You can help select the finalist who best covered his topic. Visit
www.moaa.org/essaycontest before midnight (Eastern time) Nov. 30 to vote. Prizes are $1,000 for first place, $500 for second place, and $250 for third place. Look for the win- ners in the January 2012 issue of Military Officer.
On the Day My Daughter Became an Officer
T
oday you became an officer. Congratulations are in order, but why? What makes you de- serving of a different status? You serve an age crammed full of rights, but increasingly absent
obligations; one that is skeptical of the inherent value of an officer’s calling. Frankly, our culture doesn’t know what to make of it. So let me tell you that as of today your value is derived from your oath. Often reduced to a for- mality, it is as easily dismissed by our current culture as is the notion of calling. It should be otherwise. Your oath, which you swore this morning, is different
from the oath of enlistment you took previously. The dif- ferences are not commonly noted, but essential. First is the absence of any statement that you will obey “orders … according to regulation and the Uniform Code of Military Justice.” Obviously this doesn’t mean you are released from the obligation to follow orders. What it does mean is that you are no longer held to a minimum standard, but a higher one — which leads to the second difference. Today you swore to “discharge well and faithfully the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter.” What does it mean to serve “well and faithfully” when at the same time you are not swearing to follow orders? It means you are committing to not only doing things well — a qualitative sense missing from the oath of enlistment — but committing to doing the right thing well, regard- less of orders. It is no longer sufficient to just meet what- ever measures of success exist within your lane. To do well those things you are told to do is no different than what was expected of you yesterday. No, your promise to “serve well and faithfully” lays an additional burden on you — a burden which, in the end, is without limit. Serving well and faithfully means just this: You are
sworn to do the right thing well, even at great personal expense, and without any prompting or orders. This is what being an officer boils down to. While similar to the Army value of “selfless service” to which all soldiers are held, this isn’t just a value, but a commitment. If faced with such a challenge, you will know it, and I trust you will remember your oath. On Feb. 24, 1991, [Army] CWO2 Chad Balwanz faced
58 MILITARY OFFICER NOVEMBER 2011
and met such a challenge. He was the commander of a Special Forces detachment, 140 miles behind enemy lines, deep inside Iraq, conducting reconnaissance in support of XVIII Airborne Corps. On this particular morning, his mission was compromised by a child, who happened to wander across his men. He knew that to allow the child to live and remain free meant to be com- promised. And to be compromised meant not just mis- sion failure, but a fight, as there was nowhere to run, and there was no way that he and his men could be ex- filtrated until dark — over 10 hours away. Nonetheless, he ordered his men to hold fire, and let the child go. As a result, throughout that day, Chief Balwanz maneuvered and fought his men, defeating significant forces through the application of well-aimed direct fire and well-direct- ed close air support, until they were eventually exfiltrat- ed that night by helicopter. By any measurable sense Chief Balwanz did not do a good job — in fact, the point is that his mission was a fail- ure. But he served well and faithfully. He did so at great personal cost. It easily could have cost him and his men their freedom or their lives. We know the rest of the story — he and all of his men got away without a scratch, but at 0900 on that February morning, no one, least of all him, knew how that day would end. Will you ever be in such a situation? Indeed, when the
day comes that you are faced with doing the right thing at great personal expense will those around you even know? Some of the toughest calls are made in private, wrestling with your conscience, not an armed enemy. Only you will know when you have been called to fulfill your oath. Fulfill it then, and not because you will receive a promotion, a medal, or great honor for doing so. Indeed, fulfilling your oath may cost you everything. No, fulfill your oath simply because you have said you would, “so help me God.” — Col. Charlie King, USA-Ret.
Forgotten Warriors D
uring the height of the Cold War, hundreds of thousands of men and women served their country from the end of the Korean War to the beginning of the Vietnam War. Since they
served during peacetime, they received little recognition though they were in harm’s way and suffered casualties due to hostile actions. These unsung heroes, born during the Depression, could be referred to as the “Roosevelt” babies. Cold War warriors remain unrecognized and uncategorized, though they were also the children of the greatest gen- eration, but years before their fathers ever served. They
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