West Point’s website, westpoint.edu, has a lot of great information. One tab leads to the book Character Carved in Stone. (https://visit.westpoint.edu/) The photograph accompanying this article is from this tab.

Written in 2019 by Pat Williams (NBA team owner), the book contains 12 virtues that are written on granite benches overlooking the Hudson River at West Point. The 12 virtues are:

compassion

courage

dedication

determination

dignity

discipline

integrity

loyalty

perseverance

responsibility

service

trust

Williams has a chapter dedicated to each virtue. Within each chapter he highlights a West Point graduate, some famous, some not, that he felt best exemplified that particular virtue. Mike Krcyzewski (West Point grad and Duke basketball “Coach K”) provides an insightful forward and great lessons on the “responsibility” virtue. “During Beast Barracks, an individual cadet ceases to be an individual human being and becomes a plebe.”1 This orientation and indoctrination is vital not just at West Point but in all military onboarding programs (officer and enlisted) to ensure servicemembers think and act like a team and not like individuals. LTG Gilland (current Superintendent) and then LTG Williams (past Superintendent) pushed the destructive DEI ideology that places virtue signaling, individuality, and various intersectionality paradigms to divide organizations into small adversarial groups by race, gender, orientations, etc. This is the opposite of what Beast Barracks and the services’ ‘boot camps’ strive to achieve.

Coach K also described learning as a Plebe that there are only 3 acceptable responses: “Yes, sir,” “No, sir,” and “No excuse, sir.” This early lesson teaches cadets to take ownership of failure (take responsibility). “That lesson stuck with him and shaped his attitude toward coaching. He realized that no matter what happened, he was the coach, he was responsible, and he had no excuses.”2 This statement is similarly problematic in that recent Superintendents have lied, covered up scandals, refused to release information to the public regarding problematic issues unless Freedom of Information Act requests were submitted and even then only if lawsuits were filed, redacted information to the public, etc. This is not modeling good behavior for cadets and faculty to emulate.

The trust chapter is an interesting one to note as well. In this chapter, he profiles GEN Omar Bradley. “Bradley even learned from [GEN George] Marshall that leaders should invite dissent so that they can have the widest range of options to choose from. Leaders are never well served by a staff of yes-men.”3 As evidenced by the West Point website’s recent radical overhaul where extensive DEI programs were deleted and faculty removed DEI promoting academia from their public pages, USMA was and is stricken by a culture of “yes men.” Similarly, the West Point Association of Graduates (WPAOG), as evidenced just last week by graduate Robert MacDonald’s email to the alumni on behalf of the WPAOG, is a cheerleader and lapdog for the Superintendent, rubberstamping and endorsing all that the West Point leadership does. Its online chatrooms frequently have moderators that stifle dissent. The WPAOG president even admitted to spying on West Point watch dog groups. The Supe’s liaison to the AOG even accused watchdog groups of “misinformation” in a watchdog town hall meeting. Alumni groups such as Restoring Honor (facebook group) collude to silence graduates that criticize West Point leadership. Humorously, they frequently do it anonymously, lacking courage to reveal their real identity. In short, the West Point leadership, West Point AOG, and many alumni groups that are plagued with toxic loyalty go to great lengths to keep graduates ‘in line’ with the Supe’s agenda and to silence criticism. This is hardly creates a culture of trust. On the other hand, they provide a great example for cadets of “yes-men.”

There are many other examples in the book of noble virtues that graduates in the past manifested to good effect leading the Army in war and peace. Sadly, the current crop of West Point leadership and many of West Point’s alumni don’t measure up to the 12 virtues. It is ironic that West Point prominently features this book on its website with buttons for “Why Character Matters” and “Corrosion of Character.”

The book is a great read and is highly recommended for fans of West Point’s recently lost ideals. It is available on amazon in hardcover, paperback, kindle, and audiobook.

Unfortunately, it is time to find replacement academy senior leadership that will live the 12 virtues for cadets, faculty, and alumni.

 

 

  1. Williams, Pat, et al. Character Carved in Stone. Michigan: Revell, 2019. Page 156.
  2. Ibid. page 157.
  3. Ibid 200.