The decision to join the military was the best one of my professional career. Unfortunately, I did not know it then back in 1987 when I became an ROTC cadet at Davidson College or when I accepted an HPSP scholarship as a medical student at New York Medical College in 1992. Back then, it was a way to pay for my education. I did not understand it in 2002 when I finished my general surgery residency at William Beaumont Army Medical Center. I learned some of it during my first 3 combat deployments and after I finished my minimally invasive surgery fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School, however, I really did not appreciate the magnitude of my decision until after I had been on active duty for about a decade. And even during the second decade, there was so much more to understand. The sheer volume of leaders and times that the military affects people in politics, the number of retired or prior service members who use the Veterans Administration system for healthcare, the number of dependents who rely on military medical care, the number of civilian people who are needed to run the VA and the military medical system, and the number of future and young physicians that are directly influenced by their leader’s decisions is truly overwhelming. It hurts my brain to think of all the possibilities and permutations. It is the largest medical system in the world and is present on all 7 continents. At times, one can feel like a drop in the ocean.