Concerned Graduates of West Point Challenge Leadership of Military Academy: Letter
By Enrico Trigoso
June 26, 2022 Updated: June 27, 2022
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Three retired U.S. military officers—LTG Thomas McInerney, USAF; MG Paul Vallely, U.S. Army; and Colonel Andrew O’Meara Jr., U.S. Army—signed a letter authored by “Concerned Graduates of West Point and The Long Gray Line,” protesting against mandatory vaccinations, CRT classes, sanitary conditions, progressive political activism, and other “woke actions,” in the military academy.

“The Long Gray Line” refers to the continuum of graduates United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.

“We wanted to challenge the leadership of the Academy and the Defense Dept on their WOKE actions, CRT, Diversity training and the other discrepancies in the Academy. We found it pervasive at the Naval and Air Force Academies so we knew it was directed from the highest levels of our Military Leadership,” Vallely told The Epoch Times.
Epoch Times Photo
Paul E Vallely MG US Army (Ret) (Courtesy of Paul E Vallely)

“We all want the Military to get back on track to training and leading our Armed Forces to secure America and its Citizens,” Vallely, who has been sounding the alarm against a socialist takeover of the United States, added.

The letter, titled “Declaration of Betrayal of West Point And the Long Gray Line,” asks for the following information:

An explanation for the irregularities in the enforcement of the Honor Code.
A justification for the mandatory vaccinations of cadets with the COVID Virus despite widespread adverse reactions to the inoculation, as well as provisions for exceptions for cadets with religious objections.
An explanation for teaching Critical Race Theory at the Academy that constitutes an attack upon the Constitution and our constitutional Republic. This is behavior that constitutes unconstitutional conduct, if not sedition.
An explanation of reported mismanagement of the cadet dining facility resulting in unsanitary conditions, inadequate food prepared for the meal, and food served that was reportedly unfit for consumption.
Political activism on the part of civilian faculty members constituting political activity violating the long-standing policy of the Academy and Army Regulations.
The practice of exclusive reliance upon radical progressive guest speakers to address the Corps of Cadets. This practice results in prejudiced political activism on the part of the Staff and Faculty in violation of Army Regulations.
An explanation for the failure of the Superintendent to respond to correspondence inquiring about problems identified at the Academy.

Endangering the Mission

They believe that there is a rejection of the principles of the military academy which could endanger its original mission “to educate, train, and inspire the Corps of Cadets so that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character committed to the values of Duty, Honor, Country and prepared for a career of professional excellence and service to the Nation as an officer in the United States Army.”

They sent the letter in the hopes that authorities take heed of their advice regarding the problems that they have spotted.

The letter was sent to the Superintendent of the Academy as well as the President and Directors of the Association of Graduates (AOG), alleging that the West Point Academy is “conducting business in a manner that ignores time-honored principles of the Academy, Constitutional Law, and our sworn oath of office.”

“When you take away to teach a critical race theory and communist ideology, you’re taking away from the time that could be used for learning how to shoot better, how to operate airplanes better, take care of airplanes through maintenance; and even within the medical corps of the armed forces, it has affected many the doctors and nurses. So it’s a terrible thing. They need to stop it right now. They need to stop enforcing the mandates,” Vallely recently told The Epoch Times.
Vaccine Mandate Deadline

As the June 30 deadline nears for compliance with the U.S. military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, U.S. Army officials publicly claim a very small percentage of its members are unvaccinated, reporting 96 percent or more of its members are fully vaccinated.

However, the Army’s vaccination rate could be far lower than 96 percent, an anonymous active-duty senior Army official told The Defender.

The Epoch Times reached out to West Point Public Affairs for comment.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/...-letter_4558445.html

The military is supposed to "kill people and break things"--it is not supposed to be a laboratory for social experimentation.

flashguy

I posted some of the stuff that I experienced during my time at the academy in the last thread regarding shenanigans there. West Point is a great place with great experiences. It’s also full of dumbshit stuff, and has been since 1802. I’m confident the long gray line will endure. But I sure as shit would have signed that letter given the opportunity

West Point Changes Mission Statement, Removing 'Duty, Honor, Country'

In a move sure to worry many that the venerable two-century-old West Point is going woke, Superintendent Lt. Gen. Steve Gilland announced Monday a change in the institution’s mission statement.

The phrase “duty, honor, country” is out — exchanged for the more amorphous “Army values.”

The United States Military Academy’s previous mission statement was: “To educate, train and inspire the Corps of Cadets so that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character committed to the values of Duty, Honor, Country and prepared for a career of professional excellence and service to the nation as an officer in the United States Army.”

The new mission statement, according to a news release from the academy, is: “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 professional excellence and service to the Army and Nation.”

In a message to “West Point Teammates,” Gilland addressed the reason for the change.

“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.”

However, Gilland wrote, “Our responsibility to produce leaders to fight and win our nation’s wars requires us to assess ourselves regularly.”

Gilland went on to recount that the academy had engaged in an 18-month review of its purpose and strategy, working with West Point leaders and stakeholders. It then recommended the mission statement change to the Army’s top leadership.

He noted that both Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George approved the change.

Gilland argued that Army values “include Duty and Honor and Country.”

He pointed out that the academy’s mission statement has changed nine times in the last century, and that Duty, Honor, Country was first added in 1998.

Related:
US Army Cutting Force By Thousands After Recruitment Failures, Leaving Biden in a Bad Spot

He concluded saying the school’s “absolute focus” remains developing leaders of character for the Army.

As a 1989 graduate of West Point, I can confirm the mission statement did not include “Duty, Honor, Country” while I was there, and it certainly didn’t change the value I place on those words.

My time at the academy happened to fall on the 25th anniversary of Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s last speech to the Corps of Cadets, titled, “Duty, Honor, Country.” He had been superintendent of the institution for three years after his return to the U.S. from service in World War I and chief of staff of the Army in the 1930s.

MacArthur went on to iconic World War II status, fulfilling his famous pledge, “I shall return,” to the Philippines, given in the early dark days of the conflict when Japanese forces took the-then U.S. Pacific territory.

At the end of the war, MacArthur was named supreme allied commander, overseeing the surrender of Japan in Tokyo Harbor and then the military occupation of the nation, which he helped shepherd to a constitutional democracy.

So the retired five-star general brought all this history and more when he spoke to West Point’s cadets in May 1962 for the last time, exhorting them to live up to the academy’s motto: Duty, Honor, Country.



On the speech’s 25th anniversary in 1987, the entire Corps of Cadets, 4,000-strong, assembled in West Point’s Eisenhower Hall to watch a movie of MacArthur’s speech put to scenes from his legendary life. MacArthur died in 1964.

To my amazement, an announcement came over the public address system shortly before the movie began: “All rise as Mrs. General Douglas MacArthur enters the room.”

His wife Jean MacArthur, 88 at the time, who served right alongside him in the Philippines in World War II, joined us! She would live to be 101, dying in January 2000.

Also on post in 1987 were members of the faculty who had been cadets when MacArthur delivered the speech. They later told me you could have heard a pin drop when the general spoke, because the audience was in such rapt attention.

As a new cadet during basic training at the academy, you had to memorize a portion of the speech, which goes, “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 points: 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.”

Later in the speech the general said: “Duty, Honor, Country. The code which those words perpetuate embraces the highest moral laws and will stand the test of any ethics or philosophies ever promulgated for the uplift of mankind. Its requirements are for the things that are right, and its restraints are from the things that are wrong.

“The soldier, above all other men, is required to practice the greatest act of religious training — sacrifice.

“In battle and in the face of danger and death, he discloses those divine attributes which his Maker gave when he created man in his own image. No physical courage and no brute instinct can take the place of the Divine help which alone can sustain him.”

The general closed by telling the cadets, “In the evening of my memory, always I come back to West Point. Always there echoes and re-echoes: Duty, Honor, Country.”

Hopefully, the same will be true for today’s West Point cadets, even with “Duty, Honor, Country” no longer in the mission statement.

https://www.westernjournal.com...-duty-honor-country/

I weep for the future. I know we quote that from Ferris Bueller's Day Off in our comical moments, but honestly, I do weep for the future (and present) sometimes. JSMH at what the Communists have done to The United States of America, the GREAT Constitutional Republic.

Army values is a malleable standard. It means what the political class wants it to mean. Duty, honor, country leaves no room for perversity. Think about all of the ways this will affect the population. A military committed only to vague platitudes won’t be so opposed to turn on a resistant population. To change the culture, pervert the young.

As I’ve said before, WHEN Trump resumes the Presidency the first thing he should do is to FIRE (your “retirement” awaits you) the ENTIRE Joint Chiefs of Staff, their Deputies. and every Superintendent of every military academy. The Combatant Commanders and Deputies will be individually reviewed for command competence too. Clean house mostly of every 3 & 4 Star General and Admiral.

Sent this to who I would consider my step-dad....COL USA, Ret. Both his sons, who I consider my brothers, graduated West Point along with a few of their nephews. This was COL dad's response...

"You only have to move the direction of an organization a little at a time to get significant change over time. The Chinese have practiced this for a long time (death by a thousand cuts) and our Libs understand it too. Unfortunately, our current leaders (military and civilian) would say they are patriotic. They just mean something else than the old guys mean."

I've always said that a Warriors worst enemy is not the enemy shooting at him, it's the politicians that are standing way behind the warrior.

quote:

Originally posted by 2BobTanner:
As I’ve said before, WHEN Trump resumes the Presidency the first thing he should do is to FIRE (your “retirement” awaits you) the ENTIRE Joint Chiefs of Staff, their Deputies. and every Superintendent of every military academy. The Combatant Commanders and Deputies will be individually reviewed for command competence too. Clean house mostly of every 3 & 4 Star General and Admiral.

I certainly hope so - a lot is riding on our country being able to adequately defend ourselves from the likes of Russia and Chine. We need warriors in charge, not pansy caliber social engineers.

For those not tracking the "Army Values" are actually published in Army Doctrine Publication 6-22 Army Leadership and the Profession. Contrary to what the above would have you believe, they are codified and defined in the document approved by the Secretary of the Army. The current addition is circa 2019. A brief bit of web research shows that the Values may have been Codified in OCT 1998 in AR 690-400 Total Army Performance Evaluation System DA Values and Ethics.

They are :

Loyalty - bear true faith and allegiance to the U.S. Constitution, the Army, your unit and other soldiers.

Duty - Fulfill your obligations.

Respect - Treat people as they should be treated.

Selfless Service - Put the welfare of the nation, the Army, and your subordinates before your own.

Honor - Live up to all the Army values.

Integrity - Do what’s right, legally and morally.

Personal Courage - Face fear, danger or adversity (physical or moral).

I dug my old Army values card out (they issued them at basic) in 2005 and it said the same thing as above. So the Army Values have been constant, at least as written, for the last 18+ years.

I'm not sure why West Point decided to change at this point.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: CD228,

^^^ Right. THE ARMY VALUES say the same thing as the original "Duty, Honor, Country". And more. So, why the unnecessary change and wasting tax payers' money?

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
^^^ Right. THE ARMY VALUES say the same thing as the original "Duty, Honor, Country". And more. So, why the unnecessary change and wasting tax payers' money?

Excellent Question, I haven't seen the staff work, but from what I heard they are trying to encourage graduates to stay longer then their initial service obligation. It's estimated that only 25-30% stay in the force and we're short quality officers right now. Plus the discipline issues that have occurred at the academy over the last couple years probably made them what to emphasize things like Respect and Integrity.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: CD228,

If you remove Duty, Honor, Country and replace it with "Army Values" is does two things. It allows you to place DEI values as equivalents to the above. Which they are not. Duty, Honor, Country is succinct and to the point. The other obvious reason is that "Army Values" are easily swapped out like fuses in a cb box when Big Green decides to go political.

Is this the end? No, but it is a checkpoint on the road to the end. Libs hate, absolutely hate, values as clear cut and non political/social as Duty, Honor, Country. Those 3 make no room for agendas.

There are easier ways to get better retention. Academy graduates used to be able to clock the 4 years (with an active duty ID) at the Academy as time towards retirement. They stopped that by the time I got to the Naval Academy. If I had the extra 4 years I probably would have stayed to a minimum of 20. Changing army values won't have any positive effect on retention whatsoever.

^^^ Well said, pedropcola!

quote:

Originally posted by pedropcola:
If you remove Duty, Honor, Country and replace it with "Army Values" is does two things. It allows you to place DEI values as equivalents to the above. Which they are not. Duty, Honor, Country is succinct and to the point. The other obvious reason is that "Army Values" are easily swapped out like fuses in a cb box when Big Green decides to go political.


There are easier ways to get better retention. Academy graduates used to be able to clock the 4 years (with an active duty ID) at the Academy as time towards retirement. They stopped that by the time I got to the Naval Academy. If I had the extra 4 years I probably would have stayed to a minimum of 20. Changing army values won't have any positive effect on retention whatsoever.

The Army Values as published have not been changed in at least 18 years, so your comment about being rapidly or easily changed is not validated by observation. They are the Esposed values of the Army (if you believe in the culture model). They are not as easily malleable as you believe. If they rewrote them during the Obama or Biden administrations, I'd be suspicious, but they haven't done that. There are no discussions that I am tracking to change the Army Values at this time. The priorities, funding and standards of the Army have changed, but the published Army Values haven't.

Duty, Honor, Country remains the Motto of the Academy, it's not leaving the lexicon. I'd bet the Cadets are going to hear the Motto alot more then they will read the Mission Statement. I asked my resident West Pointer and he couldn't remember the mission statement from when he graduated, but the Motto he remembered and cared about.

Given the number of Cheating, Theft and Assault issues at West Point as of late, one could make the case that Duty, Honor, Country has not been effective. The Alumini have been very vocal in the past about honor code values of the Academy and have sent public letters on it. Now they complain when the Academy starts to address the problem.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: CD228,

It is not a problem of “Duty, Honor, Country”, it is a problem of leadership and accountability…or lack thereof. Getting rid of the former will do exactly nothing to solve the problems.

Cd228, do you know why they haven’t changed much in 18 years? Because they didn’t exist. Go back a little further and feel free to tell us all about the long history of Army Values. Go ahead.

I wish you luck though since they didn’t exist as such until fairly recent history.

Things that used to be called other things that morphed into this thing doesn't exactly give me a warm fuzzy about it’s supposed longevity.

I stand behind my comment. They can swap out parts in army values like I change socks. And that my friend is exactly how they want it.

quote:

Originally posted by pedropcola:
Cd228, do you know why they haven’t changed much in 18 years? Because they didn’t exist. Go back a little further and feel free to tell us all about the long history of Army Values. Go ahead.

I wish you luck though since they didn’t exist as such until fairly recent history.

Things that used to be called other things that morphed into this thing doesn't exactly give me a warm fuzzy about it’s supposed longevity.

I stand behind my comment. They can swap out parts in army values like I change socks. And that my friend is exactly how they want it.

I did the research. See my above post citing the Army Publications. I also went and found a copy AR 690-400, dated 16 OCT 1998 on the web (the Bodies of old Regs aren't on the Army Website). It said:

Values
DA values prescribed by Army’s senior leadership and displayed in Part V of the Civilian Evaluation Report Forms, DA Forms 7222 and 7223. They are Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity and Personal Courage.

It's on page 10 of the document. The authorizing signature on the document is Louis Caldera, Secretary of the Army. The values in the document look suspiciously similar to the Army Values I got in 2005.

There is addition references to the Army Values in writing going back to the 1970s, but I opted to look for a Regulation vs things like a policy memo. I'll admit I was surprised as I thought the Army Values where a GWOT thing. It seems that the Army "reinvigorated" them for the GWOT but had since 1998.

Exactly what is your definition of recently? I can tell you that the Army rewrites its stuff fairly regularly (COIN to FSO to ULO to LSCO/MDO) so to see something that stays like that as written for that long meets my definition of a long time. While it's not as long as the M2's service life, but 20+ years on the books isn't something to sneeze at, from the Army side.

GEN Gilland has clarified that the Army Values refenced in the new West Point Mission Statement are in fact the one's I'm referencing.

If you wanted to say the Army's strategy, priorities, etc. change regularly that's fair. All that should change with the NSS and NDS and the world operating environment.

If you want to say that the Army doesn't live up to its published values, I won't argue with you.

If you want to say that there are Military and Civilian Leaders pushing their own agendas that are not IAW the Army Values, I would agree with you.

But we do have them, did publish them and that's what the leadership at West Point are referencing.

Dude that is the point. They rewrite this stuff constantly. The entire term Army Values is a fairly modern recent creation. What you read about is all the previous iterations, codes, values, creeds, that have morphed recently ( 20 years) into what the Army now calls capital letter Army Values.

If all that stuff can be changed then my point stands. The wording of the current army values can also change. And has.

If you don’t see this as something that changes as the political landscape changes then ok, we just disagree. If you think army values is something that has a long standing history as an unchanging system of rules called “Army Values” you are just incorrect. The actual history doesn’t support that viewpoint.

You never actually answered my question (which you have no obligation to do). What year did the Army actually start using the current iteration under the banner of “Army Values”. Not codes, creeds, oaths, values, which have been used for decades but big letter, all green, ARMY VALUES? Once again, it wasn’t as long ago as you like to think for an army that has been around for 200+ years.

Your grandad did not serve in an army that had Army Values. Your dad did not serve in an army that had Army Values. You did. Words have been added and subtracted as they saw fit over those differing iterations and it became capital letter Army Values as you served under. It is similar to how equality quietly became equity. This is how it is done. Slowly, quietly, a bite at a time. These values are absolutely fluid. If they weren’t we would still be quoting what the Continental Army used to say.

Is it the death of the Republic? Nope. It is on the path though. Either way, I’m out. You seem to be convinced and talking to army guys gives Navy guys like me a headache lol so I will bow out to your last word.