What was an average day like for him in Afghanistan?

A Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopter

MICHAEL JOHNSTON: "Our day was actually at night, because we could only fly at night, so we did all of our missions and everything during the hours of darkness. So it just became a routine of, you wake up, you go out to the aircraft, you prepared for the mission. You get your brief, as to what you are going to be doing, where you are going. You execute it, come back, you do maintenance and you go to sleep.”

Michael Johnston is twenty-seven. He was first deployed to Iraq in two thousand three at the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He returned to Iraq in two thousand nine and found that much had changed.

MICHAEL JOHNSTON: “Just like law and order in general. What would have been comparable to the Wild West, being in the Wild West, where there literally was just chaos, no law and order, as to now where there actually was law and order. You could actually see it. You would be able to see the Iraqi army, the Iraqi police out there, as opposed to obviously the absolute collapse in two thousand three, and then the progression coming up into two thousand nine is unreal.”

He has good memories of meeting Iraqi and Afghan civilians who worked on American bases.

MICHAEL JOHNSTON: "Its just really amazing to see their tenacity and just their strength. I feel as though here in the States we all tend to take things for granted, just the simplest little things, like clean water. You know, just the weather, then too. I mean, these people, day in and day out, they have nothing. They just make do with what they have and they try to make the best of it. And that is just unbelievable to see, just the human spirit."