30 years ago my big brother Pete enlisted in the U.S. Navy.
He was a senior in high school,
and he had everything going for him.
He was getting his varsity letter in three sports,
he was homecoming king,
and he was also the king of all parties.
Every single weekend my parents were gone,
the kegs came in.
People came from states all around just for his parties.
And he learned young because
every dinner, every night, was a party at our house.
I was number eight.
He was number seven.
And we had the best dinners.
It was laughing, singing, dancing...
and fighting.
Lots of fighting between me and Pete.
We hated each other.
We were mortal enemies
because we were so different.
Because he was this jock, he was Mr. Parkridge High.
I was the school mascot,
and I dressed up like a big bird.
(laughter)
So, when he went off to the Navy,
part of me was kind of like,
"Thank God!"
It's like, "Some peace."
Until war.
Right after he enlisted, he was deployed,
and he was sent on a ship across the Pacific
to the Persian Gulf for the first Iraq War.
And that changed our relationship.
We started writing letters.
And he went from being this person that I hated,
to the person I could rely on.
He was the person that could make me feel better
about high school, about life,
about everything that goes on for a teenager.
It's like, you know, everything from acne to... just life.
And the whole time he's being supportive of me,
I had no idea how bad it was for him.
This was the first time he was ever away from home.
He was 18 years old,
six-foot-three,
and stuck in child-sized quarters with no fresh air,
no fresh water, no fresh food,
months on end at sea,
with people who are basically strangers.
And the whole time I'm complaining,
he's bucking me up.
He's the one supporting me.
And one day he sends me a letter and he says,
"You know what?
"I get all these letters from home.
"I get letters from Mom and Dad, all our brothers and sisters,
"and you know what?
"There are guys here, who are now my buddies,
"that don't get letters, they don't have anybody at home.
"They don't have big families.
"They don't have... some of them don't have any family at all.
Could you please send them some letters?"
So, I did.
And, you know, I sent the same things
that I would send to my brother.
You know, complaining about not going to the prom,
complaining about, you know,
what happened at the latest track meet, you know,
what happened in, you know, history class.
And all these guys, they did the same thing.
They bucked me up.
They were all like, "Hey, it's not so bad.
You can do this."
And they were on their way to war.
And they were the ones supporting me,
this 16-year-old geek.
And they were like... they became like my big brothers.
Like, not that I didn't already have enough.
(audience laughter)
But they were... they were all there for me.
And so, after a year, after sharing all these
letters and photos and care packages,
they all went on to new assignments,
I went off to college,
and we stopped staying in touch.
And I never met any of those guys.
Until just last year.
My brother got promoted to Major.
He'd transferred to the Army.
And he decided to have one of his epic parties
where he invited everyone:
Army buddies, Navy buddies, family, friends, everyone.
And as soon as the doors open, in walk his buddies,
and in walks Cash.
He's one of the guys that I shared the most letters with.
And I took one look at him, and I knew,
even though it was like, you know, decades later,
hey, that's... that's the guy.
That's the guy I used to share letters with.
And my brother introduces us,
even though, really, no introductions were necessary.
And I think to myself, "Do I mention the letters?
Do I not mention the letters?"
I just decided, you know what,
let it go, enjoy the night, have some fun.
And it turned out that he was the one who actually
performed the promotion for my brother.
He did an amazing toast.
There wasn't a dry eye in the house,
especially my family because we're all huge crybabies.
And the night went on great.
I mean, dancing, laughing, singing, the whole thing.
Shut down the Knights of Columbus,
went to an Irish pub, lots of drinks flowed,
and my big mouth stayed shut about those letters.
Until the next morning,
we all end up meeting up at the local diner.
And in walks the Navy buddies, and in walks Cash,
and they're all sitting down,
and we're talking about old stories.
And they start talking about how Pete used to get
the best letters, the best care packages,
and now they could see why,
because they actually for the first time
could see this big huge family and how amazing it was.
And I said, "Well, yeah," I was like, "You know, that's,
you know, that's just what we do."
I was like, "You know, it was, it was nice to send him letters
and to send some of the other guys letters too."
And they were like, "You know, yeah."
They were like, "We love that stuff, you know,
"anything from home...
it's, like, it meant everything to us."
And we were finishing breakfast, and everybody's saying goodbye,
and, you know, pats on backs and hugs and everything.
And Cash comes over to me, and he gives me the biggest hug.
Like just like huge bear hug.
And he whispers in my ear
and he says, "I was one of those guys."
And I said, "I know."
Thank you.
(applause)