Administrator Hamilton reflects on his military service and honoring our veterans

Service for me and my family has always been integral. I'm a fourth-generation service member, so it's a part of our DNA. My family lineage goes all the way back to the time of the Revolution with Alexander Hamilton. And serving in this country in some capacity was always important. I think one of the most important lessons of military service that I was able to benefit from was just the sense of dedication and selflessness. You see men and women from every walk of life, from every place imaginable. Focused on a common mission to provide care for themselves, their brethren on the battlefield, and the furtherance of a greater achievement. Seeing Americans willing to potentially lay their lives down without batting an eye is just an incredibly inspiring thing to witness. So the sense of bravery, valor, and most important, just their dedication to the cause of the American flag. That was a unique experience, unlike anything else that I've ever had. Probably some of the most important moments to see the very best of military camaraderie and that esprit de corps is in challenging scenarios that we faced overseas, one of which was I had to actually climb over a wall in Afghanistan and unlatch a gate and let in fellow assaulters behind me. Doing so takes a pretty significant amount of risk. We had many different situations like this where individuals were willing to put themselves in great harm's way, knowing that they had to trust the men behind them to come to their defense if things went sideways. So I think experiences like that really hardened me in a way to trust the men that I worked with and to really have a good sense of faith that we were all there together. I've had friends that have fought overseas and never made it home. And that's a sobering reality to contend with. I've also had experiences where I I felt that I shouldn't have been the one to come home, but I did. And so I think that we are so blessed in this country. We have so many amazing men and women who have fought, who have bled, who have died for the blessings of this country. It's a privilege and an honor to live in light of their memories. I think one of the blessings of FEMA is we have a dedicated mission. There is a critical node that we provide support for to the American people. And there's a focus on ensuring that we're operationally ready and capable to deploy at a moment's notice to save life, property, and to ensure the continuity of operations. What I've been inspired with is that the workforce is ready, willing, and able to set their own personal comfort aside. for the purpose of helping others at their worst possible moment. An example of that was a woman in a DRC trying to navigate the individual assistance process who had lost everything. She lost her home, she lost her spouse, she lost her animals. Her whole life was ripped apart and then seeing a member of our workforce spending time away from their family deploying to a DRC to engage with that survivor to ensure that she had the assistance necessary. That's some of the best that humanity has to offer. And so that's what's so inspiring about this mission space, our ability to help influence Americans, maybe not putting their lives together, but ensuring that tomorrow is a little bit better than today was. And the hope is that that would continue further and further down the road in the future. That's always what I've loved about the FEMA mission, and that's why I think it's such an important and incredible agency to deliver that assistance to Americans in need. If I can give any one message to the veterans that serve currently within the workforce of FEMA or that are relatives or loved ones of those in the FEMA workforces, thank you for your service. It's such a tremendous honor to serve alongside you as a combat veteran, but also just as a patriot and as an American. I hope that they feel that we appreciate the sacrifices that that embodied. And we are grateful that we have such tremendous men and women willing to give back to this nation.