Visions of our military selves

One of the enduring visions of the modern military man has been that of the Officer and the Gentleman, that particular breed of authority and morality that connoted competence, good manners, restraint and elitism.

The military life, whether for Sailor, Soldier, Airman or Marine, is a good life. The human qualities it demands include fortitude, integrity, self-restraint, personal loyalty to other persons, and the surrender of the advantage of the individual to the common good. . .This is good company. Anyone can spend his life in it with great satisfaction.

What the bad man cannot be is a good Sailor, or Soldier, or Airman, or Marine. Military institutions thus form a repository of moral resource that should always be a source of strength within the state. . .The highest service of the military to the state may well lie in the moral sphere.

THE CHALLENGE OF COMMAND by Colonel Roger H. Nye