wells. They would build schools for women, for girls. I'm having a hard time struggling with it because the Taliban does not believe in women's rights whatsoever," Harman said.
Harman lives in Hughesville and has been glued to coverage about what is currently happening in Afghanistan. He calls it disheartening.
"We progressed so much over the past 20 years in that country just so a little girl could go to school and get an education. Now that's not going to happen," Harman said.
This Army vet says he is happy our troops are out of Afghanistan but not happy about the way we got out.
"I heard the president say you can dump money and you can dump training into somebody, but you can't give them the will to fight. I don't think that's true for all the Afghanis. I know they have a will to fight because they fought shoulder to shoulder with me," Harman said.
Harman tells Newswatch 16 he wants other veterans to know that they are not alone in how they are feeling right now and that what they did overseas matters.