Sunday, March 20, 2011

Honor

An officer must observe honor in all things, as a matter of everlasting practice.  Officers will be respected, individually and as a group, only as long as citizens have complete confidence in their unfailing honor.

An officer's word may be accepted without question; his spoken and written statements are free from guile or deceit.  He pays his bills.  He is above the petty chicaneries to which some people succumb.  His actions are for the good of his country.  As he guards his own reputation, he is also mindful of the reputations of officers as a group.  That reputation is something he must always jealously guard.  He is expected to live and conduct his activities so that he can hold up his head and look all men in the eye, knowing that he is an honorable man associating himself with other honorable men.

From:
The Naval Officer's Manual
July 1951
Rear Admiral Harley Cope
USN - retired

4 comments:

Curtis said...

All officers will pee in to the cup in the sight of the petty officer once a month or as otherwise scheduled because honor has no meaning in the modern military.

General Quarters said...

"Here is part of the secret of Western civilization; that is, the secret of its dominance, its economic success, its freedom and technological superiority. Once upon a time there was a code, which is now only a shadow (chivalry), calling civilization's leaders to a higher standard. But science laughed at the code, and declared it "unscientific."

J.R. Nyquist

Anonymous said...

Honor is a concept rarely practiced now. A person has but one thing in this world and thats his word. If you give it then stick by it. We all swore the same oaths but some of us don't abide by them gving us all a bad name.
George
OPS TECH LDO

HMS Defiant said...

One can hardly note the failure to refute the pee in the bottle your officership and still hold hard to honor as what we stand for.

That honor thing died a very long time ago. Sad to say.

Astronauts wearing diapers on cross countries to kill their married/not to them girl friends at the airport. Shit. That almost made being a navy captain worthless. There used to be a certain amount of dignity to the rank/job.