Some men can become increasingly self-indulgent and you notice over time they're spending more and more money on personal pastimes. They always want … - William G. Boykin

I had the honor of standing in the West Wing of the White House as the U.S. president presented the medals to the widows and families of those two incredible warriors. There is no question those two men knew they were putting their lives on the line by going into that chaotic scene. Their request was denied twice. Yet they still asked to go in. Why? The answer is because they had a transcendent cause. And what was that transcendent cause? In their case, it was part of the fifth stanza of the Ranger Creed: "Never shall I leave a fallen comrade to fall into the hands of the enemy. Those two men lived and died by it. That promise to their fellow soldiers was their transcendent cause. Maybe we'd like to think it was the American flag or the U.S. Constitution or the oath they took to defend that Constitution. But, no, when you get to that level of combat, it's all about the guy on your right and the guy on your left. And your transcendent cause is the commitment you've made to each other. It's just part of who you are and what you do. You know he's not going to fail you and leave you. And he knows the same about you.

We fought an eighteen-hour battle that day. Most people don't realize this, but we were fighting over two of our dead comrades- the pilot and co-pilot. And we took more casualties because we refused to leave them behind. We couldn't get those two bodies extracted from that helicopter, and we were not going to leave the remains of our two men behind. We were fighting over dead bodies. But, to us, it didn't matter. Alive or dead, they were our comrades and they were coming out with us. We knew they would have been there for us were the roles reversed. When Randy Shughart and Gary Gordon made that third request to go down into the street, they knew there wasn't much chance they would come out alive. That's a transcendent cause. And so was recovering the bodies of the others who died. The question for today is this- have we assessed our lives to determine who and what it is that's worth living and dying for? One can be part of today's "give me" generation or one can be part of "I'll give to you." Shughart and Gordon were givers- not takers. And they gave their lives. But they gave their lives because they had a transcendent cause. Their cause was- at the tactical level- the same for every warrior who's ever been on the battlefield: the guy behind you, in front of you, and on your right and left.

In 1993 in Mogadishu, Somalia, I was the Delta Force commander during the events most commonly referred to as "Black Hawk Down." Two Black Hawk helicopters were shot down in the city of five million people, where most of those people were starving refugees. Within thirty minutes of the first chopper being shot down, the second one was shot down. When the first chopper went down I sent every one of my soldiers who were already fighting in the city to go rescue the crew and passengers of the first crash. I was left with few options when the second helo went down over a mile away from the first crash. I had to pull together a second rescue effort using those soldiers, sailors, and airmen who were left in the base- many of whom were not combat arms specialties (they were clerks, mechanics, communicators, and supply people). To their credit, every man was eager to be part of the effort to rescue their brothers at the second crash site.