To The Veterans
By Micah Fink, CEO and Founder of Heroes and Horses
In observance of Veterans Day on November 11th, The Rees-Jones Foundation asked one of its trusted partners Heroes and Horses to reflect on the significance of their work with combat veterans. Micah Fink, Heroes and Horses CEO and Founder, wrote from a personal place having served in the US military as a Navy SEAL. This Veterans Day, The Rees-Jones Foundation would like to express our deepest gratitude to all of the brave men and women who have given so much through their service in the Armed Forces. Thank you.
Every year, as we honor veterans, we are reminded of the courage, sacrifice, and service that shape the lives of those who wear the uniform. Yet beyond the ceremonies and the symbols lies a deeper conversation. Undoubtedly, we have mastered the transition from civilian to soldier, but not the reverse. We are at a time that undoubtedly calls for new ways and approaches to guide us to a different path. I think that on a day of such significance, it’s essential to pause and reflect. Over the years, having worked with veterans and being one myself, the word ‘soldier ‘ evokes a rich history, duty, and the very essence of what it means to serve. In this light, the distinction between a soldier and a warrior becomes more than semantics; it’s a way that paves the way for understanding the potential of the human spirit, purpose, transformation, healing, and growth.
Ironically, today the statistics speak for themselves, though the lives of the veterans, soldier to civilian, are failing. To be a soldier represents structure, order, and a collective will. A greater organism is scaled down into smaller parts, such as units, the mission, and the nation, but the essence of the soldier is alignment. Aligning the self with an ideal, a command, or a cause larger than the individual. Striving to embody the disciplined mind, the focused heart, and the restrained hand. Guided by the compass of responsibility and a rhythm of duty. The soldier represents service. A way to “do something for the greater” to transcend personal desire or even the giving of one’s own life in the name of an ideal like peace, freedom, or the survival of brothers and sisters in arms. The battlefield becomes a testing ground for the soul’s endurance and loyalty. The soldier’s greatest virtue is fidelity — to the mission, one’s fire team, unit bunkmate…and ultimately, to truth as it is understood within the framework of why they are there.
The soldier fights because it is his or her duty or ideal. Historically, a warrior fought because it was his or her destiny. The warrior’s path is deeply personal, even when it serves a collective good. The warrior’s arena is not only the field of battle, but the inner landscape of the spirit. Balancing the cruel realities of the earth by living by the standards of the heavens. The warrior does not seek victory for its own sake, but desires transformation for the betterment of mankind. To the warrior, every encounter — external or internal — is an invitation to self-knowledge.
There are many traditions, such as the samurai codes, indigenous warrior traditions, and modern ones, as well as those that date back to the days of sand and stone. The list could continue, but the warrior’s essence has always been deeply sacred, from their heart to their home, into their community, and into the greater world. As soldiers, we obey orders, but the warrior understands and takes radical ownership of their choices.
Where the soldier endures, the warrior transcends. The warrior’s fight is never simply against an enemy “out there,” but against ignorance, fear, and the shadow within. In that sense, the warrior is a philosopher of the soul, a seeker who uses all struggle as a path to grow. Veterans, in their lived experience, often embody both. A paradox. They are trained as soldiers, disciplined, coordinated, and mission-oriented, but through the trials of service and the transitions of returning to civilian life, many evolve into something much, much different, forgetting both. Helped along by bad ideas about what they need or what’s broken. The uniform may be retired, but the inner war — the battle for meaning, peace, and healing — continues.
A battle it is, and so we prepare to face what is no longer serving us. Many veterans long for the unity and purpose found in the military, loving it and hating it, and the challenge of rediscovering it in the civilian world. The external conflict gives way to internal alchemy or Divine chemistry, transforming pain into wisdom, grief into compassion, and discipline into insight. This is a process to walk through. This is the gift. It’s why Heroes and Horses exists. A 41-day-long journey to redefine the relationship between challenge and purpose. Over the past 11 years, we have witnessed both the fragility and resilience of the human condition. Each mental and physical mountain climb carries a kind of sacred knowledge. Over 41 days, horse and man and nature’s raw power and beauty, they cross thresholds that most never will. They have confronted mortality, uncertainty, shame, guilt, fear, and the limits of control and emerged forged, not broken. I believe a healing movement can occur because I’m seeing it before me, alongside me, and all around.
To honor veterans, then, is not only an act of gratitude but a recognition of their journey. They remind us that strength is not the absence of fear, but the mastery of it. That peace is not merely the end of conflict but the awakening that healing, growth, courage, love, and strength arise through it. The soldier teaches us structure and devotion; the warrior teaches us consciousness, purpose, right action, and love. Combined, they reveal the full spectrum of the human spirit. We need both in balance. Out of balance, we have chaos.
As we reflect on the veterans among us, we can each ask: Where in my life am I a soldier, faithfully carrying out my duties? And where am I, a warrior, consciously engaging the battles of my own heart?
In honoring them, I also wanted to acknowledge those who make the opportunity possible. To pioneer something new, we have a space where new courses can be charted and veterans and their spouses can begin the Heroes Journey from soldier to warrior, from orders and action to awareness, growth, strength, insight, courage, and love. My prayer today as a veteran, father, and leader is for peace, forgiveness, healing, love, and new beginnings for each veteran and their families, and for every beating heart across this wonderful, indescribable nation.