SCHUYLKILL COUNTY, Pa. — This month, Retired U.S. Army Colonel Christopher D. Kolenda, Ph.D., founder of the Saber Six Foundation, is on a 1,700-mile Fallen Hero Honor Ride to honor the legacies of six paratroopers from his military unit (1-91 CAV, 173rd Airborne), also known as Task Force SABER, who were killed in action while serving in Afghanistan in 2007.
Monday's stop in Minersville was to visit the gravesite of Captain David Boris from Pottsville.
"Dave was my best captain in the unit. Somebody I had known for several years. Dave was like a little brother to me." says Kolenda. "He was everything an officer an army officer ought to be. His character, his competence, he was extraordinarily good at what he did. And he genuinely cared about people."
The Honor Ride, which started on September 25, 2022, is raising support for the unit's veterans who need help and a Rotary Club of Milwaukee scholarship endowment in the names of the fallen heroes.
The cross-country bike ride makes milestone stops in the towns of each of their graves, including Spalding, Nebraska; Elwood, Illinois; Monrovia, Indiana; Minersville, Pennsylvania; and concluding at Arlington National Cemetery.
Over 7,000 American service members were killed in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
In the war's aftermath, over 30,000 post-9/11 veterans have died by suicide. Kolenda's unit has lost more to suicide and substance abuse than were killed in combat, a sobering statistic that Kolenda aims to bring awareness to through the Honor Ride, beginning in September in light of National Suicide Prevention Month.
"I can't see this happening and do nothing about it," said Kolenda. "The paratroopers from our unit are entering the most dangerous periods of their lives. In 15 years, I want to see our unit's veterans and their families alive and thriving."
"He knew all their names, their wives' names, their kids' names. He really liked what he was doing and took care of his men," says Captain David Boris' father.
Founder of the Strategic Leaders Academy, Christopher Kolenda, helps leaders and their teams soar to new heights. During his military career, Kolenda, a combat leader and trusted adviser to three four-star generals and two undersecretaries of defense, was the first American to have fought the Taliban as a commander in combat and negotiated with them in peace talks.
He and his unit defied conventional wisdom in Afghanistan by motivating a large insurgent group to switch sides, the only example of such success in the 20-year history of the war.
His unique warrior-diplomacy has been featured in New York Times bestselling books and media outlets, including CNN, MSNBC, BBC, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.
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