Courtesy Photo | Photo illustration of, from left, the late John Sommer, Spc. Richard Sommer and Staff...... read more read more
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The reasons people join the military are as varied as the people who answer the call. Not everyone can point to a single reason. Sometimes it’s about the future, sometimes it’s about honoring the past, and sometimes, it’s about both. It can be about continuing a legacy built by those that served before you. It’s a reason that begins at home, shaping identity long before enlistment papers are ever signed.
That’s where it started for retired Ohio Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Ryan Sommer.
In the Sommer family, service was the tradition. Ryan’s father, grandfather, uncles and almost every man in his family tree have worn the uniform at one point in their lives. Growing up surrounded by these examples shaped how he viewed service, long before he could define it.
“Ever since I was a kid, you play Army and you dream of being in the uniform and you think about going off and playing war,” Ryan said. “And then as you get older, you think about more of the patriotic side and serving your country and actually representing something.”
In 2005, Ryan reached a turning point. He was ready to stop drifting and start honoring the legacy he’d grown up with. He wanted to follow in his family’s bootsteps. He hoped to enlist as a military policeman, like his father, but when no positions were available, he chose a different path — combat engineering.
“There’s a lot of pride in it,” Ryan said. “Carrying on the family tradition was important; it’s almost like passing on the flag or the torch from one family member to another.”
Ryan’s father, Richard Sommer, often wondered what path his son would take in life. While he suspected Ryan might follow in his military footsteps, it became certain only when Ryan came home and shared that he had met with a recruiter. Watching Ryan take that step confirmed to Richard that his son was ready to embrace the same sense of duty and purpose that had guided their family for generations.
“I think he was at a point where he didn’t know exactly what he wanted to do, (and) I thought it might be good for him,” Richard said. “I was proud that he was doing it, that he was joining the military.”
In January 2008, Ryan volunteered for deployment with Company C, 1st Battalion, 148th Infantry Regiment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, where he was on constant convoy security missions in Iraq. In December 2008, his unit transferred authority to a Hawaii Army National Guard unit. Ryan volunteered to be temporarily attached to the replacement unit, which extended his deployment until October 2009.
His decision to extend echoed a similar choice his father had made during the Vietnam War. Richard had also made the decision to extend, staying beyond his initial tour so he could return home on his own terms. In that moment, this father and son shared a unique bond. Both had experienced the pressure and realities of life in a combat zone, and a deeper connection through service had been created.
“I was drafted; his experience was different in that he volunteered for it,” Richard said. “Most of what he did he volunteered for. It was just a different time. And of course, a deployment is a deployment, but he did back-to-back deployments and volunteered for both of them. I give him a lot of credit for that.”
For Ryan, extending his deployment was about more than just sense of duty, it was a continuation of family values that had been passed down. Staying for a second tour was a personal choice created from a feeling of responsibility and a desire to honor the standard set by generations before him.
“There was a lot of pressure, in the sense of proving something in staying over there for two tours, back-to-back. I think that was part of the reason I stayed for two tours,” Ryan said. “That was the pride of service for me though … being able to carry that tradition of the generations.”
Combat gave them common language, but not a shared conversation. Though they understand each other’s experiences in ways others cannot, it’s an unspoken divide that’s not created by distance but shaped through generational differences.
“They experience it differently, especially in how they share it,” Ryan said. “Now, we feel encouraged to share it, we can experience it openly and we can share it with each other.”
Now a father of two, Ryan doesn’t measure legacy by whether his children wear a uniform one day. Instead, he hopes to pass on the values formed during his time in the Army and that he still lives by to this day. He does this while supporting his children in whatever future they choose to pursue.
“Generational service, as it’s passed down from parents to children, is a way you’re teaching your kids, and they’ll teach their kids, to honor themselves, honor each other, honor their friends and family,” Ryan said. “If you take the Army Values, and you live by those, I think someone can successfully live by the Army Values as a family and be okay.”
As the generations have changed, so has the military way of life. For Richard, service was not the result of a personal choice but dictated by the times. His service was shaped from a national obligation rather than his own ambition.
“These days everyone is volunteering; I was drafted. I probably would not have gone in had I not been drafted,” Richard said. “We have to have a military; we have to have a defense. I think it’s good for people to step up and take some ownership in that defense.”
The question of why someone chooses to serve rarely has a single answer. For the Sommer family, it was shaped by history and choice, obligation and pride, and a tradition that was started before either of them ever wore the uniform. Richard answered the call when his nation demanded it, Ryan answered it to continue the legacy of his family and find direction for himself. A father and son, who each had different paths that led them to a shared connection and a continuation of generational service. And while the uniform may not be worn by every generation that follows, the lessons learned during that service continue to begin at home — passing down from one generation to the next.
| Date Taken: | 12.18.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 12.31.2025 09:20 |
| Story ID: | 555334 |
| Location: | OHIO, US |
| Web Views: | 90 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Service that starts at home, by SSG Olivia Lauer, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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