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The author recently spoke on fulfilling the obligations of a commission at an ROTC Commissioning Ceremony at the University of California, Los Angeles. His remarks follow.
This is clearly a wartime moment, one of great poignancy for each of you and your families and dear friends gathered here. It is also perhaps one of great ambiguity since we do not really know how we, as a nation, are progressing in the Iraqi war, and yet recognize that you may well join it in just a matter of months.
I am speaking of the ambiguity that normally exists within those uninitiated to the rigors, as well as the horrors, of war. It is an ambiguity that in part exists because you do not yet have an answer to the question that resides in every soldier's heart, "How will I do, over there?"
Such questions are unanswerable, but they can still cause very uncomfortable, hand-wringing exercises within the mind and the soul. I have learned over the years that the best way to address them is to work on what you can know about yourself and your preparations, rather than on what you cannot know. Soldiers cannot predict in advance their performance in battle, but in a very clearheaded way, informed by the experiences of the millions who have gone before, they can focus on who they must be, and from that character what they must be able to do, to be successful in combat, to meet the officers' obligations as warriors, as servants, as professionals and as leaders of character.
Let me explain.
In a few minutes, by swearing to the oath of office, you will assume the awesome responsibilities of your formal commission. The oath itself is simple and deliberately unconditional, a whole of five parts. In sequence you will swear:
* To support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
* To bear truth, faith and allegiance to the same.
* That you take this obligation freely, without mental reservation or purpose of evasion.
* That you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you are about to enter.
* So help me God.
So, what obligation flows naturally and concisely...