"The Making and Un-making of a Marine"

Oath Taker and Oath Breaker

On October 3, 1967 I took the following oath to join the United States Marine Corps:

Lately I've begun wondering if you, the folks I was protecting from those communist insurgents, ever took any kind of oath? The answer to this question is no.  If you were born in the US, you took no oath of citizenship. If you lived outside the country and applied for citizenship, you had to take an oath.

By the time I got to Vietnam I did not believe we should be there; but I did my duty and fought. I took my oath seriously, as did many who felt as I. I was recently investigating oaths and what they have met historically and I found out that in the past oaths were considered solemn statements that had to do with the truth, allegiance, promises, honor, ethics and the preservation of life. Many oaths invoked a divine witness. In my searching I was looking for something I was calling a "citizens oath". I was hoping to find a citizen oath that dedicated the oath takers to taking care of those who were injured while protecting the citizenry in times of war. What I discovered was a citizen oath from ancient Greece called the "Athenian Ephebic Oath". The Ephebic Oath was sworn by young men the ages 18-20 upon induction into the Ephebic College.

This oath is seen by many as the epitome of nobility and virtue, and has in recent years been revived for use in educational institutions worldwide.

When I Googled, "Citizens Oath," I found a speech written by Edward Skloot. Mr. Skloot presented this speech at the annual meeting of the National Conference on Citizenship, in Washington, D.C., on September 19, 2005. His speech was titled A Citizens Oath for America.

Mr. Skloot's intention was to offer this to young people entering high school. In neither the "Ephebic Oath" nor Mr. Skloot's "Citizens Oath" is there any mention that we have as citizens an obligation to care for those injured while protecting us. I do not know why the care of soldiers is not in a category that evokes oaths and promises? To me there is not a more scared offering than your life in defense of others and the repayment for this should be held in the highest esteem.

If we call for our soldiers to take oaths in which they give up there individual rights as citizens and require them to willingly sacrifice their lives in defense of us and our ideals, is our Pledge of Allegiance to the flag being taken seriously enough? With the event of 911 fear has placed its foot upon our soil. Is this new threat on civilian life in the US enough to make us consider what we are asking our soldiers on distant battle fields to do? And if we consider more carefully the consequences being reaped by these soldiers, what aid, comfort, and healing are we responsible to offer? We as a nation are now facing hard decisions which are difficult to make without a solemn and deep commitment -- a commitment not unlike the one we ask our soldiers to take in their military oath. It appears to me that our obligation to take care of those soldiers who have sacrificed their life's blood has faded like the weather beaten flags that were have never taken in or replaced since 911!

Our politicians take oaths and it is questionable as to whether or not they obey them. When politics enters the arena of life and death, it becomes a catalyst that distorts humanity's need to understand the depth of these personal sacrifices. Politics brings many other agendas, such as finance and power which sets the moral compass on a false setting.

A soldier's oath is a commitment that stretches between the personal and state, and there is no room in this sacred place for politics. Politicians have a responsibility to understand the military oath sworn upon a soldier's enlistment. It contains codes, truths and a divine relationship. If the politicians focus is on politics and not the soldier's oath, soldiers are compromised and loose honor which is the beginning of losing the first and most important battle. No one has your back.

In today's politics we have changed how we treat our oath breakers. From "Watergate" to "Whitewater" the consequence of this country's highest ranking officials breaking sacred oaths has been swallowed up in the bowels of our judicial system. The judicial system is made up of appointees working to protect those politicians who appointed them. These oath breaker infractions once were seen as crimes against God or of some divine entity, which would lead to damnation or another form of severe penalty. Now oath breakers have fertile materials to write books, and collect financial remunerations to sooth their media wounds.

In our history Abraham Lincoln came closest to understanding that citizens need to care for and comfort those we send to battle. He said, "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."  President Lincoln illuminated the core of an oath that all Americas should inherently know. Our political leanings should never influence our commitment to our soldiers. If Americans are not standing completely behind our soldiers when we send them to war, they enter the battle without the most important weapon. This truth is reflected in the outcomes of all our recent wars.

Americans take their freedoms for granted, because politicians have seen to it to insulate them from the carnage and personal devastation war has on our military oath takers? We all must become more conscious of what war does to those immediately affected by it. I know no other way to do this than for every American to be required as part of their education to volunteer in VA hospitals or homeless veteran shelters. We could also use the Peace Corps model and create an After War Corps where citizens are sponsored by our government to go for a tour of duty in one of the many war torn countries our military has occupied. The After War Corps should become a requirement for all political oath takers. Any politician making decisions affecting soldiers' lives should have personal war experience or some form of first hand knowledge in the physical areas of war devastation. This would help temper political decisions involving the life and death or our soldiers?

In order to get war consciousness back into the roots of our learning we should require high schools and colleges to provided courses every semester on war, taught by War veterans from our communities.

Perhaps it is no longer enough to be born here in America to enjoy the freedoms without publicly making the commitment to honor, heal, and nurture those soldiers and their families who have made the supreme sacrifices for those freedoms. Perhaps we need to better understand the gravity and responsibility we as citizens have towards our war bound soldier oath takers. Wouldn't it be important for each person in America born here or not to take a Citizens Oath? Such and oath would place us within the same promise our military oath takers have make to us. Who among us has the courage to fight this hard for peace?

 
Larry Winters