FOREWORD 
FOREWORD In the spring of 1994, preparing for the fiftieth anniversary of D-day, President Bill Clinton invited a group of veterans and scholars to the White House for a private session so that he might better understand that special moment from the past. Each visitor was stirring, but none more so than Steven Ambrose, a marvelous historian and storyteller.
As U.S. troops began to storm the beaches, German machine guns up on bluffs cut them to pieces. A senior officer would fall, and a junior officer would quickly fill in; he, too, would go down, and a noncommissioned officer would take command, pushing men forward. Had positions been reversed, so that Germans were pouring out of the landing craft, argued Ambrose, they would have stopped in the water and called Berlin for instructions—and they would have lost the most crucial battle of the war. But the men hitting those beaches, he said, were “sons of democracy”—young warriors who had learned to think and act for themselves, who had grown up in freedom and would instinctively step up in a time of crisis.
As Ambrose finished, all of us in the room wondered whether our young men and women of today could match the “greatest generation,” whether they had the right stuff. Ambrose insisted that if another moment came, despite the apparent softness of so many, the new generation would rise to the occasion because they, too, were “sons and daughters of democracy” They, too, knew the blessings of liberty and would volunteer their lives.
Anyone who has the pleasure of reading the essays in this book would surely agree: Ambrose was right. The young men and women here were members of the first class to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy after al-Qaeda struck the United States. They rose to the challenge and soon became known as the “9/11 generation.” One day they could be called the “next greatest generation”
Among the silver linings to be found in these past ten years of continuous war, there is one that shines brightest: the courage, character, and leadership of the young men and women who have answered the country’s call to duty. I see some of them every day passing through the hallways of Harvard and on other campuses. They are part warrior, part scholar, all leader.
The Naval Academy, for more than a century and a half, has produced some of America’s finest warriors, scholars, and leaders, from Alfred Thayer Mahan and Albert Michelson to President Jimmy Carter and Senator John McCain. Years ago, I had the privilege of working with some of them during a stint as a naval line officer, a chapter distinctly unheroic but full of lessons about leadership. (Serving as a damage control officer was also great preparation for working in Washington.)
Speaking at the Naval Academy’s commencement in 1916, ten months away from America’s entry into World War I, President Woodrow Wilson told the graduates, “You do not improve your muscle by doing the easy thing; you improve it by doing the hard thing, and you get your zest by doing a thing that is difficult, not a thing that is easy.” The young men and women who have written this book have voluntarily chosen the hard thing, and they richly deserve our honor and our appreciation. Just as much, they deserve our attention, because they have provided in this volume first-person accounts of courage and integrity under the most trying of circumstances. They tell us of crucible moments—coming to the aid of soldiers pinned down in Iraq, landing a Tomcat on a carrier in pitching seas, rescuing men from drowning, watching a buddy die. Women are right there on the front lines, again proving their worth. These stories are gripping; some are heart wrenching. All of them show what their generation has accomplished, can accomplish, and God willing, will yet accomplish.
Let’s be clear: This book is military in subject matter, but national in scope and relevance. It is penned by those in uniform but is written for citizens and others of all stripes. These accounts will inspire, they will impress, but most important, they will fill you with hope that this rising generation, forged in tragedy and war and called to difficult, often thankless duty, will help all Americans, both in and out of uniform, unite to rise to the occasion once more.