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‘Legitimately Concerning’: Army Removes These Three Words From Cadets’ Mission Statement

The words “duty, honor, country” have been associated with the West Point military academy for decades and has long been a prominent phrase in the mission statement cadets must abide by while training for service.

In a move critics say is emblematic of “wokeness” taking root within the U.S. military, the Army has now replaced those words with a much more generic term.

According to The Hill:

The U.S. Military Academy at West Point has updated its new mission statement, which now omits retired Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s famous “duty, honor, country” and caused a stir among people who disagree with the decision.

In a statement released Monday, Lt. Gen. Steve Gilland, West Point’s superintendent, said the phrase is “foundational” to the academy’s culture and despite the change in mission statement, it will “always remain our motto.”

“It defined who we are as an institution and as graduates of West Point,” he wrote. “These three hallowed words are the hallmark of the cadet experience and bind the Long Gray Line together across our great history.”

Gilland said the academy must “assess ourselves regularly,” and has worked with leaders in the academy and external stakeholders over the last year and a half to revise its mission statement.

The new mission statement is “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.”

The decision was widely panned on social media:

Plenty of current and former enlisted Americans have also weighed in, as Breitbart reported:

Will Thibeau, an Army Ranger veteran and director of The American Military Project at The Claremont Institute, told Breitbart News in a statement, “The West Point mission statement is the cornerstone of everything that happens at the preeminent institution of our nation. Army civilian and military leaders’ decision to expunge the timeless principles of ‘Duty, Honor, Country’ from that motto in favor of a reference to the Army Values.
“On the surface, this change is a benign semantic tweak from leadership. In reality, this is a rhetorical revolution in West Point’s culture. ‘Duty, Honor, Country’ are foundational commitments, instilled by General McArthur, that transcend time and culture. The Army Values now in the mission statement have undergone constant revisions since 1986, only formally codified in 2012. ‘Values’ are subjective cultural preferences that, for the Army, while important concepts, were the product of corporate consulting and endless bureaucratic revision,” he added.
“The saddest part is that we shouldn’t be surprised. At West Point, a cadet can get a degree in Diversity and Inclusion studies. The admissions office builds the Corps of Cadets based on ‘class composition goals’ that are, without question, race and sex-based quotas.”
Thibeau concluded, “The change to the motto is legitimately concerning, and Americans should ignore the military’s effort to sanitize the moment in which we find ourselves.”

Here’s a little more about the current state of our military:


 

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