“Going out across the desert I remember the feelings that you have, wondering if you’re going to make it out alive,” Rep. Scott Perry told National Journal. “Right now I wonder what that was all about. What was the point of all that?”

A Pennsylvania Republican, Perry is one of 17 Iraq War veterans currently serving in Congress. He deployed to Iraq in 2010 as commander of the 2-104th General Support Aviation Battalion. His unit, designated Task Force Diablo, accrued 13,000 combat flight hours over 1,400 missions. Perry flew 44 of those missions, logging 200 hours in the air.