R&I – FS
After scandals, pardons, and protests, military and civilian leaders have some work to do rebuilding public trust.
Recently, we have been asked some troubling questions about the military by young Americans contemplating their path of service in the military, or embarking on that path, something both of us did in our younger days.
“What gives?”
“Seriously, how can you say that honor and character matter?”
“How can you trust a system that doesn’t care about integrity?”
More recently, it was the nomination of retired Army Brig. Gen. Anthony Tata to be undersecretary of defense for policy. A young officer asked us how he could have faith in a system that values and rewards Tata, a West Point graduate who admitted to adulterous affairs in violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, fathered a child out of wedlock, called President Obama a terrorist, and, in a tweet in May 2018, encouraged former CIA Director John Brennan to “suck on his pistol.”
We spoke with an active duty Navy ensign who asked a similar question. Upon reading of former Navy SEAL Eric Greitens’ reinstatement into the Navy (Greiten resigned in disgrace as governor of Missouri while facing possible impeachment and criminal charges), he was furious. The ensign, who had served on honor boards at the Naval Academy and had voted to expel peers who had lied, cheated, or stolen, wanted to know: “What do I tell my young sailors who have blemishes on their records far less egregious than this, and know they won’t be allowed to reenlist?”
Simultaneously we have both been questioned extensively by friends and colleagues who have asked us how we can continue to have faith in a military in which we served that may have participated – like it or not, lawful or not – in suppressing lawful protests this summer. We have struggled to find good answers. Some of the images and actions we have witnessed do not connote the universally admired military we waved our caps at during the 7th inning of baseball games we used to attend before this pandemic.
Our responses to these questions have been heartfelt entreaties to “keep the faith.” The profession of arms is a noble one, steeped in a tradition of selflessness, honor, and integrity. As we write, cadets and midshipmen in ROTC programs and the service academies are enduring the grueling training to earn their commissions as officers in the U.S. military – the most trusted institution in the country, as Gallup polls show consistently every year. Much of that training is not in the physical realm, but in moral sphere. The missions of the service academies are filled with high-minded aspirations of training men and women “morally, mentally, and physically” to serve as “leaders of character.” The Navy’s Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership is one example of the national commitment to imparting ethical guidance to midshipmen at Annapolis.
Story Continues
Bugs Marlowe
Article URL : https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2020/08/what-do-you-tell-young-americans-doubting-militarys-moral-compass/167733/