On a January morning at 6am, I left my parents house to enlist in the United States Army Special Forces. It was 1981. I drove down to a building on Michigan Avenue to be processed into the service of my country. I remember filling out paperwork, seeing physicians, answering questions, waiting in line and moving from one room to another for hours. Sometime in the middle of the afternoon, I was taken into a room with several young men like myself. Some I had seen on my rounds that morning and some were strangers. I was excited and eager to begin my tour of duty in service to my country. We looked around the room at each other as we filed in and were asked to stand in a straight line.
(Cross posted at The National Gadfly)
There were two soldiers in the room and one of them did all the talking. He told us where to stand and he let us know that we would be sworn in as soldiers. He then asked us to raise our right hands then repeat the following words:
"I, _, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."
In that moment, I had become a soldier. One day earlier, Ronald Reagan had taken a similar oath as President of the United States. He was my new boss and I did not even like the man.
I had chosen to become an A-Team Medical NCO in the Green Berets. I wanted to do something that would be very difficult and that job appealed to me. The job called for training in both combat and medicine. These disciplines have opposite aims and I enjoyed the challenge it placed on me to be committed to both life and death. In all the rigorous training demands of the Green Berets, I was proud and excited for my chance to serve in such a challenging way. I remembered my oath frequently, in the tired moments when a challenge had been met. Those were the moments when I had been tested and had proved myself up to the challenge. In those moments, it was the strength of my word in the fulfilment of my oath that I was proud of. Simply put, I felt that I was worthy of my country's trust in me.
At other times the meaning of the oath itself was significant to me. I encountered people that had very negative views of the military in general or President Reagan's uses of the military in particular. Sometimes I met people that simply did not believe in force or violence. I met people that were not only ungrateful to service men and women, but they were completely indifferent. This kind of ingratitude or dislike from civilian citizens of the USA, really irritated many of the soldiers that I served with. I thought about it differently, though.
To me, the gratitude or lack thereof accorded to me by other citizens was of no consequence. Some people are going to be grateful and others are not. That's just part of the deal. Accept it and do what is right. That was my choice. The choice was made easy for me by two factors.
On one hand, I was bound by my word and no one else but me will decide whether I keep it or not. Was I doing this to get the praise and gratitude of strangers? No. I was keeping my word because I personally believed that generations before me had given of themselves, so that I could be here and free. The gratitude I felt and the sense of duty that I possessed were always going to be with me. No one could take them from me with insults and no one could give them to me with praise.
On the other hand, the words within the oath itself provided me with a wellspring of strength and purpose. I had sworn to defend The Constitution of the United States, bearing true faith and allegiance to it. I was sworn to uphold the rule of law, not a monarch or a political party or someone with a bank account. I have lived my life in the firm belief that the law works for everyone or it works for no one. This is the foundation of America and it is the one core ideal that makes possible everything that is good about this country.
I swore that oath 28 years ago and I proudly hold myself to that oath today. I will honour it until my last breath. When we share this faith in the law of the land and join each other in a commitment to uphold the rule of law; we deliver on the promise made to future generations by the founders of this country. The equality we were promised is the equality we create.
This January 20, Barack Obama will take a very similar oath. My family and I are going to be in the crowd. I want to share the sense of duty, honour and commitment with them. I want to see my daughter's eyes when such an oath is given. I want to say the words along with President Obama, not to renew them (because my oath will never expire) but to allow my daughter to witness my speaking of them.
-gadfly