A message comes in, telling Adam Cross and his special operations team that the passengers of an American tour bus going through Afghanistan has been kidnapped, and that it was their job to go rescue them.

Cross, a 2005 Community High graduate, has been in the military for 11 years now. After dropping out of college, he joined the army as a lab tech, and after about six years, he went into special operations, which is what he does now.

“You have to have a certain mindset to do this job period,” Cross said. “You have to be selfless and understand that it’s your job to do something where you agreed to sacrifice your life if necessary for somebody else. If we get a call and someone’s in trouble, we just go do it”.

Cross has seen many people get killed, and he has killed people himself. He says these experiences have desensitized him.

“After the first time you get into a firefight, it’s not [scary] anymore. It’s just war. Instead of being death, it’s just life. It’s a natural progression,” he says.

For instance, Cross and his girlfriend at the time went to a bar during one of his visits home. While walking out of the bar, they saw a man get hit by a car. Cross checked his pulse, and shared that the man was dead. While his girlfriend was very rattled, he almost forgot about it within the next couple of hours.   

Over the past 11 years, Cross has developed a new mindset about many issues. For instance, he discusses the police brutality problem in the country. He is able to look at it more objectively.

“I can see that people are saying it’s a race issue and I can see the people saying it’s a police brutality issue and I can see the police side. They don’t say this, but I understand that you don’t have a choice but to go in a situation with some sort of bias, some sort of stereotype so you’re not going in blind. Now, I think what they need is some training on how you don’t hold onto that stereotype through that entire situation,” he said.

Cross thinks that with having to deal with so many different people and situations, you need to be able to use this skill.

“So I can go into a situation, like go into Afghanistan, go into a village, I can see a bunch of dudes that look like bad dudes and I might switch my weapon from safe to fire just to be prepared, but if I go and engage with them and they’re welcoming and all that, I’ll put it right back on safe.”

Cross believes his time in the military has matured him very quickly. “Right out the gate you’re living by yourself and you’re responsible for you,” Cross said. This responsibility has changed Cross’s view of the world and life all together.

“I’m open to do just about anything,” Cross said, “I’m not worried about what’s going to happen next. Like skydiving, I’m like sure, why not? If I die, I die, at least I did it. I kind of just look at life that way.”

Cross says his experiences have shaped who he has become.

“I’ve experience a lot of life and death, marriages and babies, and I’ve grow up fast. I appreciate life more.”