Story highlights Supriya Venkatesan: Having served in the US military in Iraq, I have shown my devotion to this country

Despite this sacrifice and the warmth I found in the military, the current political climate makes me fearful, she writes

Supriya Venkatesan served six years active duty in the US Army, including a 15-month deployment to Iraq. She is a freelance writer based in Seattle, and is working on a book based on her experiences in the military. The opinions expressed in this commentary are her own.

(CNN) Two days after 9/11, I watched as the news continued to replay images of steel towers crumbling in flames. I looked at the screen from my perch at the hostess stand of a swanky Italian restaurant in downtown Chicago, where I worked.

I had just begun my shift, and my manager pulled me aside. "We are overstaffed, and we have to lay you off," he said. Even as a 16-year-old, I understood that hostesses don't usually get laid off. I was being treated like hundreds of others who were suddenly out of work -- their only fault: sharing the same South Asian features as me. In those days, stories circulated of Indians, and those who looked Muslim, as victims of not only employment bias, but also hate crimes and revenge killings.

Supriya Venkatesan

After holding odd jobs in food service, I joined the US Army as a teenager because I couldn't afford college on my own. But joining the military provided me with much more than tuition assistance. I got a family and a new community that was entirely devoid of racism.

In basic training, a white boy from rural Alabama shared that he had never seen a black person before, and now he not only knew black people, but had made friends with them. As I continued my career living in barracks in South Korea, Iraq, Kuwait and all over the United States, I always thought how remarkable it was that in the hallways you would hear hip-hop, country music and reggaetón -- and occasionally Bollywood from my stereo.

There was a Chinese-American in my unit who grew up without the concept of God, and we talked theology. I cooked chicken tikka masala for my battle buddies, and they devoured it. A Peruvian-American soldier taught me salsa and bachata, and soon I was an expert. Friends who I would have never made outside the military taught me new ideas, shared their food and music, opened up their hearts and had my back when we deployed to Iraq.

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