WEST POINT, N.Y. — “Responsibility, Honor, Nation” has been the motto of the U.S. Navy Academy at West Level since 1898. That motto isn’t altering, however a choice to take these phrases out of the varsity’s lesser-known mission assertion continues to be producing outrage.
Officers on the 222-year-old navy academy 60 miles (96 kilometers) north of New York Metropolis not too long ago reworked the one-sentence mission assertion, which is up to date periodically, often with little fanfare.
The varsity’s “Responsibility, Honor, Nation,” motto first made its manner into that mission assertion in 1998.
The brand new model declares that the academy’s mission is “To construct, educate, practice, and encourage the Corps of Cadets to be commissioned leaders of character dedicated to the Army Values and prepared for a lifetime of service to the Army and Nation.”
“As we have now carried out 9 occasions up to now century, we have now up to date our mission assertion to now embody the Army Values,” academy spokesperson Col. Terence Kelley stated Thursday. These values — spelled out in different paperwork — are loyalty, responsibility, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and private braveness, he stated.
Nonetheless, some folks noticed the change in wording as nefarious.
“West Level goes woke. We’re watching the sluggish loss of life of our nation,” conservative radio host Jeff Kuhner complained in a put up on the social media platform X.
Rachel Campos-Duffy, co-host of the Fox community’s “Fox & Pals Weekend,” wrote on the platform that West Level has gone “full globalist” and is “Purposely tanking recruitment of younger Individuals patriots to make room for the unlawful mercenaries.”
West Level Superintendent Lt. Gen. Steve Gilland stated in a press release that “Responsibility, Honor, Nation is foundational to the USA Navy Academy’s tradition and can at all times stay our motto.”
“It defines who we’re as an establishment and as graduates of West Level,” he stated. “These three hallowed phrases are the hallmark of the cadet expertise and bind the Lengthy Grey Line collectively throughout our nice historical past.”
Kelley stated the motto is carved in granite over the doorway to buildings, adorns cadets’ uniforms and is used as a greeting by plebes, as West Level freshmen are known as, to upper-class cadets.
The mission assertion is much less ubiquitous, he stated, although plebes are required to memorize it and it seems within the cadet handbook “Bugle Notes.”
Associated: VA to Change Motto, Switching to Gender-Impartial Language that Acknowledges All Who Have Served
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