West Point Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Steve Gilland on Monday announced a new mission statement for the venerable institution that replaces the words “Duty, Honor, Country” with the more general “Army Values.”
West Point’s previous mission statement was:
Educates, trains, and inspires a corps of cadets so that each graduate becomes a committed leader of character who is true to their values. duty, honor, country and prepared for a career of professional excellence and national service as an officer in the United States Army.
The new statement reads:
Develop, educate, and train the Corps of Cadets and inspire them to become leaders of character who contribute to society. army values and ready for a lifetime of professional excellence and service to the military and the nation.
Gilland insisted he wanted to focus more on “mission-critical tasks” to “build, educate, train and inspire” rather than “duty, honor and country.”
He said in a message posted on West Point’s website:
Duty, Honor, and Country are the cornerstones of the United States Military Academy’s culture and will continue to be our motto. It defines who we are as West Point institutions and as alumni. These three sacred words characterize the cadet experience and connect the long gray lines that span our great history.
Our responsibility to produce leaders who will fight and win our nation’s wars requires us to regularly evaluate ourselves. Therefore, over the past year and a half, we have worked with leaders across West Point and external stakeholders to redefine our vision, mission, and strategy to achieve this purpose. We believe our mission connects the Academy and the Army, the Army in which our cadets serve. As a result of this evaluation, we recommended the following mission statement to Army senior leadership.
Develops, educates, trains, and inspires the Corps of Cadets to become leaders of character who are true to Army values and prepared for a lifetime of service to the Army and nation.
Both the Secretary of the Army and the Chief of Staff of the Army approved this recommendation.
Our updated mission statement focuses on the mission-essential task of building, educating, training, and inspiring a corps of cadets to be leaders of character and true to Army values. , with the express purpose of preparing for a lifetime of military service. The Army’s values include duty and honor, and our nation is reflected in our loyalty, pledging true beliefs and allegiance to the U.S. Constitution, the Army, our units, and our fellow soldiers. Over the past century, West Point’s mission has changed his nine times. Many graduates will recall the mission statement they learned as new cadets did not include a motto in 1998, when Mission, Honor, Country was added to the mission statement for the first time.
Our absolute focus remains on developing leaders of character who are ready to lead Army Soldiers on increasingly dangerous battlefields.
Let’s go to the army!
duty honor country
LTG Steve Gilland
61st Superintendent of Education
According to West Point alumnus Randy DeSoto of the Western Journal, the words “duty, honor and country” originate from General Douglas MacArthur’s final address to the Corps of Cadets. MacArthur returned from World War I, served as Army Chief of Staff in the 1930s, and was superintendent of West Point for three years.
DeSoto said new cadets during basic training at West Point had to memorize parts of it. speech“Duty, Honor, Country: These three sacred words respectfully define who you are, what you can be, and what you will become. They are your rallying point. To build up courage when courage seems to be lost. To restore faith when there seems little reason to have faith. To generate hope when hope becomes hopeless. ”
Opening… In 1853, cadets practice target shooting outside the new barracks at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York. (Photo courtesy © CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)
MacArthur also mentioned this phrase several times in his speeches.
Duty, honor, country. The norms these words perpetuate encompass the highest moral laws and will stand the test of every ethics and philosophy ever promulgated for the betterment of mankind. Its demands are for what is right and its constraints are for what is wrong. Soldiers, more than anyone else, are required to practice the greatest act of religious training: sacrifice.
In battle and in the face of danger and death, he reveals the divine attributes that his Maker bestowed upon man when he created him in his image. Neither physical courage nor savage instinct can replace divine help, only it can sustain him. ”
MacArthur told the West Point cadets: There are always echoes of duty, honor, and country. ”
DeSoto writes: west point Cadets, even if “duty, honor and country” are not part of their mission statement. ”
Several Army veterans weighed in on the changes.
Will Thibault, an Army Ranger veteran and director of the American Military Project at the Claremont Institute, told Breitbart News in a statement: The decision of the Army’s civilian and military leaders to remove the timeless principle of “Duty, Honor, Country” from its motto in favor of references to the Army’s values. ”
“On the surface, this change is an innocuous semantic adjustment by the leadership. In fact, it is a rhetorical revolution in West Point culture. ‘Duty, Honor, Country’ is a phrase instilled by General MacArthur, It is a fundamental promise that transcends cultures. The Army’s values, currently embodied in the mission statement, have been continually revised since 1986 and were only officially codified in 2012. “Values” are subjective cultural preferences, and while they are an important concept to the Army, they are the product of corporate consulting and endless bureaucratic revisions. ” he added.
“The saddest thing is that we shouldn’t be surprised. At West Point, cadets can earn a Diversity and Inclusion Studies degree. Organize the cadet corps based on the “Class Composition Goal”. ”
Thibault concluded that “the motto change is a legitimate concern, and Americans should ignore the military’s efforts to sanitize the moment we find ourselves in.”
A 2023 graduating cadet throws his cap during a graduation ceremony at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, May 27, 2023, in West Point, New York. (Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images)
Army veteran Spence Rogers called it “disgraceful” to X.
.@WestPoint_USMA This week, it removed “Duty, Honor, Country” from its mission statement and replaced it with the words “Army Values.” What a shame! Hear General Douglas MacArthur’s speech called “Duty, Honor, and Country” as he received the Thayer Medal at West Point on May 12, 1962. He was 82 years old when he gave this speech. PS I disagree with this good general about the age and evolution of the Earth. Despite that part of the speech, he is 100% correct.
Hal Lambert, Republican fundraiser who served as a member of Congress at the inauguration The Committee for President Donald Trump sarcastically posted:
Army values are now amorphous words that describe: west point Alumni Mission Statement. duty, honor, Country It has come out. Why not just accept the words “my truth” and call it a day?
Army values are now the amorphous words that describe the West Point graduate’s mission statement. Duty, honor, and country are out.
Why not just accept the words “my truth” and call it a day?https://t.co/rnL9R0DvZz
— Hal Lambert (@MAGAindex) March 13, 2024
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