Prince Harry is being honored for his impact on the veteran community through his Invictus Games Foundation.

þPrince Harry is being honored for his impact on the veteran community through his Invictus Games Foundation.

As this year’s recipient of the Pat Tillman Award for Service at the upcoming ESPY Awards, the Duke of Sussex, 39, says, “This one is for our entire service community.”

After a decade in the British Armed Forces, including two tours in Afghanistan, Harry founded the Invictus Games in 2004 to empower wounded, sick, and injured servicemen and women through sports. The event has since become a worldwide phenomenon, changing the lives of soldiers in dozens of countries.

“I truly believe that we are at our best when we’re in service to others, and Invictus is all about upholding that value,” Prince Harry told PEOPLE in 2022.

Harry’s] a veteran, and like all vets, when we get together, we talk, laugh, joke and tease each other. He’s just like one of the guys,” retired Chief Master Sgt. Garrett Kuwada, who competed for Team USA at the Invictus Games in Düsseldorf, Germany, in 2023, previously told PEOPLE. “He makes you feel like you’ve known him forever.

It’s a deeply personal cause for him. He makes himself really accessible to all the competitors – he is involved in every aspect of the Games,” retired U.S. Army Captain Will Reynolds told PEOPLE.