To many Americans, Memorial Day means barbecues, time off, and the unofficial start to summer. To others, it is a solemn time for reflection and remembrance, a day set aside to honor the brave men and women who have given their lives in service to our nation. It is a time to recognize the immense sacrifices made by our fallen heroes and to acknowledge the potential they carried with them.
I was fortunate enough to have served among some of the greatest men lost in service in the last 20 years. Jeremy Wise, Marc Lee, Brendan Looney, Ben Wise (Jeremy’s brother), John T. (JT) Tumilson, Aaron Vaughn, Chris Kyle, Jesse Pittman, and Alex Ghane. Most of them I served with in various capacities as an intelligence professional for Naval Special Warfare. But Ben, a Green Beret, I knew because he was Jeremy’s brother. We both gave the eulogy at Jeremy’s funeral.
Ben would fall in Afghanistan two years later. The Wise family has borne the heaviest of costs in service to our nation. Jeremy was my dearest friend in service, and his loss was particularly devastating to me.
After years of my own reflection, a lesson I’ve managed to glean from watching my friends, my heroes, the men in front of me and beside me who fell in service to one another and to this great nation, is this: you and I are capable of more. We aren’t living up to our potential. Right now, you have the potential to be everything you could be to make the world, at least for those in your daily life, a better place.
These men had the most staggering potential and they left it all on the battlefield, never to do what they could’ve done with a long life and old age. I knew them, admired them, loved them. These were some of the best men I’ve ever known or will ever know. They could’ve done so much, but now it is up to us to honor their sacrifice by being our better selves.
With this injunction toward making up for that lost potential, an important note of caution: setting off with blind grandiosity to make the world a better place can make the world a far more terrible place. One need only look at the current crop of graduates from the Ivy League and their Marxist professors to see that. So not only must we set off with grand individual intentions, but they’d also better be tried and tested, well thought out and deliberate, weighing all consequences, and performed by the you who’s become a better version of himself than you currently embody. It is in making yourself the better component that society is made better for your participation — and we need you.
General George S. Patton said that instead of mourning, we should be grateful that such men lived. And I am. But there’s something missing in Patton’s comforting words. We are grateful (to borrow from Henry Hazlitt) for the seen outcome of these men’s heroism, but in doing so are not weighing the unseen alternative of these men living full lives of greatness and accomplishment, leaving the world a better place and passing peacefully of old age surrounded by a grateful and loving family. It is not enough to be grateful that such men lived. They were the best of us, in valor, character, and virtue. I remember them today and every day. And I can tell you firsthand there are very few people of their caliber. I’m in awe thinking of what they could’ve accomplished after their service; about the potential of these men and the daunting task ahead for the rest of us.
But there are more of us. We make up in volume what they possessed in quality and virtue. But make no mistake, we are down some of the best men of our generation. They were sons, brothers, husbands, and fathers. They were part of who we are. And we are capable of more. Let this thought drive you into next week, next month, and next year — that there is a balance to be paid to these great men. Will you live a life worthy of their sacrifice?
Shapoor “Alex” Ghane, Jr. was killed in training on Jan. 30, 2008 in Lake Cormorant, MS. Alex and I served together at SEAL Team 5, where we spent a significant amount of time during the training workup playing Rock Band in the off hours and talking about the deployment that never came for him. He was 22.
Jeremy Wise, 35, was killed in action in Khost, Afghanistan on Dec. 30, 2009. Jeremy was a former SEAL serving as a security contractor with the CIA in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. He was my dearest friend.
Jesse Pittman, 27, was killed in action Aug. 6, 2011 in Wardak Province, Afghanistan when insurgents shot down a CH-47 Chinook helicopter, callsign Extortion 17. Jesse and I served together at SEAL Team 5.
Jon T. (JT) Tumilson, 35, was killed in action Aug. 6, 2011 in Wardak Province, Afghanistan when insurgents shot down a CH-47 Chinook helicopter, callsign Extortion 17. JT and I spent many nights as lane graders during training exercises out in the middle of the desert, each wearing a blue chem light and waiting for the havoc to start.
Marc Lee, 28, was killed in action Aug. 2, 2006 in Ramadi, Iraq as he attempted to call out an enemy sniper position from the roof of the building his team had taken a position during a fierce battle against insurgents. Lee was a member of SEAL Team 3 Task Unit Bruiser. He was my navigation partner at SERE training.
Chris Kyle, 38, was killed tragically after returning home from military service. He was a significant figure in U.S. military history, a sniper without peer, a true Texan, and a good man. He and I spent a single 2-week training event as lane graders out in the desert. It was my only work with him, but it was enough to know him and for him to know me – and I am the better for it.
Aaron Vaughn, 30, was killed in action Aug. 6, 2011 in Wardak Province, Afghanistan when insurgents shot down a CH-47 Chinook helicopter, callsign Extortion 17. Aaron and I served together at SEAL Team 5.
Benjamin B. Wise, 34, died Jan. 15, 2012 at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany of injuries sustained on Jan. 9 in Balkh Province, Afghanistan, when enemy forces attacked his unit with small-arms fire. He was my brother’s brother – so he was my brother.
Brendan Looney, 29, was killed in action Sept. 21, 2010 in Ayatalah Village, Afghanistan, in a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crash during combat operations. I had the honor to serve with Brendan in an intelligence capacity in Iraq with SEAL Team 5 before he went to BUD/s to become a SEAL himself.
Brooks Crenshaw is a writer, columnist, and speaker who focuses primarily on philosophy, economics, and policy while serving as a manufacturing and technology consultant. With a background as a Naval Special Warfare intelligence professional and an economic advisor for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, he holds an MBA from Vanderbilt University.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller.
