Veterans Recall The First Time They Killed Someone In Powerful Video

Most of us will never know the feeling of taking a life. For veterans, killing is a fact of life.

In a powerful video, Cut interviewed veterans about how it felt to kill another human being.

Recalling his time as an infantryman during the Iran-Iraq War, Qassim shares,

I know it's not right… to do this, but I have to. If I focus about all this stuff… in one minute… I'll lose my mind. But I never focus about this stuff.

Regardless of how distant the memories are, the men are able to access specific feelings, smells and impressions from bygone moments in time when they had to take a life.

When speaking of one moment in time during his stretch as an infantry machine gunner during the Vietnam War, Dan claims,

It was strange, you can disassociate when you're shooting at spots in the jungle, but this guy was right there and I felt very compassionate and I was thinking about, you know, his girlfriend, his family, whatever.

This Veterans Day, be grateful if you have never been tasked with taking a life, because the memory lives on forever.