Hours after she escaped the Columbine High School shooting, 14-year-old Missy Mendo slept between her parents in bed, still wearing the shoes she had on when she fled her math class. She wanted to be ready to run.
Twenty-five years later, and with Mendo now a mother herself, the trauma from that horrific day remains close on her heels.
It caught up to her when 60 people were shot dead in 2017 at a country music festival in Las Vegas, a city she had visited a lot while working in the casino industry. Then again in 2022, when 19 students and two teachers were shot and killed in Uvalde, Texas.
I swear all the 1SGs I’ve met are either the coolest person in the world that you wish was your parent, or a complete fucking psycho that gives the impression they wouldn’t give a damn if you died. There’s no in-between. The good ones were amazing and inspiring and you felt honored and privileged to serve with them, and the bad ones made you feel like you were worthless and would never amount to shit.