Attending my father’s 70th West Point reunion was a poignant experience which gave me much insight into how he became the person he is.
West Point, or USMA (the United States Military Academy), trains cadets to become Army officers. In 1949, the Air Force was a brand-new branch of military service, and volunteers from USMA were solicited to join. My father was one, and he made a 30+ year career out of Air Force service, but those first few years as an Army cadet, during and immediately after WWII, shaped his world.
West Point’s creed is Duty, Honor, Country. It is written everywhere, even in the stained-glass of the chapel under the image of Jesus on the cross. The motto is spoken often to remind cadets and everyone else that the most important tenets in a military officer’s life are bound by these three words. To cadets these words are the cornerstone of life. The reason for existence.
The campus, (Daddy corrected me and said, “It’s a post, not a campus,” so) the post, is beautiful. It is set in the mountains and flanked by the Hudson River, which makes it picturesque. It is set right on the perimeter of a very small New York village called Highland Falls, which has a few stoplights and a population of 3,900. West Point is definitely separated from the outside world – sacred so to speak.
Not far in importance behind the words “Duty, Honor, Country,” are the words “Beat Navy,” which are seemingly repeated by every cadet, everywhere, for every reason. Example:
Officer: You have been appointed the table commander at dinner tonight.
Cadet: Thank you, Sir. Beat Navy.
This explains why the annual Army v. Navy game is more important to my dad than any other football game. Ever. He is a fan of several teams, both college and NFL, but the Army team, especially when they are playing Navy, gets all his attention. The only time he has a mild crisis of loyalty is when Army plays Air Force, but he still roots for Army. After all, there was no Air Force Academy in his day. His choice is clear.
Other oft repeated words referring to West Point are “the Rockbound Highland Home,” “the Long Gray Line,” and “The Corps” (being the corps of cadets). The traditions are long and entrenched.
Watching Daddy and his old classmates interact, drink, reminisce and tell stories together was a treasure. They sparkled with memories as they laughed and raised their glasses to toast each other, life, and the Corps. It was easy to see them as 20-year-olds, young with expectations of danger and adventure and the accompanying eagerness. Their laughter was genuine and warm and their camaraderie almost palpable. They were connected in a way few people are – by experience, by memories, by a creed, and by history. All of them had seen several wars, most first-hand, over the past 70 years. Several of them fought in more than one and lived to laugh and raise a toast again. Many went on to further military honors, some to full and auspicious civilian careers. All were achievers. All were contributors to this great country – its history and its present. They spoke of classmates who had passed, some in combat and some after a long life. They were happy to be together and spoke of their present lives in happy tones. Despite health concerns, the deaths of spouses and children, they were content in their present situations.
In 1962 General Douglas MacArthur accepted the Thayer Award at West Point with these words:
“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…. 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.”
These words come close to encompassing the morality and values that are championed in the motto, but the soldiers who graduate West Point embody them, give them life.
In Daddy’s surviving group of classmates, it was Duty, Honor, Country that bound them through the years and across their various careers.
The Long Gray Line indeed.
Beat Navy.
*This article was first published on LinkedIn.