Finding Purpose After Separation CPT (r) Tyler Merritt October 17, 2016 Veteran Inspired 1,581 One of the best elements to military service is the focus for service members on core values. Although each branch of the military articulates them differently, they all focus on the same basic concepts: do your best, put others first, act with courage — and always with integrity. The military makes great effort at instilling core values in their recruits. And often times, service members find that these values end up serving them well long after they’ve left the military. This has never been more true than one group of veterans out of San Antonio this past week. Thinking of Others The concept of “selfless service” is a universal part of the military experience. Indeed, the very concept of giving up some of one’s own individual freedoms — at least in terms of movement and self-determination — in order to serve the nation as a whole is a selfless act. It puts millions of people an individual has never met, and will likely never meet, first. This isn’t always the easiest thing for people to do. But this characteristic, whether existing in the recruit before joining or being instilled during training and career, usually lives on in service members for the rest of their lives. One particular group in San Antonio is particularly worthy of mention as of late. Local San Antonio members of “Mission Continues,” a national veterans-based charity with chapters all over the country, got together to make a real difference in their local community. Continuing the Mission at Home Beginning last Tuesday, five members of the organization got together at the San Antonio Can High School, which is a second-chance school for at-risk youth who have had discipline problems yet are trying to right their lives before reaching adulthood. Throughout the day, roughly 300 members of Mission Continues showed up to help fix up the school that was badly in need of repairs and basic improvements. And boy did they deliver. In the course of a four-hour day, the volunteers put in new playground equipment, a daycare space, built public benches and picnic tables, and even nearly finished a brand new baseball field. The school’s principal, Mark Tribett, was very moved by the activity. “It’s amazing to see,” he said to the local news. “We don’t get funds like most schools do.” Finding a Sense of Purpose One of the volunteers, Damion Martin, himself a veteran, said that “feeling the inspiration from them and the appreciation, that’s what really energizes us.” He went on to talk about how many veterans get out of the military and almost immediately feel a loss of purpose that was so prevalent during their time in the military. “We do a lot of nation building overseas when we were in the military, we wanna bring that same skill set back here to the communities that need it the most,” Martin said. He brings up a great point — that many veterans had a special opportunity to learn critical skills overseas that are still critical skills in need here at home. Mission Continues is a great way for these veterans to continue to serve their country and their communities long after their “official” service is complete. Veterans stand to be pillars of their own communities, and this is an attitude we like to reinforce at Nine Line. When we developed the Nine Line Foundation, we did it for the same reason as organizations like Mission Continues, to find a way to give back and to make our country that much better of a place. For more information about how you can help organizations that are focused on serving their communities, please check out the Nine Line Foundation’s partnership page and find out how you can contribute and get involved. It’s always been our community’s honor to serve. Now, our nation needs our service more than ever.
