Dear Holly - RTTF Honoree

Photo courtesy of Carrington House, a charitable foundation

On Saturday September 8, 2018 I will take a ride with around 500 friends. We’ll be on every kind of bike imaginable and we will have ideals from all over the spectrum. On Saturday we will ride with one purpose – to honor and support US Navy Chief Petty Officer Holly Katke, HMC. We will ride for two heroes, Holly and her daughter Leia

We’ll gather at the Naval Base/Ventura County, register and have a little breakfast while we await a stirring 9/11 Commemoration Ceremony. We will meet our hero and a few White Heart Foundation alumni and dignitaries before we mount up and Ride to the Flags (RTTF) at Pepperdine University where there will be one 3’X5’ flag for each casualty of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, 2,977 flags in total. We’ll see flags from a variety of nations sprinkled in among our American flags, a flag for each person’s nationality - 90 International flags. I won’t be able to say much as I walk from one end of the display to the other, I’ll only be able to offer a quiet prayer for the people and their families, for the casualties of war, for those still in harm’s way, and for the wounded like Holly and their support groups like Leia.

Then we will listen to music, visit sponsors of the event, knock back a few beverages, and plunk down some cash on raffle items we may or may not be able to strap to our bikes for the trip home.

Holly’s story:

Chief Petty Officer Holly Katke was an Independent Duty Hospital Corpsman and earned the title of the highest enlisted medical care provider in the Navy. She is also fluent in Arabic and as a female was frequently the only person local women would talk to in Iraq. Holly was serving with a Navy Seal team when the outfit came under fire. They were at fleet station when she took a sniper round to the head, one eighth of an inch from being killed in action.

The bullet stayed lodged in Holly’s brain for three months causing multiple strokes resulting in the loss of the use of her right arm, half of her vision, and much of the functionality of her right leg. Her memory is sketchy – she describes it as like ‘fifty first dates’. Holly has continued her education and achieved her Bachelorette degree and works to study environmental issues.

Through all of this, Holly is a single parent to Leia, her highest priority and Holly’s primary helper.

The funds raised by our ride will provide Holly with specialized rehab equipment and help with transportation for her and her daughter.

Five minute video on Holly: https://youtu.be/myyopWnRbXE?t=353

If you feel inclined to donate you can do so through the links below, my fundraising page or to White Heart directly. If you don’t feel so inclined, stop for a moment and pray for Holly, her daughter, and all of our wounded veterans. Thank you.

My fundraising page: https://donate.whiteheart.org/event/ride-to-the-flags-xi/e191755

Or White Heart Foundation at: http://www.whiteheart.org/

Dear Holly,

Thank you for your service and the sacrifice you’ve made for us as a country, for your fellow Seals and Sailors, and for freedom. I appreciate how you’ve battle back and continued to fight through your injuries in order to be there for your daughter and to be there for our world as a researcher.

I am honored to ride for you and make a bit of a difference to you as you live and love. I am humbled that I’ll ride with hundreds of others who feel the same way for you and other wounded veterans.

I appreciate the sacrifices that your daughter has made and continues to make for you and I love how she loves you. And if I may be so bold, I love how she taps out the beat.

And, I pray for continued healing and miracles for you and through you. I pray for your daughter so that she’ll have endurance, focus, and be a source of pride and fulfillment to you. In my heart, I know your daughter is a great source of strength to you, I pray she finds her way and achieves her dreams.

Keep the iron side up,

Jerry ‘Shakespeare’ White

Dear LCpl Getscher

Dear LCpl Getscher (Caleb),

This coming September 11, 2016 I will be riding in the Ride to the Flags from Naval Base Ventura County (NBVC) to the 'Waves of Flags' at Pepperdine University. I’ll be riding along with a few friends of mine from the Southern California Victory Riders’ group and in the midst of 500 or so bikers.

I have been reading your story and the bits and pieces of it that I can find on the internet because I’ve wanted to write something for my friends, my family, and the greater riding community so that they will know why we ride the RTTF and to help myself to have a deeper understanding of the event and the man we are riding for, you. We ride, we give, because you count and because your sacrifice has incurred a debt that cannot be fully repaid. I give to help you establish yourself as a new man with new capabilities. I'll ride to show I care, I’m giving to help even just a little.

I confess that I have not served our country in the military and though from time to time I’ve regretted that, or at least considered what it would have been like, I am just as glad that Uncle Sam did not invite me to Southeast Asia. This is probably a part of why I am having such a hard time understanding the depth of your sacrifice, both on the field of battle, and now at home as you continue to work through your loss. You are an incredible man. Thank you for your service – I am sorry that it requires such a drastic sacrifice.

Though my reading about how you were injured and what you’ve gone through in your recovery has been sobering to me, I have come across some things that give me hope. Hope for you, hope for our future. I believe that beyond the persons counted as casualties it is the mothers and spouses of those men and women that feel it most keenly and I’ve seen that your mother and wife are exceptional women who, while they’ve suffered that loss alongside of you, they have also had your back all the way. I thank your mother and your wife for all they’ve suffered and for all they do with you and for you.

The Getschers at home

There is one picture that has stood out for me that gives me hope for you, rather several pictures. They all have two things in common, you and your daughter on your lap. Invariably, she can be seen with the most genuine of smiles and completely at ease with you. You, the man you are right now, is the dad she knows and loves and it is obvious to me that she thinks the world of you. I loved reading how the two of you sprawl out on the floor and play together – it speaks volumes about who you are to each other. Knowing that you have the space to do that and that your home is set up in a way so that you can move about is a comfort to me. It seems that it’s the least we could have done for you. I am thankful for your daughter and what she means to you and your family.

I hope that you find a way to define your new normal and that it gives you a sense of worth and fulfillment. I pray that your new normal gives plenty of room for the extraordinary and that the extraordinary becomes the baseline for your new normal.

Thank you for being a man of honor and sacrifice, a man of dedication and determination and a man who cares for his friends, family, and country. I appreciate you for being a person who takes a stand for the oppressed.

God bless you.

jerry white

This is the link to the Southern California Victory Riders’ donation page for those who want to participate with us in spirit as we ride or who want to join the team for the day of the event: 

Southern California Victory Riders' Donation Page