Throughout Born on the Fourth of July, Kovic explores what it means to be a patriot. The book’s first epigraph includes a quote from President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address: “Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.” Kovic’s story is that of a man answering that call. Kovic, who shares a birthday with the United States, grew up loving America and wanting to serve: “Being born on the exact same day as my country I thought was really great,” he writes; “I was so proud” (64). As a child, he would pray to be “a good American” (65), and he was a member of the cub scouts and marched in Memorial Day parades. He even writes of feeling upset when America failed to launch the satellite Vanguard: “We had failed in our first attempt to put a satellite into orbit [...] and America wasn’t first anymore” (74).

Kovic becomes enamored of joining the Marines and becoming a hero for his country, and he lights up when the Marines who speak in school tell him and his classmates that by enlisting they “could serve our country like the young president had asked us to do” (89).