This Memorial Day, we should recognize a different top 1% – those who serve and sacrifice

In the civilian world, “the 1%” refers to those Americans with the largest concentration of wealth and influence.

Over the past two years, I have been exposed to a different top 1% – those Americans who volunteer to serve in the armed forces. On this Memorial Day weekend, this 1% deserves our admiration and utmost respect.

In the fall of 2021, I was nominated by President Joe Biden to serve as the general counsel of the Department of the Air Force. Prior to taking on this role, I had spent nearly 20 years as a senior executive of a global professional services company with 80,000 employees.

In those two decades in industry, I could count on one hand the number of close friends who served in our armed forces. The son of a Goldman Sachs banker who attended the Naval Academy and is serving as a helicopter pilot. A high school boyfriend of my eldest daughter who joined the Army. Indeed, when my then college-age son expressed an interest in joining the Marines, professors and friends asked why he would want to pursue such a path.

In early 2022, I walked into the Pentagon and stepped into another world – a tightknit community where military families, generation after generation, have served their country with honor and distinction.

From ground troops to Space Force guardians

The first general I met was John “Jay” Raymond, a four-star who served as the Space Force’s first chief of space operations. In an unbroken line dating to the Civil War, Gen. Raymond’s ancestors have served in the armed forces.

Other top brass like Gen. Charles Q. Brown, now chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had a parent and a grandparent who served.

This same legacy of service pervades the enlisted ranks. Indeed, nearly 80% of Army recruits have a relative in uniform.

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These soldiers, marines, sailors, airmen and guardians know firsthand the privilege and sacrifices that are part of wearing that uniform.

Yet, what about the 99% who do not?

How to support the top 1% who defend our freedom

We need to bridge the gulf that exists between military and civilian society for three compelling reasons:

First, to meet the national security challenges confronting our country. Our principal adversaries, particularly China and Russia, have developed new forms of attack such as hypersonic missiles and counterspace weapons that pose a significant threat to our national security.

One of our enduring strengths as a nation is the awesome creativity of our entrepreneurs. The Defense Department is acutely aware that it needs to harness technological innovations from the private sector to counter these threats. The notion of a reusable rocket that could launch scores of satellites into space and then descend majestically back to earth for its next mission was inconceivable until industry made it a reality. And just weeks ago, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall flew in a fighter jet controlled by artificial intelligence in a dogfight against a human pilot.

Imagine if GPS got lost. We at Space Force worry about it so you don't have to.

Second, the military needs to draw from a deeper pool of talent to meet its recruiting goals. To attract highly skilled cyber and tech talent from industry, DoD is experimenting with new career paths for military personnel.

Congress recently passed, and the president signed into law, a landmark initiative called the Space Force Personnel Management Act that broadens our ability to leverage expertise in the private sector for part-time roles in the military.

And for the first time in history, the Space Force has commissioned cyber experts from industry directly into the service as lieutenant colonels and captains.

Third, it is the right thing to do. The responsibility for protecting our country should not fall exclusively on the broad shoulders of a tiny sliver of our population. Leaders across society should also have a more direct connection to the consequences of any decision to commit forces.

Our most sacred obligation as a nation is to support the brave men and women of our armed forces who defend our freedoms. On this Memorial Day weekend, we should recognize and emulate these patriots as the true top 1% of our society.

Peter Beshar serves as the general counsel to the U.S. Air Force.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: On Memorial Day, honor a different 1% – who serve, sacrifice for US