Duty, Honor, Country

E

entropychaser

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On 3/12/24 the Superintendent of the United States Military Academy, LTG Steven Gilland announced a new mission statement for West Point.

In it, the words Duty, Honor, Country (incorporated in 1998) were deleted, although he stated they would remain the motto. This change was approved by the Secretary and Chief of Staff of the Army.

The mission statement is now:

To build, educate, train, and inspire the Corps of Cadets to be commissioned leaders of character committed to the Army Values and ready for a lifetime of service to the Army and Nation.

Since, The Department of Defense has ignored legal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for documents and emails regarding the decision, The DOD is now being sued to force compliance with the law.

Who thought this was a good idea?
 
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Which are you asking "was a good idea", suing the DOD or changing the mission statement?
 
You just have to laugh! The public affairs office is hard at work; sixteen minutes to midnight!

The very next morning Duty, Honor, Country is ditched.

Now, the DOD plays dumb. Where's the public affairs office in broad daylight?
 
Lebby said:
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I don't know if this issue is topical to this forum but since entropy brought it up...

As you can see in this link posted by Lebby, the mission statement of the United States Military Academy has changed little since its inception in 1925, periodically tweaked over the years with minor changes. (Notice how the bureaucrats started to get hold of it in the late '70s and attempted to include everything under the sun.) For the first 73 years of its existence, however, it did not include the academy motto of Duty Honor Country.

The motto first appeared in 1898, incorporated into the then new Academy Crest. It was aspirational, a guide for cadet development, along with the honor code and individual class mottos. After 100 years, the sitting Academy Superintendent decided he wanted to put it in the mission statement.

Mission statements are just that, clearly stating something to be achieved. They don't usually include mottos or slogans.

After (sometimes) intense discussion, surviving members of the Long Gray Line collectively shrugged their shoulders at the recent deletion of the motto since for most it wasn't in there during their tenure at the Academy. That its deletion is somehow a reflection of the deterioration of American society is at best a leap, at worst, nonsense. A tempest in a teapot...and the story is over 6 months old.

And by the way the motto of the United States Military Academy remains Duty Honor Country.
 
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I'm inclined to agree with 3511. Something that a lot of people get confused about (including me) is the difference between a vision statement, a mission statement, a motto and in severe cases a mascot. It seems to me that a motto of "Duty, Honor, Country" is far more important to the ring bearers than a mush-mouthed "we're trying to turn you into soldiers that lead" mission statement or another like minded vision statement. But perhaps Aggieland's mascot, Reveille, expressed it best when she said "Woof!"
 
It was a Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes mystery. In this story, the most important clue was that the dog DIDN'T bark in the night.

 
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