Here's the text of a speech I gave about six years ago at the "Military Night" for my high school alma mater, Marmion Academy, in Aurora, Illinois. I just found a copy of the text. Provided unedited and unabridged...
Father Abbot, Father Basil, Father Charles, families and friends…and most of all, Cadets of Marmion Academy. Thank-you for inviting me here tonight to talk to you.
You know, I am humbled every time I see this great formation.
And I’m inspired. You symbolize the sum of many parts, and represent the many thousands of Cadets who have stood here before you in years… and decades past.
All of us alumni—and there are a few here tonight from my Class of 1980…I’d ask them to stand—my good friends, Joe Roggi, …Ed Hurst, …Bill Stefanski—look to you as standard bearers for future generations of Marmion men and we’re all very proud of you.
We all know that events like this don’t just happen. There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes-- that we never see and seldom consider. Lots of practice, lots of rehearsals. You’re looking at a finished product.
And so, I’d like to thank the great non-commissioned officers who put this together and made it possible: MSG Collins, and SFC Dotson, and SGM Gissel. And finally to the fabulous Marmion-Rosary Jazz Band, Flannigan Rifles and the Cadet Marching Band. You look great and you sound great! And you have given great dignity to this occasion.
I wonder, if everyone can please give them a big hand?
More than fifty years ago, my father stood at the front of this formation as the Cadet Battalion Commander for his class. He, along with my mother, are here with us tonight, and they are my heroes. If I might, I’d like to recognize them also ….
Mom and Dad? Could you please stand up so everyone can see you?
So, I’d like to talk to you tonight about heroes. I’d like to tell you what I’ve learned about them from being around them quite a bit, and knowing them well.
Eric Severeid once said, “Heroes are those who go first,” and I think he’s right.
In the wake of the attacks of September 11th, we have sought -- and found -- heroes who inspire us…. They are all around us: they are the people who volunteered to defend Flight 93 over Pennsylvania, they are the people who came to the rescue of others in New York City and at the Pentagon, and they are the people who continue to defend us tonight in Afghanistan and around the world.
They are people like my friend Sergeant First Class Dan Petithory—my Company Communications Sergeant about seven years ago--who volunteered to go with me to Pakistan as we deployed there as America’s first Army presence in 45 years.
He parachuted into the Indus River valley out of a C-130 Cargo Plane right behind me, in pitch darkness, with a 120 pound rucksack filled with satellite radios and ammunition. And through his extraordinary communications skills, he kept 200 American and Pakistani soldiers organized for two grueling days as we traversed the rough terrain on both sides of the Indus River toward a common objective.
At one point during that cold night, I can remember a distinct cracking sound behind me with six miles left to go. Under all the weight he was carrying, the ground had given way and he had fallen down a hidden ravine. He turned his ankle badly, and had torn some ligaments. His back was badly wrenched. He was in terrible pain.
I told him that we would wait until some medical help arrived to evacuate him, but he refused, and despite his injuries insisted we continue to move on, saying: “Sir, you gotta play hurt.”
We shifted his load, and he was with me every step of the way, to the end of the line. I was worried about him, but he kept moving. And I never once heard him complain.
And so it strikes me that Heroes are selfless and they see a larger purpose for themselves and others. They hold themselves and those around them to a higher standard.
They are Quiet Professionals.
In the Himalayas, Dan was able to communicate with six American and Pakistani Special Forces teams-- all of them occupying 18,000 foot peaks not far from K2 and Everest. In three days, we had seven feet of snow dump on us, stranding everyone in pup tents—not daring to move for fear that they would trigger avalanches and be pulled down with them.
The weather worsened into sub-zero blizzard conditions—and we were all worried that the situation was becoming untenable. There was nothing we could do, except wait. We waited for four days. And the snow and winds continued.
Dan must have sensed everyone’s growing concern though; and it struck me as odd…because in our silence, the next thing I heard, was him making a net call over the radio to all of the teams, all six of them at once, …and he was asking to speak to the “Donner Party.”
Dan’s dry, irreverent humor immediately raised everyone’s morale…and soon everyone was joking and laughing again.
So, another characteristic I’ve learned about Heroes is that they care about others and don’t take themselves too seriously. They don’t let anyone take themselves too seriously. They are team players and they are confidence builders.
When the radios stopped working one evening, I learned that Dan stayed up all night doing systems checks on all the radios to identify the problem. One wire, one circuit at a time. He disassembled and reassembled them. He was a perfectionist.
The next morning, after confessing to me that he had failed to reestablish radio communications, he was embarrassed when we took him outside to observe the real problem: that the satellite dishes and antennae were covered in three feet of new snow!
That next morning, I was approached by a Pakistani Brigadier General, who said…”John! We want your Dan to stay with us…he makes us laugh!”
And so you see, heroes are committed. They may be frustrated at times, and like all of us-- they have setbacks…but they don’t give up – and they never, EVER become discouraged.
On September 11th, Dan called his Company Commander in tears, wondering what was next for the country…and for his Special Forces “A” Team. He volunteered to deploy to Afghanistan immediately, and was part of the team that jumped by parachute in the same region we had been seven years ago.
He had done all this before, but now the stakes were much higher. Our own country was threatened—and they were trying to kill us, in great numbers.
Dan knew the terrain. He had walked it before. He knew the people. He knew their language.
That night they walked for hours and finally rendezvoused with a rising Afghan Star named Hamed Karzai, who was destined to become Afghanistan’s Prime Minister.
Dan helped organize Karzai’s band of soldiers, helped to train them, and he went to war with them. He fought beside them and befriended them. He was—truly—a soldier-diplomat-- an ambassador for everything that you and I stand for.
Just before Christmas, you might remember, Dan and two other Special Forces Soldiers were killed in Afghanistan doing what they loved…For this country that they loved so dearly.
And so you see, the courage of real heroes is not a short and frenzied outburst of bravery like we often see in the movies. It is, in fact, the result of a rare and steady dedication of one’s lifetime to something much larger than themselves. An internal fortitude that goes well beyond physical courage—that is transcended by moral courage.
Dan lived by the Green Beret’s motto: “De Oppresso Liber” --To Free the Oppressed. He lived by that creed.
We owe Dan and everyone else who has died defending our country an enormous debt of gratitude. They knew the risks they faced. And all of us are more secure today because of their willingness to sacrifice themselves for a greater purpose:
So that we might remain free.
They recognized, like you in this formation tonight, that they are the sum of many parts.
Heroes understand that, and draw their inspiration from it—from one another. They dedicate themselves to the cause of service to others and are prepared to sacrifice themselves for it.
In the midst of all the noise and all the confusion, they understand what is really at stake. They focus on it. And they never lose sight of it.
And they draw on that strength of a lifetime to rise to the occasion, when it matters most.
And Dan Petithory…. Dan Petithory is a hero of mine. Because of all that, …and because he went first.
Thank-you.
(above) Dan Petithory
