There is a statistic occasionally brought to the attention of Soldiers after a good work week: Less than one percent.
That is, of the less than one percent of Americans defending our nation against all enemies; volunteers sign up knowing there's a possibility of engaging the enemy.
Then, there's the infantry. These Soldiers sign up for the purpose of engaging the enemy in close combat. After more than a decade of units cycling in and out of the fight, most infantry Soldiers in the Army today have been up front, in the weeds, in the hot zone more than once. Staff Sgt. Steven Kempf is one of these men. He has been in countless engagements with the enemy over four combat tours.
Afghanistan - "There are a lot of guys like me with plenty of combat experience. I just happen to be one of 'em," said Kempf, a scout platoon squad leader with 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division.
There is a general rule that for every Soldier in the field, there are six Soldiers in the rear supporting him. Kempf, a native of Madison, Wisconsin, has seen enough combat for all six of his support Soldiers.
In 2007, Kempf deployed to Iraq as a squad automatic weapon gunner. He patrolled southern Baghdad eight hours a day for 15 months.
"It was all about presence then," Kempf said. "When you get there you're ready to kick some [rear end] but bad things start happening or you lose somebody and it's hard to deal with. Eventually you stop thinking about everything else, you only care about the guys you're out there with."
With 15 months of combat experience under his belt, Kempf requested a permanent change of station to open up career options. In 2009, he went to the 82nd where he was given the option to go to a line unit or deploy right away with a scout platoon. He waived his dwell time, the minimum amount of non-deployed time given to Soldiers, to deploy with 4th Brigade.
"Scout platoon is where I needed to be. These guys try harder. On the line you'll get guys that don't want to be there but you can't put them anywhere else, so you're stuck with them," he explained. "This platoon is for guys that want to be there."
After meeting the requirements to join the platoon, he qualified Airborne and was appointed to team leader before deploying to Afghanistan.
During that deployment Kempf and his men worked alongside the Afghan National Army traversing the mountains of southern Kandahar looking for weapons caches and fighting Taliban.
"Those were some good times," Kempf recalls. "We air assaulted everywhere. If [military intelligence] said there was Taliban running through the mountain pass, we'd fly out there and check it out. It's game on when you land though."
After an aggressive counter insurgency campaign, the platoon returned from Afghanistan at full strength and, a year later, deployed again to southern Afghanistan, this time to "the heart of the Taliban".
"The second tour, [to Afghanistan] we were two kilometers South of Pasab, where the Taliban originated," Kempf said. "That deployment was rough. Every day we were fighting. I never minded fighting but I never hoped for it to happen. Firefights are unpredictable."
Kempf's eyes fixed to memories as he recalled events of the deployment. His brigade saw heavy action and took many casualties during the rotation. Kempf said he acknowledges the stereotypes of combat veterans and said that a lot of the personality effects are real.
"[Combat experience] does change your character," Kempf said. "It changes your character quite a bit. Trying to sort out how it affects your personality is difficult. Sometimes it's hard to see what's positive and what's negative."
Kempf admits that he has some mental scars from combat but doesn't let it bog him down. Instead, he can use his experiences to teach the next generation of infantrymen.
"I think your experiences are part of your character, part of who you are. I don't believe that's all you are, your experiences, but I do believe experience is the best way of learning something. It's the best way to teach younger generations how to do what [infantrymen] do."
Kempf is now in northern Afghanistan on his fourth deployment. His mission and mindset have changed as his platoon prepares to leave Afghanistan for the last time. He uses his experiences to teach the infantrymen in his platoon and looks forward to becoming a Jumpmaster (Airborne instructor). He says that his experiences have made him a harder leader but asserts that hard leadership is necessary.
"I can be a bit of a hard ass but all I want is for [Soldiers] to put forth the effort to succeed," he said. "It's the Army's standard, I'm just here to uphold it."
Kempf also expressed disapproval with the constant reevaluation of Army standards.
"The Army should be the Army the way it is now. The standards don't need to go up; they don't need to get harder. They just need to be enforced."
A traditional infantry noncommissioned officer, he believes in training to fight, first. Kempf said he doesn't buy into the downsizing mindset and says infantry Soldiers need to be ready to fight anytime, anywhere, against any enemy.
"We train until we're sick of it and then train some more," Kempf said. "The bread-and-butter of being a staff sergeant in the infantry is to watch your men execute their job perfectly."
America has always been and will always be ready to fight, and leaders like Kempf pass on the skills of how to do it. As the Army transitions out of Afghanistan and prepares to draw down forces, the real experiences of Kempf and those like him will be the most up-to-date warfighting experience we have.
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