True Faith and Allegiance

Over the next several weeks, as their matriculation aboard college campuses nationwide concludes with graduation, a select few young men and women will receive commissions as officers in the  armed forces of the United States.  The Colonel pens this open letter to them:

In the Colonel's not-so humble opinion, you brand new ensigns and second lieutenants, on the cusp of careers in the officer corps of the greatest republic in the solar system, are the luckiest people on your respective campuses. Your civilian classmates will have jobs – maybe. You will have a sacred mission.

You, ladies and gentlemen, will, as you are commissioned, take an oath of office. You will most likely have several more opportunities to reaffirm that oath as you are advanced in rank.  Do not take that oath flippantly.  It means everything.

As commissioned officers, your oath of office has two unique features.  One, it never expires – you will carry your sworn obligation to your graves.  And, two, you swear allegiance to only one entity – not your service chief, not your service secretary, not the Secretary of Defense... not even the President. As a commissioned officer, you swear allegiance only to the Constitution of the United States. When you take the oath as a member of the officer corps of the armed forces of the United States, your overriding responsibility is the support and defense of the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. That’s not the Colonel’s opinion, that’s what the oath actually says. 

The oath itself is found in the Constitution.

May the Colonel be so bold as to posit that swearing allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and solemnly swearing that you will support and defend it, is the single most important promise you will ever make.  It is a promise that carries with it (by virtue of the phrase "true faith and allegiance") your pledge of personal honor to place no other consideration above it -- upon pain of death.  

If you can't, in good conscience, make that promise  -- DON'T!  

The Constitution of the United States embodies the ideals on which our nation was founded.  Every cherished principle of our Republic, every law and statute, flows through and from the Constitution.  Its language, though arcane to our ears, contains the genius of our forefathers whose considerations were not only of their present condition, but also, and perhaps more importantly, your future.    

The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), the disciplinary code by which you will exercise your authority as an officer, is not just some arbitrary set of rules -- its application is governed by the rights guaranteed in the Constitution.  To understand the application of the UCMJ, you must know and understand the Constitution. Consider, with great solemnity, when you hold a subordinate accountable for his actions under the UCMJ, that you are held accountable by the Constitution to which you have sworn your true faith and allegiance. 

As an officer, you will, eventually, have the great honor of presiding over the promotion of a subordinate.  You will administer the oath of office to that subordinate as he or she assumes an office of greater responsibility inherent with increased rank.  And, when you get a chance to administer the oath of office, don’t be the one reading it from a notecard.  Commit the oath of office, both officer and enlisted, to memory.  Administer the oath from memory, with emphasis.

So, this old Colonel gives you new officers some post-graduate homework – perhaps the most important homework you will ever have.  Learn the Constitution.  Don’t just read the Constitution. Study it.  Understand it.  Learn it inside out. It is the most critical stone in your professional foundation, because you are not just military leaders, you are our nation’s leaders.