When you talk about veterans, you can’t avoid that minefield of clichés: They’re heroes, selfless, noble, courageous, fearless; they do what they do so we can roam this country freely, and they put service to their nation above what’s good for themselves. They deliver on every adjective.

Of all the injured soldiers we’ve visited in the hospital, do you know what the No. 1 complaint is – across the board – amongst those wounded warriors? That they’re stuck in that hospital room and can’t get back overseas fast enough to help their brothers and sisters. Soldiers who are missing limbs are pissed they can’t get back into the very battle that crippled them, because they feel an obligation to help and protect their friends.

We met a soldier at Walter Reed Hospital two years ago who was missing both legs. He told us about the IED blast that injured many soldiers in his command. Shortly after the explosion he regained his senses and, realizing both legs were in bad shape, quickly found two tourniquets and tied them around his thighs. It wasn’t just to salvage what was left of his legs or to save his own life. He had morphine in his bag, but he didn’t use it. At least not on himself. Because in that dire moment, it wasn’t about him at all.

National Guard Adjutant General Deborah Ashenhurst poses with the heroic SFC Ty Henery, who was honored at the Mid-Ohio race this year by the team and owner John Barnes. (Photo: Panther Racing)

“I was the medic,” he explained. “Lots of our guys were hurt worse than me. It was my job to help them.”

At Mid-Ohio this season Ohio National Guard Adjutant General Deborah Ashenhurst told us the story of SFC Ty Henery, who was our team’s Hometown Hero for that weekend. He was serving in northern Afghanistan, when the small group he was in got ambushed. One of his buddies, MSG Doug Reed, got shot and was hit so badly it was quickly determined he probably wasn’t going to make it. The team knew they had to get Reed out of there immediately and to the nearest surgical team.

As the soldiers evacuated, only one of their Hummers was operable, and there wasn’t room inside the vehicle for the wounded MSG Reed. The soldiers realized they’d have to transport him on the hood of their vehicle. And with enemy fire still raining down, SFC Henery, to protect his friend, laid on top of MSG Reed as they drove through the gunfire. He used his body as a shield, and returned fire on the enemies as they fled the kill zone. Under fire, SFC Henery stayed in that position for the entire six-mile ride.

As you read this, MSG Reed is sitting at home alive and well with his family.

I haven’t written anything you haven’t heard a thousand times before. Please forgive me, but this is the only way I know how to say Thank You: To our ancestors who put down the pitchfork and picked up a rifle to create this great Nation. To those who fought to free slaves. To our great-grandfathers who turned concentration camps into tourist attractions. To everybody who lent much more than a hand before, during and after 9/11. To every man and women in uniform who has ever responded to a flood, fire, crash, riot, and every other tragedy that’s gone unseen. And to every Veteran that helped write all the pages of history that fall in-between.

Thanks to LTC Shawn Gardner for making my old dream of leading an NFL team onto the field come true. Thank you to SPC Joey Paulk for kicking adversity in the ass, and showing us what a real comeback is all about. Thank you to SFC Henery for proving that “No Man Left Behind” isn’t just a cute catch phrase. Thank you to the medic at Walter Reed Hospital whose disregard for his own life saved so many others. And thank you to every other Soldier I’ll never get to meet for being “Always Ready, Always There.”

I was never brave enough to wear that uniform.

Thank you to every veteran that was.

Mike Kitchel is the Communications Director for Panther Racing where he has led the team's public relations and marketing efforts since 2004. The former journalist and sports columnist grew up in Centerville, Indiana and has worked with many of open-wheel's most talent drivers, including Dan Wheldon, Vitor Meira, Buddy Rice and many others. He is a freelance writer, a failed actor and a full-time goofball. Follow him on Twitter @mikekitchel. Read his most recent SPEED.com entry here: Dan Wheldon’s Comeback Remembered.