STORY BY KAREN BOSSICK

PHOTOS BY MICHAEL HOBBS AND KAREN BOSSICK

Leon Panetta has never pulled any punches.

As director of the CIA, he oversaw the operation that brought down Osama bin Laden. He was appointed Chief of Staff to Bill Clinton’s administration to enforce order and focus in the White House. He blasted former President Obama for failing to lead on numerous occasions. Then he rebuked President Trump for sharing highly classified information with Russian officials.

This week he stood on a lawn overlooking a pond in Golden Eagle and demonstrated the same feisty attitude as he addressed North Korea and chaos in the White House.

“There’s no question that North Korea has the ability to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching Alaska and that represents a direct  threat to our national security, especially given  an unpredictable president who only seems to be able to get along with Dennis Rodman,” he said.

It’s important to develop covert and overt capabilities that can bring down these missiles, he added as he prepared to headline an evening supporting High Ground Sun Valley and its recreational therapeutic programs for wounded veterans.

The White House needs to scale down rhetoric that could risk a nuclear war, Panetta said, even as it intensifies U.S. Navy presence and economic sanctions. Fortunately, he added, the current Administration’s strongest point is its National Security team.

“I’ve worked with most of them, including Defense Secretary James Mattis and National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster. And President Trump seems to listen to them. What the White House needs is a stronger chain of command on the domestic side—it’s in disarray,” he said.

Panetta was the latest of a long line of distinguished American leaders who have addressed Higher Ground’s annual Hero’s Journey fundraiser over the past several years.

He graciously shook the hands of veterans and servicemen and posed for pictures, agreeably conversing with many.

Those attending the event milled around silent auction items that included a day of SEAL training for 10 won by Bill Norris that includes opportunities to take part in a staged hostage rescue, weapons instruction, downed pilot recovery, land warfare and raid--with award-winning wines provided by a sommelier.

Higher Ground doesn’t just work with veterans at camps but provides them with follow-up for three years, along with things like stand-up paddleboards and passes to the Y in their communities so they can build on what they started here, said Kirstin Webster, Higher Ground’s internship and impact manager.

Leon Ellis said he had watched the organization grow in the past 18 years, recently opening branches in Buffalo, N.Y., and Los Angeles.

“But we can’t get the vets in fast enough. So many want to be here,” he added.

Among those who benefitted from Higher Ground’s veterans camps is Sgt. Justin Peterson, a seven-year combat veteran who was wounded five times.

“It was a life-changing experience for me through the people I met,” he said. “I had been to a couple other retreats but none like this. The coolest thing was they made me feel important again instead of feeling like a loser. You get burned out with occupational, speech therapy, and coming to Higher Ground was a breath of fresh air. I felt like I was filed with new life. And I got to fall in love with my wife and my kids all over again.”

Panetta related how he was the son of Italian immigrants who had come to America in search of a better life for their family. His father started a restaurant in Monterrey, Calif., where he often invited young men on the military base to dine at the Panetta house before they left to fight in World War II.

“I never forgot that when it came time for me to send young men in harm’s way,” said Panetta, who served as Secretary of Defense under President Obama.

Panetta joined the Army during Vietnam.

“My parents said I and my brothers owed it to our country for what the country gave us. I was also inspired by a young President who said, ‘Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.’ ”

When Panetta was elected to Congress, his father said his son was well suited to go to Washington because of his experience trying to catch walnuts as they fell from family walnut trees.

 “He said, ‘You’ve been dodging nuts all your life,’ ” Panetta quipped.

Panetta noted that the United States has been fighting in Afghanistan for 16 years since 9-11. More than 2.6 million men and woman have served, and many have come home with post traumatic stress disorder and/or traumatic brain injuries. About 26,000 women have suffered sexual assault during service.

“Twenty-two veterans commit suicide every day. That’s the stress they’re experiencing,” he said. “They pay a heavy price for our country. They bring these wounds back home, and Higher Ground gives them a better life, the ability to go back to their families and enjoy a normal life. And that, in many ways, is what the American dream is all about.”

But you have to work and fight for the dream, Panetta added.

“It will take leadership, not just among those we elect but among all of us. And if you want to lead you’d better be ready to take risks. If you don’t, we will govern by crisis. You can govern that way but there’s a price to be paid. The problem is you lose trust. And my biggest fear today is that we’re lost trust.”

America’s institutions are being tested at home and abroad, Panetta said. Our very ability to govern is being tested by political crises where critical issues are not being dealt with—and that includes our $20 trillion national debt and our inability to agree on how to fund infrastructure and reform taxes.

Panetta said he has never seen Washington as partisan as it is now in 50 years of being in the political spectrum.

“I’m from a lost generation of Republicans and Democrats who actually liked to work together,” he said. “Did they have political differences? Of course, but they were willing to work together. They believed whether there was a Democratic President or a Republican Present they needed to work together to solve problems facing this country.”

Fortunately, he said, there seems to be a movement afoot among young Congressmen to break the gridlock.

Panetta related how his son Jimmy Panetta, elected to Congress in 2016, is part of a group of 22 Democrats and 22 Republicans who are trying to work together.

“This country is not going to change from the top down. If it’s going to change it’s going to change from the bottom up,” Panetta said.

There’s talk of the United States retreating abroad, Panetta said.

“But if the United States doesn’t provide leadership in dealing with the world’s problems, no one else will,” he added. “We have a mission to defeat Isis to make sure it will not attack our country. We need to establish coalition among moderate Arab states, Israel and NATO to provide stability in that area.”

Cybertech is the battlefield of the future, Panetta said, with its potential to steal information and bring down our electrical grid and other infrastructure.

“This country always rises to the occasion and we will because the strength of our country doesn’t lie in Washington, it lies in all of you. You are the strength of America.”

Panetta related how he started the Panetta Institute for Public Policy Foundation to inspire youth to get involved in working for the country.

“I’d like to see all young people spend two years in some of kind of national service to their country. “That’s what our democracy is all about.”