A Different Kind of Patriotism
By Ken Harbaugh
It has been twenty years since I left the Navy. Thirty since I raised my right hand and swore the oath. Today is Veterans Day, and I will hear “thank you for your service” more times than I can count. I appreciate the sentiment. But our past service is not enough – America needs us to stand up and meet this moment, to remember that our oaths did not expire simply because we took off the uniform.
Three decades ago, I never imagined where that oath would take me. I felt I owed my country something and was drawn to the adventure of it all. On that front, the Navy did not disappoint. I led reconnaissance missions off Russia and China and flew patrols along the Korean DMZ. I learned to lead and served alongside some of the best Americans I have ever known.
But the patriotism that led me there came far too easily. I grew up in a comfortable, middle-class family, the son and grandson of military pilots. I thought love-of-country was about gratitude, about giving something back. That, it turns out, was not the kind of foundation that could survive the tests to come.
The “Global War on Terror” challenged everything I thought I knew, as the lies piled up and my friends paid the price. There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Even our “good war” in Afghanistan was becoming a quagmire. How does one believe in a country that lies so easily, that breaks promises to its own defenders?
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