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‘Duty, honor, country’ scrubbed from West Point mission statement in sad sign of the times

March 14, 2024 | | Print Article

The U.S. Military Academy at West Point has overhauled its mission statement to remove three keywords that are no longer being emphasized, a sad sign of today’s troubled times.

In a decision that has sparked criticism, the brass at the New York-based service academy has replaced “Duty, Honor, Country” and will focus instead on “Army Values,” a vague term that could describe the new “woke” military of the ascendent political left.

“Our responsibility to produce leaders to fight and win our nation’s wars requires us to assess ourselves regularly,” West Point Superintendent Lt. Gen. Steve Gilland wrote in a letter to cadets and supporters. “Thus, over the past year and a half, working with leaders from across West Point and external stakeholders, we reviewed our vision, mission, and strategy to serve this purpose.”

“As a result of this assessment, we recommended the following mission statement to our senior Army leadership: To build, educate, train, and inspire the Corps of Cadets to be commissioned leaders of character committed to the Army Values and ready for a lifetime of service to the Army and Nation,” Gilland said in the Monday letter.

Saying that the new term “binds the Academy to the Army,” Gilland clarified that the three words would however remain a part of the academy’s motto. “Duty, Honor, Country is foundational to the United States Military Academy’s culture and will always remain our motto,” he wrote. “It defines who we are as an institution and as graduates of West Point. These three hallowed words are the hallmark of the cadet experience and bind the Long Gray Line together across our great history.”

The update drew an angry reaction from X users:

The three words are taken from the 1962 farewell address given by legendary Army General Douglas MacArthur to cadets at West Point and have been a part of the mission statement since 1998.

(Video: YouTube/West Point)

“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 hope when hope becomes forlorn,” MacArthur said, words that have inspired West Point cadets for over 60 years.

Chris Donaldson
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