Editor’s note: This article first appeared on The War Horse , an award-winning nonprofit news organization educating the public on military service. Subscribe to their newsletter .

The Army has a way of deciding what you’re good at before you ever get a vote. One Thanksgiving, our command sergeant major decided he wanted a Ranger scroll carved out of ice for the battalion dinner. Nobody knew why, and nobody wanted the job. I was the newest private, which made me the perfect candidate.

Two days later, I was on a plane to Fresno, California, to attend something called the Academy of Ice Carving and Design . I thought it was a prank. It wasn’t. The place was real: a full workshop stocked with chainsaws, chisels, and instructors who treated frozen water like marble.

For

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