The Last Three Vietnam Veterans in Congress Return to the Wall Together Ahead of Memorial Day

Posted on by Abigail Trotter

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Last Three Vietnam Veterans in Congress Return to the Wall Together Ahead of Memorial Day

Nearly 30 bipartisan veteran lawmakers gathered for annual act of remembrance

WASHINGTON, D.C. —May 21, 2026— On the morning of Thursday, May 21, nearly 30 bipartisan veteran Members of Congress gathered at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial—not for a press conference, but for a quiet act of remembrance.

Together, they cleaned the wall.

Leading the gathering were the only three Vietnam veterans still serving in Congress. Rep. Jim Baird (R-IN), who lost his left arm in a 1971 convoy ambush, will return to the memorial alongside Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA), who was wounded in combat with the Army’s 173rd Airborne Brigade, and Rep. Jack Bergman (R-MI), a retired Marine Corps lieutenant general who flew CH-46 helicopters in Vietnam. He has spent decades returning to the wall to honor those who did not come home.

For Baird, the wall reflects the war he survived. It includes the names of soldiers who fought in the same deadly convoy operations along QL19—including Specialist Four Larry Dahl, a Medal of Honor recipient killed in a 1971 ambush on that same road.

More than fifty years after their service, the three stood together again at the wall—not as young soldiers, but as some of the last living links between that war and the nation that sent them.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial—the most-visited site on the National Mall—bears the names of more than 58,000 Americans who were killed or remain missing in action.
For many of the Members participating, the names etched into the black granite are not abstract. They are friends. Brothers and sisters in arms. For the eighth consecutive year, the bipartisan For Country Caucus, alongside With Honor, has brought these veterans in Congress together to honor the more than 58,000 Americans who gave their lives in Vietnam—ensuring their memory is carried forward not only in stone, but in continued service to the nation.

“More than fifty years after Vietnam, the courage it took to serve, and the bonds it forged, still transcend today’s political divisions,” said Rye Barcott, Marine Corps veteran and Co-Founder and CEO of With Honor. “Courage is a decision to advance the common good despite personal risk. The veterans on this wall made that decision. In a divided time, this simple act of cleaning the wall is a reminder that America is still capable of making that decision too.”

“This wall is sacred ground,” said Representatives Jake Ellzey (R-TX) and Don Davis (D-NC), Co-Chairs of the For Country Caucus. “The names on it belong to Americans who answered the call without asking who stood with them politically. Coming together as veterans to honor them is how we keep faith with that same standard.”

Now an established tradition, the annual cleaning of the wall has become a quiet tradition for the For Country Caucus—one that reflects its core commitment: to put service and country above party.

In honor of the nation’s 250th anniversary, Jen Condon, Executive Vice President of America250, the official nonprofit partner of the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, joined this year’s event.

With Honor Action to Participate in Two Sessions at the 2026 AI+ Expo for National Competitiveness

Posted on by Abigail Trotter

For Immediate Release

Contact: Susan Forbes, forbes@withhonor.org

With Honor Action to Participate in Two Sessions at the 2026 AI+ Expo for National Competitiveness

Veteran Leaders to Spotlight Defense Industrial Base Reform, Veteran Leadership, and Tech Policy

Washington, D.C. – May 4, 2026 – With Honor Action will participate in two featured sessions, along with a fireside chat, at the AI+ Expo for National Competitiveness, organized by the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP), in Washington, D.C. The Expo convenes top leaders from government, industry, and academia to address how the United States can ensure that emerging technologies serve as engines of economic growth, global leadership, and national security.

Thursday, May 7 | 11:30 AM | South Stage
Fireside: Rebuilding the Arsenal of Freedom

A conversation on restoring America’s defense industrial base to meet the demands of sustained great power competition. This session will examine how Congress is approaching procurement reform, production scaling, and supply chain resilience to ensure readiness at speed. It will also explore the role of public-private partnerships in rebuilding capacity across critical sectors.

Speakers:

  • Scott Cooper, SVP for Government Affairs, With Honor Action
  • Representative Don Bacon (R-NE), Founding Co-Chair, For Country Caucus
  • Moderator: Aaron Mehta, Editor-in-Chief, Breaking Defense

Key Themes:

  • The Proposed $1.5 Trillion Defense Budget
  • Defense Industrial Base Restoration
  • Procurement Reform and Production Scaling

Friday, May 8 | 9:30 AM | South Stage
Panel: How Technology is Unleashing Veteran Leadership Across America

A discussion on how technology is expanding the reach and impact of veteran leadership in communities, the workforce, and public service. This session will also examine how mission-driven networks are connecting veterans to opportunities in business, policy, and community leadership, with a focus on unlocking the full potential of veteran talent as a force multiplier for American renewal.

Speakers:

  • Rye Barcott, Co-Founder & CEO, With Honor
  • Mike Hutchings, CEO, Combined Arms
  • Moderator: LtGen Michael Groen (Ret.), Former Director, Joint Artificial Intelligence Center

Key Themes:

  • Technology as a Force Multiplier for Veteran Leadership
  • Mission-Driven Networks and Veteran Opportunity
  • Veteran Talent and American Renewal

Friday, May 8 | 11:00 AM | President’s Tech Brief | PTB Stage
With Honor Co-Founder & CEO Rye Barcott will join SCSP’s Ylli Bajraktari and Martijn Rasser for a live discussion on principled veteran leadership and how veteran leaders in Congress are driving tech policy.

Speakers:

  • Rye Barcott, Co-Founder & CEO, With Honor
  • Ylli Bajraktari, President & CEO, SCSP
  • Martijn Rasser, Vice President & Technology Leadership Directorate, SCSP

Key Themes:

  • Principled Veteran Leadership
  • Veteran-Led Tech Policy in Congress
  • Civic Trust and Democratic Accountability

More info and registration: https://expo.scsp.ai/

###

About With Honor
With Honor Action fights polarization in Congress by supporting principled veterans across party lines who pledge to serve with integrity, civility, and courage. With Honor Action works alongside the bipartisan For Country Caucus in Congress to pass critical legislation for our nation. With Honor Action is a 501(c)(4), which serves as the organization’s policy and social-welfare arm. With Honor has an affiliated federally registered “super PAC” called With Honor Fund III. Learn more about our work at WithHonor.org.

Godspeed, Governor: Remembering Dirk Kempthorne

Posted on by Abigail Trotter

Godspeed, Governor

On April 25, the U.S. Navy commissioned its newest Virginia-class fast-attack submarine, the USS Idaho, at Naval Submarine Base New London. It was a rare moment for a landlocked state.

The man who did more than anyone to make the USS Idaho a reality, Dirk Kempthorne, had passed away the day before. He had planned to attend. By a turn of fate, the boat he championed entered the fleet just hours after Idaho lost him. Earlier this year, the Navy named the submarine’s engine room in his honor.

Idahoans knew Dirk best, and they knew him longest — as mayor, senator, governor, and neighbor. But his reach extended far beyond the state he loved, and like so many Americans who knew him, I will remember him as a statesman and as a friend.

We first met in 2009. I was just out of the Marine Corps and graduate school. Dirk had already lived a remarkable life of service, one of only a handful of Americans to serve as mayor, U.S. senator, governor, and a presidential cabinet secretary. He often spoke of his deep respect for those who wore the uniform. One of his few regrets, he once told me, was not having served in the military himself.

Years after we met, Dirk joined the advisory board of With Honor, the cross-partisan organization I co-founded to support principled veteran leadership in Congress. That work brought us together for the rest of his life. He worked across party lines not as a strategy but as an instinct. He believed good governance required good character, and he lived that belief in ways that were often quiet and nearly invisible to the public.

When the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021, Dirk insisted that America keep its promises to Afghan allies who had served alongside our troops. That conviction was rooted in his Christian faith. It drove him to raise more than $1 million in private funds, work diplomatic channels across multiple governments, and help charter a private Airbus A340 that evacuated 395 Americans and Afghan allies to Abu Dhabi.

Dirk later recalled the moment that allowed the flight to carry 50 more people than planned:

“I said, dear God, we cannot leave these people behind, please give a path forward. At that instant, I had a mental vision. I saw Mother Mary holding her infant, Jesus, in her arms. I immediately called Nawid and said, ‘Nawid, infants do not need seats; they can be held in their parents’ arms.’ The airline confirmed that, and our Airbus A340 could evacuate 50 more people.”

He worked the phones with our team, reaching the Biden administration and members of Congress in both parties because he believed America’s word should mean something.

His convictions shaped what would become his final act of public service. For years, he served as chairman of the USS Idaho Commissioning Committee Advisory Board, building a bridge between his home state and the sailors who serve aboard her. He told the story of Idaho to the Navy and the Navy’s mission to Idahoans, and he showed up, year after year.

For him, the submarine was both a source of pride for Idaho and a window into a critical national vulnerability. The Navy needs two Virginia-class submarines a year. In 2024, we delivered 1.13. In commercial shipbuilding, the gap is even wider. China built more than 1,000 vessels in 2024; the United States built eight. That gap has serious implications for our economy and our ability to deter conflict in the Indo-Pacific.

Dirk understood that rebuilding American shipbuilding is one of the rare areas where bipartisan consensus still exists, and he worked to keep it that way. His final text message to me was about a planned visit to the USS Idaho with veterans from both parties now serving in Congress, in support of the SHIPS for America Act led by Sens. Todd Young and Mark Kelly. He signed off, as he often did, with a single word: “Godspeed.” I hope we can still make that trip happen in his honor.

In a polarized time, it is easy to forget that politics can be a calling rather than a contest. Dirk Kempthorne never did. He didn’t just call for bipartisanship; he practiced it.

Idaho gave America a leader. He returned that gift many times over, to his neighbors, to his country, and to a generation of Americans who learned from him what service looks like when done with integrity, civility, and courage.

The country was better for him.

Godspeed, my friend.

###

Rye Barcott is co-founder and CEO of With Honor and author of the forthcoming Courage Can Save US (Bloomsbury). Gov. Kempthorne served on the With Honor Advisory Board. With Honor will host a celebration of life in Washington, D.C., on June 17, 2026.

This op-ed was originally published in the Idaho State Journal.

With Honor Action Joins 34 Veterans Organizations and Bipartisan Members of Congress in Push to Pass Written Informed Consent Act

Posted on by Abigail Trotter

For Immediate Release

Contact: Brian Le, le@withhonor.org

With Honor Action Joins 34 Veterans Organizations and Bipartisan Members of Congress in Push to Pass Written Informed Consent Act

The bipartisan bill would require written consent before the VA prescribes medications carrying FDA suicide-risk warnings.

Washington, D.C. — April 28, 2026 — With Honor Action, alongside For Country Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Don Davis (D-NC), caucus member Rep. Tom Barrett (R-MI), Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), the Grunt Style Foundation, and 33 other veterans organizations today urged Congress to pass the Written Informed Consent Act (H.R. 4837 / S. 3314), bipartisan legislation that would require the Department of Veterans Affairs to obtain written informed consent before prescribing veterans medications that carry FDA warnings related to suicide risk.

Under current VA practice, written informed consent, the process by which patients are formally educated about the risks and benefits of their treatment, applies only to long-term opioid prescriptions. The Written Informed Consent Act would extend that requirement to other high-risk medications, including stimulants, narcotics, and antipsychotics.

“With Honor Action stands behind this bill because informed veterans are better-positioned to manage their own health and advocate for themselves within the VA system,” said Scott Cooper, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs for With Honor Action. “Expanding written informed consent to high-risk medications is a commonsense step that protects patients and builds trust between veterans and their providers.”

“It’s at the core of this bill, it’s about something that is simple, but essential. It’s about ensuring veterans and their families are able to make informed decisions about their healthcare,” said Rep. Don Davis, Co-Chair of the For Country Caucus.

“Veterans deserve to be fully informed about the serious risks of the medications they are prescribed,” said Tim Jensen, President of The Grunt Style Foundation. “Written informed consent empowers veterans, improves safety, and strengthens — rather than discourages — access to mental health care. This is a straightforward, bipartisan solution that can help prevent unnecessary tragedies.”

###

About With Honor

With Honor Action fights polarization in Congress by supporting principled veterans across party lines who pledge to serve with integrity, civility, and courage. With Honor Action works alongside the bipartisan For Country Caucus in Congress to pass critical legislation for our nation. With Honor Action is a 501(c)(4), which serves as the organization’s policy and social-welfare arm. With Honor has an affiliated federally registered “super PAC” called With Honor Fund III. Learn more about our work at WithHonor.org.

With Honor Action Hosts Reception to Celebrate the Revitalization of America’s Maritime Industrial Base

Posted on by Abigail Trotter

Following the joint hearing “Revitalizing Shipbuilding and the Maritime Industrial Base” of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces and the Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation on Wednesday, April 22, 2026, With Honor Action hosted a reception to celebrate the revitalization of America’s maritime industrial base.

The U.S. shipbuilding industry has reached a critical turning point. Over the last decade, while China built over 6,700 commercial vessels, the United States produced just 37. It isn’t just a matter of trade; it is a national security priority. To maintain our defense capabilities and protect our economic interests, we must bridge the gap between education and the shipyard. Reinvigorating American shipbuilding is essential to ensuring our country remains competitive and secure on the global stage.

We’re grateful for the leadership of Rep. Trent Kelly (R-MS) and Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA), along with For Country Caucus members Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-VA) and Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-CA), who have elevated the importance of shipbuilding and the maritime industrial base.

Read With Honor Action’s statement from the hearing here.

Join Us Now

    * Required Field(s)