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March 17, 2024

West Point’s superintendent created a firestorm among the American public with his announcement that the words “DUTY, HONOR, COUNTRY” have been deleted from the military academy’s mission statement.  The outrage goes far beyond West Point graduates; it includes veterans of all the services as well as civilians.

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Those three hallowed words not only are West Point’s motto, but also serve as moral guideposts for leading one’s life.  The superintendent’s new mission statement substitutes the vague term “Army Values” for the simple and unequivocal “DUTY, HONOR, COUNTRY.”

Let me tell you about amorphous “Army Values.”  During my first assignment to a tank company at Ft. Carson, Colorado, I was promoted from platoon leader, a job I truly loved, to executive officer (XO), or second in command of my unit.  Among my duties was officer-in-charge of the Arms Room, where all the company’s weapons were secured.  As such, my first order of business was to conduct an inventory.  What I found was surprising, to say the least: our company was missing a .50 caliber machine gun!  Not just any machine gun, but an M2 Browning “Ma Deuce,” the tank commander’s cupola-mounted weapon, capable of penetrating armored personnel carriers, trucks, and other equipment and turning enemy troops into mincemeat.

When I reported the missing machine gun to the company commander (CO), he was not at all surprised…or pleased.  “It’s been missing for years, probably lost in maintenance,” he said.  “Just sign the inventory as ‘all present and accounted for,’ or you’ll create a monumental problem for us.  Everybody signs.”

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“But, Sir, that would be a felony, ‘falsifying an official document.’  I just can’t do that,” I replied.  “Besides, it’s not like we’re missing an empty magazine; it’s a .50 caliber machine gun!”

“Just sign the inventory.  That’s an order,” the CO insisted.

“That’s an illegal order, and I won’t do it,” I said.  “You can sign it yourself.”

That was the end of my military career.

“Army Values” call for following orders.  I knew I could not continue to work for that company commander, so I found a job at 4th Infantry Division Headquarters.  Months later, I learned that I had been utterly and unfairly trashed on my Officer’s Efficiency Report.  These OERs are generally inflated, so receiving even one bad report effectively terminates your career.  You’ll never make general — probably not even full colonel.  I wasn’t even sure I would make captain.

But I stood firm, without hesitation, because of…HONOR.  Strangely enough, this exact situation was a scenario presented in my DUTY, HONOR, COUNTRY class at West Point in the summer of 1967 during Beast Barracks, or new cadet basic training.  A key facet of HONOR is always to take the harder, right path rather than the easier wrong one.