Three little words. These words appear on the
Arms of West Point:
The eagle is grasping a scroll bearing the words “ West Point , MDCCCII (1802), USMA,” and the motto, “Duty, Honor, Country.” The motto as such was never previously stated, but in writings of early superintendents, professors and graduates, one is struck by the recurrence of the words “duty,” “honor” and “country.” Colonel Larned’s committee believed Duty, Honor, Country represented simply, but eloquently, the ideals of West Point.
These ideals, which the United States Military Academy attempts to instill in its graduates in order to give them a foundation upon which to fulfill the oath sworn to preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States. Perhaps reviewing MacArthur's opinion of them is in order:
...Duty, Honor, Country: Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying points: to build courage when courage seems to fail; to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith; to create hope when hope becomes forlorn.
Unhappily, I possess neither that eloquence of diction, that poetry of imagination, nor that brilliance of metaphor to tell you all that they mean.
The unbelievers will say they are but words, but a slogan, but a flamboyant phrase. Every pedant, every demagogue, every cynic, every hypocrite, every troublemaker, and I am sorry to say, some others of an entirely different character, will try to downgrade them even to the extent of mockery and ridicule.
But these are some of the things they do. They build your basic character. They mold you for your future roles as the custodians of the nation's defense. They make you strong enough to know when you are weak, and brave enough to face yourself when you are afraid. They teach you to be proud and unbending in honest failure, but humble and gentle in success; not to substitute words for actions, not to seek the path of comfort, but to face the stress and spur of difficulty and challenge; to learn to stand up in the storm but to have compassion on those who fall; to master yourself before you seek to master others; to have a heart that is clean, a goal that is high; to learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; to reach into the future yet never neglect the past; to be serious yet never to take yourself too seriously; to be modest so that you will remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength. They give you a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions, a freshness of the deep springs of life, a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of an appetite for adventure over love of ease. They create in your heart the sense of wonder, the unfailing hope of what next, and the joy and inspiration of life. They teach you in this way to be an officer and a gentleman. ...
-
Douglas MacArthur's Thayer Award acceptance Speech.
On this Memorial Day weekend, I want to ask the
“more than 150 military contractors either as lobbyists, senior executives, board members or consultants” which of these lessons did not stick?
Did you not swear the same oath as I? Admittedly, I was enlisted, but is there really a difference? Is all it takes is a little money to throw your honor onto the mud to keep the boots of fascists clean? It that all it takes to persuade one to dishonor the memory those who have given the last full measure?
How can you sleep knowing that you have created more memories of men that we have to remember in the years to come? How can you sleep knowing that you have sold the country? How can a man who loves his country do something so craven? How can you sleep knowing you participated in he farce that was foisted on the US public to keep the economic grist of blood flowing into the wheels set in motion by the war on terror?
How are you not a traitor?
-Hoot
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