DUTY-HONOR-COUNTRY
A Veteran's Day retrospective and prospective by David L Lewis
'Five-star General of the Armies Douglas MacArthur served in World War I, World War II, and Korean War. A recipient of Medal of Honor and seventeen other medals, he distinguished himself as a talented, brave, and able soldier, military commander, and man of honor.'
Excerpt below is from MacArthur’s “Duty, Honor, Country” speech to West Point Cadets May 12 1962...
“Duty – Honor – Country
“Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be.
“[Those three words] 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...
“But these are some of the things they do.
“[Those three words] 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.
“[Those three words] teach you to be proud and unbending in honest failure, but humble and gentle in success; not to substitute words for actions, nor 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.
“[Those three words] 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, an appetite for adventure over love of ease.
“ [Those three words] create in your heart the sense of wonder, the unfailing hope of what’s next, and the joy and inspiration of life...”
I was born in the middle of the greatest conflict in human history, World War II. During those times the United States of America mustered an estimated 16-million troops. Only God knows precise total of how many have served in American military since founding of the nation.
Most, particularly in times of war, volunteer; some were drafted.
Most “stood by the supplies” (I Samuel 30.24); some fought in fierce conflict.
Most did not get recognition for what they had done; some did.
Most answered the call of Duty, Honor, Country; some did not.
Since the day of Douglas MacArthur and ‘the greatest generation’ the significance and regard for duty, honor, country may have lost some of its impact to the world in which we now live. However, I’ve lived long enough to have known heroes and cowards, successes and failures, good an evil. May I respectfully suggest the criteria by which all who take the Oath of Allegiance to the Constitution be judged must be this:
Did they answer the call of Duty, Honor, Country?
No comments:
Post a Comment