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Striler, who was born in Crystal City, Missouri, found himself speaking silently to the young man on the poster — the one who went to Vietnam believing his country stood behind him and came home to find it looking away. "ey see you now, son," Striler told his younger self. "ey see all of us." In that moment, the long arc of Ray Striler's life came full circle: a century-old car, a 60-year-old photograph, a 250-year-old promise. Striler's life has spanned continents, wars, classrooms, and causes: Green Beret, scholar, educator, and humanitarian. By high school, Striler was a class officer, athlete, actor, and Eagle Scout. He dreamed of college and worked summers to pay for it, enrolling at Southwest Missouri State in 1956. ROTC changed everything. In 1961, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant. His military career became a map of American commitment: mechanized infantry and Special Forces in Germany; command of an A-Team in Vietnam; and, in 1970, as an operations officer, leading men into Cambodia. "I seem to recall it was the most exciting and most patriotic thing to do at the time," says Striler, who was recently awarded the Medal of Honor by the Daughters of the American Revolution. Striler graduated from the Command and General Staff College, as well as completing Airborne, Ranger, Ski, Winter Warfare, Jump Master, Special Forces, and Scuba schools. During his service, he earned a Purple Heart, the Legion of Merit, four Bronze Stars, and the Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Silver Star. But medals only tell part of the story. What Striler remembers most is not destruction, but humanity. "We loved and respected the people, the land, and the culture of the Vietnamese," says Striler, who now lives in Carlsbad. After 24 years in the military, Striler retired as Lieutenant Colonel and embarked on his second career in education. He taught at every level, from high school to graduate school, earned a doctorate in education, and wrote a dissertation on critical thinking. Along the way, he developed and refined a practice he calls "unconditional positive regard." While still in the service, Striler earned a master's degree in psychology, and became deeply influenced by the work of Carl Rogers, who developed the person-centered approach to psychotherapy. "I learned about active listening," Striler says. "e listener has more power than the person speaking. e person will identify the problem if you talk to them correctly." Striler later volunteered for two years in Orange County, working on "warm lines" that connect callers in crisis directly with a psychotherapist. In 2000, after three decades away, Striler returned to Vietnam. He would go back nine more times, working with Dr. Son Nguyen to build a college that continues to educate young Vietnamese today. His humanitarian work also took him to Namibia, where he served as a consultant in psychotherapy and on anti-poaching efforts focused on the black rhinoceros, one of the world's most endangered large mammals. Today, Striler continues to work on the cutting edge. His latest endeavor involves writing and artificial intelligence, a subject he has explored most recently in a novel titled e Last Honest Machine. e book takes place in the present, imagining a clinical psychologist in San Francisco interacting with her recently deceased partner, an AI researcher who left a record of herself through work and personal writings in a program called Resonance. And then there was the Fourth of July parade. Of riding through Rancho Santa Fe, Striler has written, "To the men I served with — those still here and those long gone — your faces rode beside mine just as surely as my own picture did." A century-old car, a 250-year-old promise, and an 87-year-old veteran. All still going. Focus military << Ray Striler ranchandcoast.com 64 SEPTEMBER 2026 RANCH & COAST MAGAZINE