Why I Serve

Answering a question such as this is often difficult. It is difficult because there are a multitude of various factors that influence a person’s decision to serve in the armed forces. The primary factors that influenced my own decision to serve were the following: 1) a deep reverence for the tradition of military service within my family, 2) the culture of camaraderie and shared purpose in the Army, and 3) a desire to protect the liberties that we possess for the future enjoyment of my children. This type of language is often looked upon as cliché; I would argue that most of those who choose to serve share at least some of these motivations.
Military service is a tradition in my family. My father’s ancestors arrived in the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, on what is now Long Island, in the mid-1600s as part of the Anabaptist movement. In the succeeding decades, the family made their way to New Jersey. My grandfather John Ruckman, joined the New Jersey militia immediately after the commencement of hostilities in the colonies. He volunteered on five separate occasions to extend his service and participated in the battles of Monmouth, Princeton, Trenton, and Germantown, among others. Almost 100 years later, his grandson, Thomas Ruckman, was a member of the Confederate Army’s 36th Virginia Partisan Rangers, who participated in the Battle of Gettysburg. As I was growing up, my father and grandfather constantly reiterated these stories and it was bound to rub off. Military service in some form was almost a foregone conclusion.
When I made the decision to enlist in the Army in 1996, I would be the first one to say that at the age of 20, I had no intention of making it a career. I expected to serve a single enlistment and like many others, move on to another endeavor in the private sector. I certainly did not expect that I would still be serving fourteen years later. Shortly after my enlistment, I discovered that the sense of camaraderie that exists in the service is infectious. I would argue that there are few professions in the world, aside from possibly law enforcement or firefighting, which provide the sense that the person standing beside you is willing to risk their personal safety to protect yours. That is a feeling that you would be hard-pressed to find in the private sector. That sense of shared purpose and commitment to the persons who serve with you is something that is hard to give up, and directly influenced my decision to remain in the Army, become an officer, and make the military my chosen profession.
At nineteen or twenty years of age, most young people are not particularly engaged or interested in international or domestic politics and history. I would argue that most of us at that age have a very naive view of the world and of our own experiences as a nation. Yes, we all had history courses throughout our education that attempt to teach us about our founding principles and the price that the men and women of the founding generation and successive generations have paid to obtain and secure the benefits of liberty that we enjoy in this country today. I would guess that many young people are interested in this history, but it just seems so distant in comparison to the lives that we lead today. I think that many of us as parents would agree that sometimes our kids eyes roll back when we try to tell them how lucky they are because they were fortunate enough to be born in this country.
Personally, I always believed that I had a healthy respect for the benefits that growing up in the United States provided to my family. It wasn’t until I met Soldiers that had immigrated to the United States from other countries and told me about their experiences that I began to feel that I took many things for granted. It really hit home as my Soldiers and I first set out on the streets of Baghdad. You realize that the world is indeed a dangerous and unforgiving place and liberty is a precious commodity that is constantly threatened and deserves to be protected at all costs.
Many of us now serving in the military have served multiple tours in Iraq, Afghanistan, and many other places. Repeated deployments have strained service-members and families to the breaking point, yet many of them choose to answer the call time and time again. In my opinion, these men and women continue to serve because they have seen the alternative, realize what is at stake, and understand that the American system of self government and individual liberty is exceptional and worth their sacrifice. Their willingness to sacrifice time and time again reinforces my faith in my country and motivates me to continue serving along with them.

Major Matt Ruckman
Student, Command and General Staff School
U.S. Army Combined Arms Center
Fort Belvoir, Virginia

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government