"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."
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Military leaders from the United StatesNon-fiction authors from the United StatesUnited States federal government officialsPeople from North CarolinaChristians from the United States
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p. 8-9
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_G._Boykin
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William G. Boykin
William G. "Jerry" Boykin (born April 19, 1948) was the United States Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence under President George W. Bush from 2002 to 2007 and retired general officer. During his 36-year career in the military he spent 13 years in the Delta Force and was involved in numerous high-profile missions, including the 1980 Iran hostage rescue attempt, the 1992 hunt for Pablo Escobar in Colombia, and the Black Hawk Down incident in [[w:Mogadi
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