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Peace at any cost is a prelude to war!
The New Australian
US Military and New Age 'ethics'
By RADM C.A. Hill, Jr. USN (Ret.)
No. 140, 1-7 November 19999
The modern liberals have implemented a program of revolutionary reform for
America based upon the objective of destroying the 'authoritarian
personality' — instilled by the traditional family and culture. For the past
half century their program has met with success from the bottom up starting
in the primary schools and continuing on through the secondary schools and
colleges. For most of that time their efforts were successfully resisted by
the military schools where discipline and tradition provided a shield against
changes in attitude that were destructive of the mission of the military in
protecting the nation from external threats and in support of their
constitutional charter.
In short, the military academies couldn't be corrupted from the bottom up but
they could be corrupted from the 'top' down. When I say the 'top' I refer
first and foremost to the courts and to the executive and legislative
branches of the government, subsequently aided and abetted by the officers
who were placed in charge through the appointive, confirmation and law-making
power vested by the Constitution in the President and the Congress.
Although all the major military higher education schools have been affected
adversely, I will use the U.S. Naval Academy with which I am most familiar as
an example. The three most significant changes that have occurred since I was
a midshipman (class of 1944) were: (1) The supreme court decision that forced
the Academy to do away with mandatory Sunday chapel or church services. (2)
The introduction of women into the student body mandated by the congress,
with a concomitant diminished emphasis on a single engineering curriculum.
(3) The change in appointment from 'Midshipman, U.S. Navy' to 'Midshipman,
U.S. Naval Academy' which occurred in 1948 and now, upon graduation, awarded
a commission in the Naval Reserve as opposed to 'Ensign, U.S. Navy.' Each of
the above changes has led the way down for an institution originated,
developed and historically supported by the American people
for the purpose of training naval officers to be 'sea fighters' first and
foremost, but — ACCORDING TO TRADITION AND THE LAW — GENTLEMEN ALWAYS. From
its founding in 1845 to the early 1960s, the material for the Naval Academy
was drawn largely from the traditional American family with roots
predominantly in the middle class. Almost all of the entering midshipmen came
from homes where instruction in the Judeo-Christian religion had been the
rule during their formative years. When chapel, church, or temple attendance
was mandatory there was no need for ethics training. That was taken care of
by a combination of law, tradition, religious instruction, and a four-year
program designed to build character along with educating each individual
midshipman for a lifetime calling as a naval officer. It was an engineering
school with each student subject to military discipline, with no electives
except a choice of foreign language and you made it or you were out.
Upon entering the Naval Academy, each midshipman was issued a copy of Naval
Customs, Traditions and Usage by Leland P. Lovette along with Reef-Points
(items that all midshipmen must know) and the Watch Officer's Guide.
Indoctrination in those traditions began from the
moment one took the oath on the steps of Memorial Hall. From the beginning,
4th class midshipmen learned that John Paul Jones ('I have not yet begun to
fight'), Horatio Nelson ('Thank God I have done my duty'), James Lawrence
('Don't give up the ship'), and David Glasgow Farragut ('Damn the torpedoes —
full speed ahead') were the men and the pillars upon which naval tradition
was based. It was noble, it was honorable, it was valiant, it was courageous
and it was virtuous. Most of all they were the only model a midshipman
needed. They were the guiding lights upon which a young man was to mold a
life for service in the Navy.
Instruction in the law from which Navy regulations were derived began
immediately and continued throughout the four-year curriculum. In addition to
classroom instruction, each battalion was assembled in Memorial Hall
routinely in dress blue uniform to hear elements of those laws read to them
by senior officers. U.S. Navy law itself is unique. It stems directly from
the pen of John Adams who first introduced it during the Second Continental
Congress and gained its approval. It placed 'morality' at the heart of
officer conduct. It remains in the law today, codified as Section 5947 (Title
10, USC) and last approved by the Congress in 1957.
It is unequivocal in that it enjoins (in part): "All commanding officers in
authority in the naval service — to show in themselves a good example of
virtue, honor, patriotism, and subordination; to be vigilant in inspecting
the conduct of all persons who are placed under their command (and) to guard
against and suppress all dissolute and immoral practices ..." It is the
bedrock of the U.S.Navy stated in plain English prose and has stood the test
of time. It was this combination of tradition and the law imparted to each
class that developed unit cohesion which lasted through life undiminished
despite separations of time and space.
Now we are to understand that the foregoing precepts and laws are not enough
in this age of enlightenment. Men and women with doctorates in philosophy and
ethics from civilian universities now occupy chairs at the Naval Academy in
those disciplines. They boast of the new 'character development' seminars
that have been set up (complete with trained 'facilitators') bringing about a
new era to replace (as they might have it) the flawed institution where
cheating, drug and sex abuse were rampant. They would have us believe that
instead of studying Lord Nelson's life as a model, midshipmen should be
immersed in the philosophies from which 'Kantian' ethics were derived.
Indeed, a prize was awarded to a female midshipman for her essay on ethics
and moral reasoning in which she places herself squarely in the 'Kantian'
court for guidance in making moral judgements using the 'Tailhook' scandal as
an issue to evaluate from Kant's philosophy of the categorical imperative.
The lesson to take from the 'Tailhook' scandal has nothing to do with finding
a new philosophy upon which to act. The law was already in place and every
man or woman involved could have been disciplined under the code. The
Secretary of the Navy and the Chief of Naval Operations simply failed to act
immediately in prosecuting the miscreants under that law — including the
women on active duty as well as the men — who were involved in obscene
behavior and then lied about it. It was a political decision that stemmed
directly from the Navy leadership's willing acceptance of a double standard
outside the law once women were integrated at the Academy and, now, in the
combat forces.
I did not realize it at the time, but I was a witness to this dichotomy of
moral views during the 1930s as a high school student in attending a lecture
with my parents by the leading expert on philosophy of the day, Will Durant.
His word, The Story of Philosophy, was very popular at the time so the
auditorium was packed with a largely adult audience. Following his lecture,
one of the female teachers, herself a product of Columbia Teacher's College,
asked him why he put such emphasis on the part played by religion in Western
Civilization, ending with the statement that "After all, Christianity has
only been around for nineteen hundred years and maybe something better will
come along at some future time." Will Durant answered her arguments one by
one then ended by stating that in his view "Nothing will ever come along that
is better than Christianity." He received a standing ovation with that
statement. Later that night, it was my mother who pointed out how tainted the
teacher's statement was by communist philosophy.
Another insight was gained while a student at the Naval War College. It was
at the height of the Cold War when we had given sanctuary to the first
middle-grade Soviet naval Officer who had fallen in love with a Swedish girl
whom he married and then did not wish to return to the Soviet Union. He had
had command of a destroyer and, among other questions posed to him, was one
that asked how he dealt with the political commissar that each ship had
embarked. He told us that they use him like we would use our chaplain —
useful for taking care of the troubles of the men since communism was the
Soviet substitute for religion.
A column printed in the Boston Globe on August 22, 1999, by Neal Thompson
tells how the ethics program at the Naval Academy is being implemented using
documentary type films as an aid. In this case it is a segment from the
German-made Das Boot, where a submarine captain fails to court-martial a
chief petty officer who abandoned his post in panic during a severe depth
charge attack. A first class midshipman stops the VCR and asks a study group
of plebes if the captain is guilty of fraternization. To the instructor the
correct answer is 'yes' so that the case may be made against an 'unduly
familiar' relationship between superiors and subordinates. The instructor
then goes on to say 'in the Navy it's all about character.' But to an officer
who had that same experience in actual combat, this example is completely
false for the purpose intended.
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