MY SAY: A VISIT TO WEST POINT MILITARY ACADEMY AND ARMY BASE
This past weekend I visited West Point Military Academy and United States Army Base. The foliage was brilliant and the setting on the Hudson River is magnificent. Security is very tight on the grounds, independent meandering is forbidden and photography limited. Nonetheless, we took a splendid bus tour with an excellent guide who detailed the history, biographies of renowned alumni, and the discipline, the intellectual and physical rigors,and the subsequent obligations of a West Point education. Two Generals- Omar Bradley and Douglas MacArthur were not only first in their respective classes but never received any disciplinary sanctions.
Read General MacArthur’s Farewell Address to West Point delivered on My 12, 1962. http://www.nationalcenter.org/MacArthurFarewell.html which ends with the following:
“In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle of musketry, the strange, mournful mutter of the battlefield. But in the evening of my memory I come back to West Point. Always there echoes and re-echoes: Duty, Honor, Country. Today marks my final roll call with you. But I want you to know that when I cross the river, my last conscious thoughts will be of the Corps, and the Corps, and the Corps.I bid you farewell.”
While I am dazzled with gratitude for the graduates and service of West Point alumni, one should also remember those soldiers buried in local cemeteries throughout the nation, who were not officers or alumni of military academies who fought and died in all our wars. I think of wounded survivors who participate and enrich our society. I think of those who enlist. Their guiding principle is also “Duty, Honor, Country.”
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