Television and movie personality Jon Stewart, most notably of The Daily Show, poses for a photo with the Air Force team for the 2016 Department of Defense Warrior Games June 15, 2016. Stewart emceed the opening ceremonies for the games. (Department of Defense photo by EJ Hersom) (EJ Hersom/Department of Defense)
Television and movie personality Jon Stewart, most notably of The Daily Show, poses for a photo with the Air Force team for the 2016 Department of Defense Warrior Games June 15, 2016. Stewart emceed the opening ceremonies for the games. (Department of Defense photo by EJ Hersom) (EJ Hersom/Department of Defense)
Comedian and activist Jon Stewart talks with Medal of Honor recipient retired Army Capt. Florent Groberg Wednesday evening at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. after the opening ceremonies of the Warrior Games. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)
WEST POINT, N.Y. — Not long after the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, Jon Stewart felt the need to better understand the American warriors who had been asked to shoulder the burden of the war.
That quest led him to patients’ rooms at the Walter Reed medical centers, rehabilitation centers and military installations across the nation.
“I was very vocal about my disapproval of the way (the Iraq War) had been handled, and I realized pretty short into that that I didn’t really know — I knew what I was talking about in a pundit way, but I didn’t know anybody who was affected by it, who was in it,” Stewart said Wednesday at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., where he emceed the opening ceremonies of the 2016 Warrior Games. “I needed to educate myself. That’s when I began going to places where I could meet people and talk to them — those who have been wounded.”
More than a decade later, the comedian and activist counts those servicemembers and troops among his greatest inspirations.
“There’s almost nothing in this world that gives me more support than witnessing the tenacity and the resilience and the perseverance of our wounded warriors in their endeavors,” Stewart said. “They’re the ones that make me feel like, ‘Oh, right. We’re going to be OK’.”
The longtime host of The Daily Show, who has championed the causes of veterans and 9/11 first responders since leaving the show last year, learned about the Defense Department’s Warrior Games through a friend. He volunteered his services Wednesday to help kick off the competitions, a gesture organizers described as “a big deal.”
“Jon Stewart is a huge advocate for the military and a strong supporter of our wounded warriors,” said Army Col. Thomas Sutton, one of the event’s lead organizers. “… More than anything else, at the end of the day, I think his involvement and support means a lot to these athletes.”
But Stewart insisted that is a mischaracterization. He is the one who will be bettered by spending time with the about 250 active-duty servicemembers and veterans competing in eight adaptive sports at the historic academy on New York’s Hudson River through June 21.
That is why he felt it was so important to bring his 11-year-old son Nate along with him Wednesday. Stewart wanted to show his son “by example, what is possible,” especially in the wake of the terrorist attack Sunday morning inside a gay nightclub in Orlando that left 49 dead and more than 50 others injured.
“I realized that it’s time to stop telling (children) about the rare individuals that do harm and tell them more about the people whose names we don’t know, and whose resilience and tenacity we can witness, and that’s what I’m here to see today and that’s what I’m here to show him,” he said.
Stewart’s participation in the event came as no surprise to many of the wounded warrior participants and attendants.
Medal of Honor recipient retired Army Capt. Florent Groberg said he first met Stewart several years ago while he was in Walter Reed recovering from blast wounds he suffered after tackling a suicide bomber in Afghanistan.
Stewart “is a really good man,” said Groberg, who is attending the games as a spectator and honorary coach for the Army track team. “He spent a lot of time in my room just talking and listening. Awesome.”
The Warrior Games, Stewart said, perfectly embody the spirit of America’s wounded and ill servicemembers, who persevere even after facing the most traumatic of experiences.
“They have faced the worst of what humanity has to throw at them, and they have decided not to allow themselves to be defined by that act but to be defined by their actions following that action,” Stewart said. “… Man, this should be on ESPN. This is where the cameras should be. This is where the country should be.”
dickstein.corey@stripes.com Twitter: @CDicksteinDC
