On Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for America and the opportunity to serve in the Navy Reserve

I lead a double life. Most of the month, I’m a national security expert in Washington, D.C., offering my views on how the United States can compete with China to shape the course of the 21st century. But one weekend each month, I wake up before sunrise, put on a uniform, and fulfill my duty as an officer in the Navy Reserve.

I joined almost four years ago, motivated by a combination of family history and idealism.

My maternal grandparents, German Jews, fled to the United States just before World War II. Without a refuge in America, they would have been annihilated in the Holocaust. None of their descendants had served in the U.S. military. Our debt to America remained unpaid.

I also wanted to have skin in the game. As a civilian working in foreign policy, I could make recommendations for military action without fear of having my own life disrupted or, at worst, cut short. This felt fundamentally unjust.

So I contacted a recruiter, filed an application, endured the poking and prodding of a Navy physician, and signed up for eight years of service.

I’m now halfway through. And despite occasional frustrations, thankful to serve.

What have I learned?

Serving and sacrificing together

I’ve gained a deeper appreciation for the enormous sacrifices of active duty military personnel. The typical reserve commitment — one weekend each month and a two-week block each year — is modest, but for a young family, still taxing. And the potential for a year-long future mobilization to somewhere hot and sandy is unsettling. Hearing my wife and I discuss the prospect, my 2-year-old daughter, even with limited understanding, has broken down in tears.

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I’ve come to understand that we rise together. More than any other organization in which I’ve participated, the U.S. military places a premium on mentorship. As the first in my family to serve, I’ve needed help, from learning basic skills such as marching, to navigating clunky and complex Navy personnel systems, to mastering new areas of military knowledge far removed from my civilian expertise. All along the way, officers and enlisted have extended a hand, even when they had no formal requirement to do so.

I’ve discovered the other Washington. Much of America regards the nation’s capital as hopelessly dysfunctional, a theater for political combat, where the needs of the people are subordinated to the interests of the few. On drill weekends, another Washington emerges. Americans of all religious, racial and socioeconomic backgrounds serve side by side. Democrats, Republicans and independents come together, not only to get the mission done but also to joke and complain, forging bonds that transcend a single weekend.

Why I'm thankful to serve

In the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election, some friends asked whether I regretted signing up for eight years of military service. To the contrary, that fiercely contested election — and the nation’s growing internal divisions since then — have underscored the rightness of my choice.

It is all too easy to despise other Americans if you don’t know them. The Navy Reserve, like the active duty military, is America, from stay-at-home moms to small business owners, from law enforcement officers to university professors, from civilian intelligence professionals to political operatives. Through it, I’ve had the opportunity to encounter a far broader segment of Americans than is possible in my civilian role as a national security expert.

Four years in, I’m thankful to be an officer in the Navy Reserve. I wish that more Americans had the opportunity to serve and realize that far more unites us than divides us.

Daniel Kliman is a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. The views expressed here are his alone. Follow him on Twitter @dankliman.