In an attempt to increase enrolees, West Point Superintendent Army Lt. Gen. Steve Gilland created a new mission statement for the institution, replacing “duty, honor, country” with a more generic phrase, “Army values.”
Previously, West Point’s mission statement was:
“To educate, train, and inspire the Corps of Cadets so that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character committed to the values of duty, honor, and country and prepared for a career of professional excellence and service to the nation as an officer in the United States Army.”
This was replaced with:
“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 professional excellence and service to the Army and Nation.”
Gilland expressed that the institution now wants to focus on the “mission’s essential tasks.”
“Our responsibility to produce leaders to fight and win our nation’s wars requires us to assess ourselves regularly. Thus, over the past year and a half, working with leaders from across West Point and external stakeholders, we reviewed our vision, mission, and strategy to serve this purpose. We believe our mission binds the Academy to the Army — the Army in which our cadets will serve. As a result of this assessment, we recommended the following mission statement to our senior Army leadership,” wrote Gilland.
The Secretary of the Army and Army Chief of Staff agreed to this revision.
Gilland further explained the replacement of the mission statement with “Army Values”:
“Our updated mission statement focuses on the mission essential tasks of Build, Educate, Train, and Inspire the Corps of Cadets to be commissioned leaders of character, with the explicit purpose of being committed to the Army Values and Ready for a lifetime of service. The Army Values include Duty and Honor, and Country is reflected in Loyalty, bearing truth faith and allegiance to the U.S. Constitution, the Army, your unit, and other Soldiers.”
The words “duty, honor, and country, were coined from Army Gen. Douglas Mac Arthur’s speech to the Corps of Cadets in 1922.
Army veterans weighed in on the issue
In a statement, Will Thibeau, director of The American Military Project at the Claremont Institute, explained that the mission statement of the West Point serves as the cornerstone of everything that “happens at the preeminent institution of our nation.”
Thibeau 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.”
Spence Rogers, an army veteran, slammed the move and called it a “disgrace.”
“What a disgrace! Listen to the speech by General Douglas MacArthur called “Duty, Honor, Country” given when he received West Point’s Thayer Award at West Point, May 12, 1962. He was 82 years old when he gave this speech. P.S. I don’t agree with the good general on the age of the earth or evolution. Despite that part of the speech, he is 100% correct.”
Wokeism just ruined the military in America. The democrats have bent the knee to the nuttiest people who have a minority voice, and let down the constituents of both parties by minimalizing our purpose and our loyalty. We are committed to defend our country, not the political legislator. But I guess that is what the democrats want so we can weaken down and lose our country to globalism. All because of the biggest sham of “inclusivity”. I’m glad I did my service obligation when the military was strong and exclusive. We only took in those who wanted to defend America. Then the draft ruined it all.