r
may, 1982
THE BELLES
PAGE 3
JSl
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SOME REFLECTIONS
by Hamilton Fish
The celebration of the
180th anniversary of the
founding of my Alma Mater,
the United States Military
Academy at West Point, last
month and my approaching
second retirement this monUi
prompted my thinking about
our two mottos: the Point’s
motto: “Duty Honor Country”
and St. Mary’s: “Scientia
Fides Amicitia”, of
“Scholarship (Knowledge)
Honor Friendship.” “Fides”
suggests faith, fidelity,
loyalty, allegiance, honesty,
integrity, trustworthiness,
and credibility-all of which
can be summed up in
“Honor”. Sylvanus Thayer,
Superintendent of West Point
from 1817 to 1833, once
declared the school’s
objective for its graduates to
be “leadership integrated by
excellence of character and
excellence of knowledge.”
Someone later on transformed
the words of this goal into
“Duty Honor Country”. The
three parts of this motto are
not mutually exclusive; the
meaning of each tends to
overlap the fields of the
others.
At West Point, discipline,
an essential ingredient of the
proper performance of duty,
begins the moment the new
cadet enters the Academy by
passing through East
Sallyport. There are few
shocks that compare to the
welcome given by the “Beast
Detail” to “Beast Barracks”,
the new summer home of the
incoming cadet! Just a few
days before these ardent third
classmen (‘‘yearlings”)
completed their first year of
“suppression” (“character
building”) as fourth classmen
(“plebes”, the lowest estate).
These yearlings are obviously
only too eager to start the
process of indoctrination, the
same one they have just been
through. For a full year plebes
don’t seem to have names:
they are expected to respond
to: “Mr. Ducrot, heave that
chin back!”, or “Suck in that
horrible gut, Mr.
Dumbjohn!”, etc., all by way
of “gentle”, persuasive
correction. I can only
speculate on what titles the
Upperclassmen have conjured
yp for the new female cadets.
“Miss Dumbjane”? Under
this rather intensive and
comprehensive levelling
process, plebes early learn
that their former civilian
status, known as “PCS”, or
prior condition of
®crvitude”-any education
may have, or athletic
prowess, or economic
®duation-is now a matter of
*^o consequence in their new
career. All new cadets start
°ut on equal footing.
.. Principles and practice of
scipline, intended to lead to
cif-discipline, honor,
teadfastness and endurance
ce taught, retaught and
taught. This hardening and
aaracter building continues
three more years, even
j. ter “recognition”, when, at
of the first year, the
ttt of fellowship is extended
low '^PP^fclassmen to this
tjj ?st class to acknowledge
fled'*^ acceptance as full-
tjjp worthy members of
Corps of Cadets. “The
s of the go^ do grind
slowly but surely” in turning
out men and women with
those qualities of leadership
needed to command troops in
battle, the ultimate test. (The
virtues of war, if any, are not
being extolled here.)
Are there, then, parallels
between the mottos of our two
schools. West Point and St.
Mary’s? I think so. First of all,
you, the students of St. Mary’s
have a duty, an obligation, to
yourself to learn (Scientia), to
acquire that body of
knowledge and methods of
application that will be most
likely to produce success in
later life; otherwise, why
should you be here?
Secondly, to be a truly
happy and successful adult
you must become self-
disciplined. Certainly this
trait is required of the ^ficer,
whose very presence must
elicit respect and obedience.
He is constantly required to
make decisions affecting the
lives of his or her command.
Above all else he measures
himself most severely by his
own code of honor. Others
must know that his or her
word can be accepted without
question. There is no place for
a leader who lies, quibbles or
tends to be evasive. Too much
is at stake. In the “Cadet
Prayer”, the cadet prays:
“Make us to choose the harder
right instead of the easier
wrong and never to be amtent
with a half truth when the
whole can be won.” It is
mandatory that you too make
this choice, that you develop
self-discipline as the sound
foundation on which to build
your life. Here, th«i, is the
essence of Honor, the second
word in both mottos. Herein
also lie those otho- meanings
of “Fides”: faith, fidelity,
loyalty, allegiance, honesty,
integrity, trustworthiness and
credibility.
As to the third wotu,
“Amicitia”, friendship, in St.
Mary’s motto, this word and
“Country” from the Point’s
motto are not too far apart.
Friendship must extend
beyond our “grove of stately
oaks”, “where stands St.
Mary’s true and noble” to love
of fellow men and womMi,
wherever they are and
whatever their station in life
may be, and hence to
dedication and devotion to
country. Combine scientia,
fides, and amicitia to become
the total woman St. Marys
intends you to be.
Now there will be some
among you, on
far, who will say. tM
idealistic, an anac^tmisin in
oursodety.”SkepUcismasto
men’s motives ‘s alwa^
iustified. A case m point is tne
recent handling of the h^toge
situation at Central P^
here in Raleigh.
were made by prison dfiaak
in apparently good faRh
negotiations with s^e
re&llious prisoners in onter
to secure the release of all
Ifages, a
certainly understood to be
«hal of U.0
ON TWO MOTTOS
credibility of the prison
administration at the next
crisis? Will this short term,
ends-justifying-the-means,
solution come back to haunt
the administrators and their
staff? An ominous cloud now
hands over Central and the
entire North Carolina prison
system.
And now we’re hearing
allegations of cheating in
college basketball,
particulary in the recruiting
of players. Cheating, the
Internal Revenue Services,
which places a greater burden
on honest taxpayers, has risen
to something over $135 billion
in unreporti^ income. This
list seems to go on and on.
It should not be inferred
here that we are justified in
pointing the finger only at
others nor that every
Academy graduate measures
up perfecfiy to his or her
motto. Integrity, veracity and
devotion to duty must, once
begun, continue to be worked
Ml. I would be remiss if I
didn’t acknowledge two
cheating scandals that have
rocked the Academy in the
past thirty years, one
involving a large number of
football players, and the
other, an even larger group
not as readily identifiable as
the athletes.
Over the years football
came to assume a
disporportionate importance
in West Point life; football has
become a god. To satiate this
god by assuring that football
(dayers could meet at least
minimum academic
standards a cheating
arrangement came into being.
“Tliis has been an organized
cheating ring.” Wrote
Brigadier General Chauncey
Fenton, President of the
Association of graduates to
the alumni. “It has not been a
number of isolated groups or
individual cases. Because of
the nature rf the evidence, no
one knows for certain when:
the activities of the ring began
or in what numbers the ring
began. It was certainly
confined to a very small group
as late as the fall of 1949. It
spread in the spring of ’50 and
mushroomed to
approximatley 90 cadete fropi
the examination period in
December ’50 to March ’51,
due primarily to spread
among football players, their
roommates and close
associates. Men were added to
the ring in two general ways.
First, athletes low in studies
had the system explained to
them by their upperclass
teammates. Second, one cadet
might either ask another
cadet for legitimate telp or
receive unsolicited aid. In
either circumstance the man
receiving the advice would
find the next day that he had
been given the same problem
that appeared on the
examination. The cadet giving
the aid had used information
fflven to him by members of
the ring from the other
raiment who had already
taken the examination. When
this haR)ened consistently a
cadet might become
suspicious and ask abwt the
matter. He would then be told
that he was now in the ring,
pertiaps given the names of
many personal friends
(sometimes true, sometimes
false) using this system, and
in general placed under great
pressure to stay in the ring.
Many cadets in the rmg
seemed to have a double
standard of values and acted
as if they were especially
exempted from the Honor
Code. Sworn testimony shows
that individuals were aware
that they were doing wrong.
The secrecy with which they
concealed operations from
other cadets and their
continual fear of detection
bear witness to this fact.”
The scandal was laid bare
when two cadets, who had
been asked to join the ring,
blew the whistle on the
conspirators by reporting
their information to the Cadet
Honor Committee. After
lengthy and comprehensive
investigations the ring was
rooted out; all offending
cadets were dismissed. The
Academy had purged itself; it
was clean and whole again.
However, a number of
years later the lesson had to
be learned all over again.
Another cheating scandal
developed sometime within
the past seven years. Again an
organized cheating ring was
involved, this time concerned
with passing electrical
engineering take-home tests
and exams. As before, the
conspiracy collapsed after it
came to light and had been
thoroughly investigated.
Again a thorough house
cleaning followed. A number
of cadets were dismissed,
although some were
reinstated after a year’s
lapse, but only on a case by
case basis for those who could
demonstrate their potential
for commissioning. After this
second case the Secretary of
. the Army decided to make a
complete investigation of the
. entire honor code and system,
particularly of the academic
processes pertaining to the
giving and taking of tests,
with special attention to what
part the academic
environment may have had in
facilitating cheating. In the
conclusions of the
investigation it was stated
that “there has been an
erosion of effectiveness of the
nontoleration concept of the
Honor Code, particularly
through lack of sufficient
education, partially due to a
decline in perceived
importance of values relating
to honor (including the linked
concepts of duty and country),
-f -I- -I-. The concept of
individual responsibility for
moral choices is central to any
code of ethics. We reaffirm
that principle. West Point’s
Honor Code has always
assumed that a cadet is a
morally free agent, personally
responsible for his choices,
which are affected, but not
determined, by his
environment. However, the
institution has a concomitant
responsiblity to provide an
enviroment and context which
is supportive of the cadet’s
understanding of the concepts
of Duty Honor Country and his
desire to make right moral
choices.”
The Superintendent of the
Academy at that time.
Lieutenant General Sidney B.
Berry, stated that “the Corps
is a resilient and essentially
optimistic group of young men
and women who want to get on
to the future. They are
prepared to put this behind
them and to build upon it in a
positive way so that the
strength, meaning and utility
of the Honor Code and System
can be restored for them and
the generations of cadets to
follow.” He continued. “One
of the interesting actions to
come out of the investigation
was the reaffirmation of the
existing code, though much
thought had been given to a
possible need to change it, the
reaffirmation coming most
strongly from the Corps of
Cadets itself. The Honor Code
and System are stronger and
even more effective than ever
before.” A stronger West
Point has emerged from the
traumas of its past.
General Andrew J.
Goodpaster, who succeeded
General Berry, instituted four
years of courses in morals and
ethics. In an interview with a
r^orter from the New York
Times he conceded that
imposing a stricter discipline
would not be easy. “The
plebes, or first-year cadets,
who march through the
sallyport each year are the
products of a permissive
society in which a ‘you scratch
my back. I’ll scratch yours’
approach is accepted,” he
said, but, he continued: “The
mast difficult point to instill is
that a cadet must not tolerate
lying or cheating in another
cadet. They must learn that to
tolerate such things damages
the moral fiber of the man
who lies or cheats, the man
who tolerates it and in time
the moral quality of the
Army.”
The investigations into the
two cheating scandals were
followed by an even broader
investigation directed by the
Secretary of the Army and
chaired by Frank Borman,
Class of 1951, former
astronaut and now President
of Eastern Airlines-a
searching, sweeping inquiry
into the entire structure and
functioning of the Academy.
This investigation covered
such matters as internal
governance, admissions,
external governance, shaping
cadet academic attitudes,
academic curriculum, ethics
and professionalism
curriculum, library, faculty,
pedagogy, academic
administration,
intercollegiate athletics,
tactical department, military
instruction and training,
physical education, the Corps
of Cadets, and the Honor Code
and Honor System. The
committee made over 150
recommendations for
improvement. A new
institution, yet one retaining
its finest traditions, has really
risen from the ashes. The
intent and hope for the future
is that no group will ever
again be able to set itself
apart from the rest of the
Academy or to place itself
outside the law or the spirit of
the Honor Code.
In “Alma Mater”, West
Point’s hymn, we find these
words:
“Help us thy motto bear
Thru all the years.
Let Duty be well performed,
Honor be e’er untamed.
Country be ever armed,
West Point by thee!
Guide us thy sons a-right.
Teach us by day, by night.
To keep thine honor bright
For thee to fight.”
In> St. Mary’s School
Hymn we sing these words:
“Guide Thou our fait’ring
steps aright
+ + •+- -t- -f
Hold Thou eat;; hand to keep it
just.
Touch Thou our iips and
make them pure;
If Thou are with us. Lord, we
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