Why archive here? What’s it good for?
In a word: immortality. A chance to create something that might outlive you; to be your own hero.
Also a chance to immortalize people you’ve loved. Give them that gift in this season of giving. Leave this legacy for your children.
I think we’d all agree that we were put on this earth to love, not to kill. But – crazy thing – in the midst of fear and stress, dread and dying, we sometimes learn to love better, to love with special intensity.
We discover things in ourselves and in our comrades, collaborators, partners, buddies, mentors, apprentices, that make us marvel at what the human race can achieve - at our own courage, humor, determination, resourcefulness, and, yes, our honor, our nobility.
That’s the kind of testimony we’re harvesting here: what’s good about one generation that can be cherished, protected and passed on to the next. And the next.
Not that we anticipate all good news.
We welcome cautionary tales as well. “This is how we screwed up; this is how low one person or one group sank. Don’t go there. You can do better.”
That, too, is a valuable message to put in our time capsule.
We can have the stomach to immortalize the warts along with the glory, the bad hair days along with the movie star moments.
Those count, too, and make the rest of us cherish our flaws, our dark nights of doubt and fear, our humanity.
Medal of Honor nominee David Bellavia describes the moment when he’d escaped a hornets’ nest of a house in Fallujah, riddled with lethal, drugged-up insurgents.
He felt relief, then shame. His job felt unfinished. So he turned around, plunged back in and found the inner resources to prevail.
Traversing the Valley of the Shadow of Death, David lived both - the glory moments alongside the passages of weakness and self-doubt. We treasure both sides of the struggle, and aim to record them here.
They bring us closer.
And this website is all about strengthening connections, making us more close-knit Americans, prouder Americans - more active, empowered, consecrated to lifelong service.
In our America, no one sits it out, calls it in, takes a pass, settles for a rain check, promises to get it done tomorrow.
No way.
Whatever breakthroughs or sacrifices, learning leaps or career milestones you racked up in the service, there’s more you can do for your country, and we hereby challenge you: find a way, YOUR way, and do it!
