Next month, athletes across the North Shore will return to a familiar crucible: Double sessions for their local football teams. I learned a lot of lessons in that field behind Bishop Fenwick. I can still hear Coach Dugan yelling at us to drive forward as we pushed the sled across the dusty grass. While I didn’t graduate from Bishop Fenwick, that lesson stuck with me. I had to remember it during my 12-month tour in Iraq as a machine gunner on a Humvee. I leaned on it again during long nights working as a security contractor in Afghanistan. And I carried it with me into the farmlands of eastern Ukraine.
There, on a chilly early summer morning in the Donbas, we had been digging trenches for eight hours, bracing for a Russian assault. Dawn was just breaking when we were spotted by a Russian drone. We ducked into a concrete drainage tunnel under the road. Minutes later, artillery rained down — dozens of shells, followed by a barrage of rockets. The ground shook apart on our flank. I looked at my teammate TJ and said, “I don’t know if I can do this.” He answered without pause: “You have to now. Just lean into it.”
When things get hard, you don’t give up. You push forward. That was true on defense as a Bishop Fenwick tackle, and it’s just as true now for Ukraine.
Many assumed the Trump administration would abandon Ukraine. It appears he won’t. The war rages on, more brutal and more technological than ever before. This summer marks a pivotal campaign. The delivery of aid is not symbolic — it is essential. Ukraine cannot afford to be abandoned at the very moment Russia is pressing hardest. I urge lawmakers and citizens alike: This is not the time to hesitate. Ukraine has the ability to deny Russia the success it seeks.
I won’t offer illusions. Ukraine likely lacks the current offensive power to liberate every settlement. But they can make Russia bleed for every meter of ground. They can make this war an unbearable endeavor. Russia is burning through resources and draining its economy. Victory doesn’t require total liberation — it requires denying Russia the ability to destroy an independent nation.
Why does this matter to us? Partly, it’s about justice. I’ve seen with my own eyes the moral emptiness that defines the Russian war machine. There is no higher ideal — just brute strength and imperial conquest. But this isn’t only moral; it’s strategic. Our wealth and security as Americans are tied directly to the post–World War II order: The transatlantic alliance that has underwritten peace and prosperity for decades. Remove the United States from that equation, and Russia, through BRICS and regional intimidation, will begin building a new world order — one that is openly hostile to our way of life.
Across the North Shore, we know our history. This region understands the cost of silence and the dangers of turning away. The American Revolution began just miles from here — ordinary people who chose to stand when retreat seemed safer. We’ve seen what happens when injustice goes unchecked. And we know that when pressure mounts, the answer is not retreat; it’s resolve.
No one is asking for American troops to fight in Ukraine. What Ukraine needs is continued access to the equipment we already have in surplus: Humvees, munitions, armored vehicles, and Cold War–era stockpiles like M113 personnel carriers, older howitzers, and thousands of tanks, artillery pieces, and support vehicles built for precisely this kind of fight. Much of it sits idle in U.S. storage.
Most important, Ukraine needs air defense systems. Surface-to-air missiles, radar-guided anti-aircraft guns, and medium-range interceptors — originally designed to counter Soviet aircraft and missiles — are now essential for shielding not just the front line; they are protecting a major European capital that endures daily bombardment. Kyiv is now targeted daily, with Iranian-made drones and guided bombs that overwhelmingly strike civilian infrastructure. These aren’t isolated battlefield incidents — they’re systematic efforts to terrorize and destabilize. Air defense isn’t a luxury for Ukraine; it’s the thin shield between urban life and annihilation.
This isn’t an open-ended war effort. It’s a chance to use existing resources to stop an authoritarian power without risking American lives. Supporting Ukraine isn’t an act of charity; it’s a matter of strategy. Protecting liberty abroad reinforces stability here at home.
And to the Bishop Fenwick athletes starting their season — remember, when the sled gets heavy, and your legs start to give, that’s when you dig deepest. That’s when it counts. The same is true now. Ukraine still has fight left. We just need to help them hold the line.
Benjamin S. Reed was born in Newburyport and graduated from Triton Regional High School. He served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and later fought in Ukraine — including in the Donbas, and in the battles of Kharkiv and Avdiivka. He is currently finishing his memoir “War Tourist” and is represented by Writers House, a literary agency in New York City.