Last weekend, I returned from a couple weeks of military service where I completed my qualification as an intelligence officer. 

This is a milestone I’ve been studying, training, and working towards for the past two and a half years. It caused me to reflect on what my brief time in uniform has taught me before campaign season kicks into full gear. But please understand – I’ve not yet deployed, seen combat, or had to make great sacrifices that many of our brave men and women have had to make and are currently making, and I won’t feign to know what that must be like. 

For those that don’t understand what it means to be in the Navy Reserve (it can appear complicated), you essentially volunteer to serve part-time in the military. We have an oft-repeated tagline that the extent of service is, “a weekend a month and two weeks a year,” but most everyone knows that it ends up being more. 

The U.S. military is an extraordinarily unique place. Being part of it can feel like a daily exercise of navigating paradox after paradox: leading while serving, strict obedience and independent decision-making, confidence and humility, swift action and endless waiting, tradition and innovation, preparing for war and preserving peace. 

In my first months, this frustrated me greatly, though as I continued to serve and learn, I came to appreciate the wisdom of balancing two seemingly antithetical things at once while staying focused on the mission at hand. In doing so, I felt myself become a better servant, sailor, citizen, and leader who still has so much more to learn.

I’ve also found the military to be a living laboratory (a strikingly successful one) of creating unity from the full extent of diversity that our nation has to offer. Outside of my church communities and university experiences, rarely have I been confronted with the opportunity to engage with so many different people and walks of life as I have in the military. In getting to know the brave men and women who have volunteered to defend America, I have come to better know America. I believe in our country now more than ever. 

It is an honor to wear the uniform, and to play my small part in making this country an even greater place. Though I’m not wearing a uniform as I knock doors, walk in parades, and host town halls, know that I feel a responsibility to represent Utah with that same honor and integrity.

Disclaimer: Riley Owen is a member of the Navy Reserve. Use of his military rank, job titles, and photographs in uniform does not imply endorsement by the Department of the Navy or the Department of War.