"A Soldier Speaks" adalah sebuah buku kumpulan public paper dan pidato Jendral Mc. Arthur sejak tahun 1908 s.d. pidato terakhir Januari 1964.
Salah satu pidatonya berjudul "Duty....Honor....Country" disampaikan di Akademi Militer West Point pada tanggal 12 Mei, 1962 pada saat penyerahan the Thayer Award oleh the Association of Graduates kepada Jenderal Mc. Arthur........ daripada salah menterjemahkan , saya iseng coba ketik kembali seperti aslinya.......... selamat menikmati............. ......................................................... No human being could fail to be deeply moved by such a tribute as this. Coming from a profession I have served so long and a people I have loved so well, it fills me with an emotion I can not express. But this award is not intended primarily to honor a personality, but to symbolized a great moral code- a code of conduct and chivalry of those who guard this beloved land of culture and ancient descent. For all hours and for all time, it is an expression of the ethics of the American soldier. That I should be integrated in this way with so noble and ideal arouses a sense of pride, and yet a humility, which will be with me always. Duty, honor, country : Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be , what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying point to build courage when courage seems to fail, to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith, to create hopes when hope becomes forlorn. Unhappily, I posses neither the eloquence of diction that poetry of imagination, nor the brilliance of metaphor to tell you all that they mean. The unbelievers will say they are but words, but a slogan, but a flamboyant phrase. Every pedant, every demagogue, every cynic, every hypocrite, every trouble maker, an, I am sorry to say, some others of an entirely different character, will try to downgrade them even to the extent of mockery and ridicule. But these are some of the things to do. They build your basic character. They mold you for your future roles as the custodians of the nation's defense. They make strong enough to know when you are weak, and brave enough to face yourself when you are afraid. They teach you to be proud and unbending in honest failure, but humble and gentle in success; not to substitute words for actions, not to seek the path of comfort, but to face the stress and spur of difficulty and challenge; to learn to stand up in the storm, but to have compassion on those who fall; to master your self before you seek to master others; to have a heart that is clean, a goal that is high; to learn to laugh; yet never forget how to weep; to reach into the future, yet never neglect the past; to be serious; yet never to take yourself too seriously; to be modest so that you will remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength. They give you a temperate will, a quality of imagination,a vigor of the emotions, a freshness of the deep springs of life, a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of an appetite for adventure over love of ease. They create in your heart the sense of wonder, the unfailing hope of what next, and the joy of inspiration of life. They teach you in this way to be an officer and a gentleman. And what sort of soldiers are those you are to lead ? are they reliable? Are they brave ? Are the capable of victory ? Their story is known to all of you. It is the story of the American man-at-arms. My estimate of him was formed on the battlefield many, many years ago, and has never changed. I regarded him then, as I regard him now, as on of the world's nobless figures; not only as one of the finest military characters, but also as one of the most stainless. His name and fame are the brightright of every American citizens. In his youth and strength, his love and loyalty, he gave all that mortality can give. He needs no eulogy from me, or from any other man. He has written his own history and written in red on his enemy's breast. But when I think of his patience in adversity, of his courage under fire, on his modesty in victory, I am filled with an emotion of admiration I can not put in words. He blongs to history as furnishing on of the greatest examples of successful patriotism. He blongs to posterity as the instructor of future generations in the principles of liberty and freedom. He belongs to the present, to us, by his virtues and by his achievements. In twenty campaigns, on a hundred battlefields, around a thousand campfires, I have witnessed that enduring fortitude, that patriotic self abnegation, and that invicible determination which have carved his statue in the hearts of his people. >From one end of the world to the other, he has drained deep the chalice of courage. As I listened to those songs (of the Cadet Glee Club), in memory's eye I could see those straggering columns of the First World War, bending under soggy packs on many of weary march, from dipping dusk to drizzling dawn, slogging ankle deep through the mire of shell pocked roads; to form grimly for the attack, blue lipped, cover with sludge and mud, chilled by the wind aand rain, driving home to their objective, an, for many, to the judgement seat of God. I don't know the dignity of their birth, but I do know the glory of their death. They died, unquestioning, uncomplaining with faith in their hearts, and on their lips the hope that we would go on to victory. Alway for them : Duty, Honor and Country. Always their blood, and sweat, and tears, as we sought the way and the light and the truth. And 20 years after on the other side of the globe, again the filth of murky foxholes, the stench of ghostly trenches, the slime of the dripping dugouts, those boiling suns of relentless heat, those torrential rains of devastating storms, the lonliness and utter desolation of the jungle trail, the bitterness of the long separation of those they loved and cherished, the deadly pestilence of tropical disease, the horror of stricken areas of war. Their resolute and determined defense, their swift and sure attack, their indomitable purpose, their complete and decisive victory-always victory, always through the bloody haze of their last reverberating shot, the vision of gaunt, ghastly men, reverently following your passwords of "Duty, honor, country." The code wich those word perpetuate embraces the highest moral law and will stand the test of any ethics or philosophies ever promulgated for the uplift of mankind. Its requirements are for the things that are right and its restraints are from the things that are wrong. The soldier, aboveall other men, is required to practice the greatest act of religious training-sacrifice. In battle, and in the face of danger and death,he discloses those divine attributes which his Maker gave when He created man in His own image. No physical courage and no greater strength can take the place of the divine help which alone can sustain him. However hard the incidents of war many be, the soldier who is called upon to offer and to give his life for his country is the noblest development of mankind. You now face a new world, a world of change. The trust into outer space of the sattlites sphere and missiles marks a beginning of another epoch in the long story of mankind. In the 5 and more billions of years the scientists tell us it has taken to form the earth, in the 3 or more billion years development of human race, there has never been a more abrupt or staggering evolution. We deal now. not with things of this world alone, but with the immilitable distance and as yet unfathomed mysteries of the universe. We are reaching out for a new and boundless frontier. We speak in strange terms of harnessingthe cosmic energy; of making winds and tides work for us; of creating unheard of synthetic materials to supllement or even replace our old standard basics, to purify sea water for our drink; of disease preventives to expand life into the hudred years; of controlling the weather for a more equitable distribution of heat and cold, of rain and shine; of spaceship to the moon; of the primary target in war no longer limited to the armed forces of an enemy, but instead to include his civil populations; of ultimate conflict between a united human race and sinister forces of some other planetary galaxy; of such dreams and fantasies as to make life the most exciting of all times. And through all this welter of change and development your mission remains fixed, determined, inviolable. It is to win our wars. Everything else in you professional career is but corollary to this vital dedication. All other public purposes, all other public projects, all other public needs, great or small, will find others for the accomplishment : but you are the ones who are trained to fight. Yours is the profession of arms, the will to win, the sure knowledge that in war there is no substitute for victory, that if you lose, the nation will be destroyed, that the very obsession of your public service must be duty, honor, country. Others will debate the controversial issues, national and international, which divide men's mind. But serene, calm, aloo, you stand as the nations's war guardian, as its lifeguard from the raging tides of international conflict, as its gladiator in the arena of battle. For a century aand half you have defended, guarded, and protected its hallowed traditions of liberty and freedom, of right and justice. Let civilian voices argue the merits or demerits of our processes of government : Whether our strength is being sapped by deficit financing indulged in too long, by Federal paternalism grown too mighty, by power groups grown too arrogant, by politics grown too corrupt, by crime grown to rampant, by morals grown too low, by taxes grown too high, by extremist grown too violent; whether our personal liberties are as thorough and complete as they should be. These great national problems are not for your professional participation or military solution. Your guidepost stands out like a tenfold beacon in the night : Duty, honor, country. You are at the leaven which binds together the entire fabric of our national system of defense. From your ranks come the great captains who hold the nation's destiny in their hands the moment the war tocsin sounds. The long greyline has never failed us. Were you to do so, a million ghosts in olive drab, in brown khaki, in blue and grey, would rise from their white crosses, thundering those magic words : Duty, honor, country. This does not mean that you are warmongers. On the contrary, the soldier above all other people prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war. But always in our ears ring the ominous words of Plato, that wisest of philosophers : "Only the dead have seen the end of war." The shadows are lengthening for me. The twilights is here. My days of old have vanished-tone and tint. They have gone glimmering through the dreams of things that were. Their memory is one of wondrous beauty, watered by tears and coaxed and caressed by the smiles of yesterday. I listen wainly, but with thirsty ear, for the witching melody of faint bugles blowing reveille, of far drums beating the long roll. In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle of musketry, the strange, mournful mutter of the battlefield. But in the evening of my memory always I come back to West Point. Always there echoes and re-echoes : Duty, honor, country. Today marks my final rollcall with you. But I want you to know that, when I cross the river, my last conscious thoughts will be of the corps, and the corps, and the corps. I bid you farewell ----- Original Message ----- From: Abas F Soeriawidjaja <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, August 11, 2003 6:41 PM Subject: [yonsatu] Re: Doa seorang Ayah > Yang ini dalam Bahasa Inggrisnya : > > > Build Me a Son > General Douglas A. MacArthur > Build me a son, O Lord, > who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, > and brave enough to face him self when he is afraid; > one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, > and humble and gentle in victory. > Build me a son whose wishbone will not be > where his backbone should be; > a son who will know Thee- and that > to know himself is the foundation stone of knowledge. > Lead him, I pray, not in the path of ease and comfort, > but under the stress and spur of difficulties and challenge. > Here, let him learn to stand up in the storm; > here, let him team compassion for those who fall. > Build me a son whose heart will be clear, whose goals will be high; > a son who will master himself before he seeks to master other men; > one who will learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; > one who will reach into the future, yet never forget the past. > And after all these things are his, > add, I pray, enough of a sense of humor, > so that he may always be serious, > yet never take himself too seriously. > Give him humility, so that he may always remember > the simplicity of true greatness, > the open mind of true wisdom, > the meekness of true strength. > Then I, his father, will dare to whisper, > "I have not lived in vain." > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Syafril Hermansyah [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Monday, August 11, 2003 2:51 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [yonsatu] Doa seorang Ayah > > > Hi Gank! > > Krn kebetulan saya sedang buka arsip lama mengenai sajak-2x, sekalian > saja saya sampaikan Tulisan Jendral Douglas Mc Arthur untuk anaknya. > Tulisan ini dulu terpajang di kamar kost saya di Bandung, ditulis diatas > "bendera OSMA" yg saya gunakan saat pekan OS (Orientasi Siswa), ditulis > dan dihias dg bagus oleh teman serumah saya, Wiyana dari AR-77. > > --- Doa Ayah, oleh : Douglas Mac Arthur ---- > > Tuhanku ............................................................ > Bentuklah puteraku menjadi manusia yang cukup kuat untuk mengetahui, > manakala ia lemah. Dan cukup berani menghadapi dirinya sendiri, manakala > dia takut. Manusia yang bangga dan teguh dalam kekalahan, jujur dan > rendah hati serta berbudi halus dalam kemenangan. Bentuklah puteraku > menjadi manusia yang hasrat-hasratnya tidak menggantikan yang mati, > putera yang selalu mengetahui Engkau, dan insyaf bahwa mengenal dirinya > sendiri adalah landasan pengetahuan. > > Tuhanku ........................................................... > Aku mohon agar puteraku jangan dibimbing dijalan yang mudah dan lunak, > tetapi dibawah tekanan dan desakan kesulitan dan tantangan. Didiklah > puteraku supaya teguh berdiri diatas badai serta berbelas kasihan > terhadap mereka yang gagal. Bentuklah puteraku supaya menjadi manusia > yang berhati jernih, yang cita-citanya tinggi. Putera yang sanggup > memimpin dirinya sendiri sebelum berhasrat memimpin orang lain. Putera > yang menjangkau hari depan namun tidak pernah melupakan masa lampau. > > Dan setelah itu menjadi miliknya, aku mohon agar puteraku juga diberi > perasaan jenaka, agar dia dapat serius tanpa dirinya terlampau serius. > Berilah dia juga kerendahan hati agar dia dapat selalu ingat pada > kesederhanaan dan keagungan asli, pada sumber kearifan dan pada > kelembutan juga pada kekuatan asli. Dengan demikian maka, aku ayahnya, > akan memberanikan diri dan berbisik : "Hidupku tidak sia-sia". > > --- Bandung 13 April 1979 --- > > > -- > syafril > ------- > Syafril Hermansyah > > > > --[YONSATU - > ITB]---------------------------------------------------------- > Online archive : <http://yonsatu.mahawarman.net> > Moderators : <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Unsubscribe : <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Vacation : <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > > --[YONSATU - ITB]---------------------------------------------------------- > Online archive : <http://yonsatu.mahawarman.net> > Moderators : <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Unsubscribe : <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Vacation : <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > --[YONSATU - ITB]---------------------------------------------------------- Online archive : <http://yonsatu.mahawarman.net> Moderators : <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Unsubscribe : <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Vacation : <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
