Honor, Courage, Commitment
By Future Sailor Albert Goenner

	The United States Navy relies on three core values: Honor, Courage, and Commitment. These values are the glue that holds the Navy together, and are what the Navy looks for in prospective sailors and expects of its constituents. Many aspects of these character traits intertwine with and are essential to one another. All of these traits are essential for an exemplary sailor.

Honor. “I will bear true faith and allegiance.” A code of conduct to live, fight and die for. Honor is sense of mutual respect and moral integrity ingrained by military tradition since well before the time of the Roman Empire. Integrity essential for any honorable unit: The members of said unit must be able to assume and expect honorable actions from any other member and vice versa; distrust can tear a cohesive unit apart quickly. Integrity can be defined two ways: 1. “The quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.” 2. “The state of being whole and undivided.” First let’s look at the word ‘honest.’ It contains the prefix hon-, as does honor. They are also important to each other, without honesty, honor falls apart. Without honor, honesty falls flat (i.e. you can be honest about dishonorable actions, however it doesn’t make up for them.) Morality, the second part of the first definition of integrity, is a sub aspect of honor as well. Morality is very hard to concretely define due to its subjectivity. It is generally considered the ability to identify the difference between right and wrong and the will to act accordingly. Morality provides direction for the unit and will dictate the unit’s actions. The second definition of integrity may be used to describe a unit whose individual members act with integrity, and integrity is essential to honor: so by extension, an honorable unit is a united unit.

	The highest decoration available for any member of the US Military is The Medal of Honor; this is how much the United States Military values this trait and any service member that exemplifies it. This award itself is regarded with severe importance and respect by the US Government. People have been fined, sentenced to probation, and even jailed for misrepresentation, fraudulent wear, and sale of The Medal of Honor under 18 U.S.C. §704. This strict enforcement is out of respect of the most honorable members of our service, and they deserve no less. The information presented to us before boot camp glorifies honorable actions and encourages us to hold ourselves to the highest standards, to follow the example of those who came before us. The RTC Maxim focuses solely on honorable action. Failure to follow the standards of honor set by the RTC Maxim can be grounds for immediate termination depending on the severity of the offense. This expectation extends past the ‘work day’ for a soldier as well. Soldiers are expected to maintain an air of professionalism and act honorably during all their dealings, be it military-related or otherwise, as they represent the service as a whole at all times.

	Courage. “I will support and defend.” The stuff hero’s are made out of. Courage is the ability to stand in the face of danger or adversity despite feelings of fear telling you to do otherwise. There are several facets to courage; courage could be something as daunting as running into enemy fire to move an injured comrade to safety. Courage could be something as simple as volunteering for a job that no one else will. It takes courage to do the right thing when no one is looking. More often than not it takes courage to act with integrity; it takes courage to act honorably. Courage often means you must be willing sacrifice to do what is necessary. When I was learning to fly I was very apprehensive to solo, but there was nothing I wanted to do more in the world. When the time came, I was nervous to say the least. It was exhilarating and terrifying at the same time, the adrenaline rush is indescribable. It took a lot of courage to push the throttle in and take off, more than I realized. Once I was in the air I realized my life was totally in my hands, whether I lived through this or died all depended on if my skills were up to snuff. This realization was a bit too much and I sang at the top of my lungs most of the flight to keep my mind off of it. Even though I had ran through the pattern for that specific air port literally hundreds of times, it felt brand new with no instructor. As I came into land the adrenaline came to a head, I drifted in rather low over the trees and skipped on the runway once before I touched down for good. As I got out of the plane, a feeling of absolute relief overcame me. My instructor was waiting for me on the side with a large grin on his face; it was around this time I knew I had made it. Often times the act itself is the reward when you must act with courage. Other times there is no reward, and the courageous act is done out of necessity.

	Commitment. “I will obey the orders.” The definition of military discipline I was taught is “the mental attitude and state of training that renders willing obedience instinctively under all conditions.” Commitment is the name of the game in any military. When you sign the papers to join, you are making an 8 year commitment at least (that is four years active, four years inactive.) Many rates require more than an 8 year commitment. When you are fully committed to something, you don’t give up no matter the circumstance. More often than not you cannot turn your back on a commitment without facing severe consequences. I joined the Civil Air Patrol when I was 12 years old. This is a volunteer organization and requires no contract commitment, however I was committed. I dedicated 5 years of my life to the program not only because I loved it, but I felt it was my responsibility to give back to the program that gave me so much. When I started to learn how to fly through the program I made a personal commitment to myself that I would continue as long as possible. There was more than one day where I waited in 20*F weather outside for an instructor that never materialized, or where I would complete the pre-flight inspection and file a flight plan only to be grounded last minute by freak weather systems. I didn’t let this discourage me however, because I was 100% committed. I followed through with lessons until I could no longer financially afford them. I would still very much like to fly one day and hope I can further my aviation education in the Navy, god willing.

	It takes courage to make a long term commitment, as we are all ignorant to what lies in the future and you are expected to honor your commitment no matter what happens, sans extenuating circumstances. People with a strong sense of honor fulfill their commitments invariably more than those who do not. When an honorable person is unable to fulfill their commitment they often feel dissatisfied with themselves because they could not live up to the high expectations they set for themselves. Many military members have been reported to deny evacuation from dangerous areas so they could complete the mission they set out on, as this is the mindset engrained in them since day one. The mission is a commitment, you must honor your commitments, and you must have the courage to put the mission’s success before your own life. That kind of dedication cannot be taught, soldiers/sailors must be of strong moral fiber before joining to commit so completely to their cause.

	Life hands us many choices in the many situations that we encounter everyday. There is the ‘easy way’ and there is the ‘right way’. The ‘easy way’ of doing things is a very slippery slope that can lead to unethical/dishonorable choices quickly. Cutting corners is a good way to end up running in a circle; whether you are rushing back to fix sloppily repaired equipment or trying to maintain a lie to cover your own aft section. Dishonesty breeds dishonesty in a never ending vicious cycle, and when you are found out (which you will be) it will only be that much worse when the crap-lies you have piled on yourself come crashing down. The ‘right way’ of doing things often means sacrificing personal convenience but will always result in a better outcome plus the feeling of satisfaction from doing something the proper way is rewarding in and of itself. The extra time you put into a job translates directly to quality. Doing things the ‘right way’ also means performing your duty with honor; when the bad news needs to be delivered you can not afford to sugar coat it, you must be upfront and concise in your dealings. I worked as a porter at a motorcycle shop for as my first job, which means I would move/wash/test ride motorcycles before and after servicing. The local police force was one of our best customers and we always had at least one of their Harley-Davidson touring bikes in the shop. I had just finished waxing one of their bikes and was moving it into storage until they came to pick it up; I put the side-stand down and started to lean the bike on to it when the stand came back up. Those bikes weigh about 800lbs dry and I weighed about 140lbs at the time, needless to say the bike and I were going down. As soon as I felt what was happing I shouted for my supervisor to come help me and inspect the damage to the bike fearing the worst but knowing that I had to as they would see the damage either way. I explained to my super and the shop foreman what happened and he told me that he had similar experiences with these bikes and while he was upset that the part they had just replaced (the front faring) had been gouged he understood that sometimes accidents are unavoidable; he was glad I was ok. I got to keep my job after that and this experience has stuck in my mind as motivation to always be upfront whenever something gets screwed up. This served me well later in life while working as a woodworker; we would have to manually load all of the furniture we made into our box truck. Many times the pieces would weigh more than 300lbs and were awkward to handle. We had just finished assembling this beautiful walnut cabinet only to chip one of the sides as we were loading it. I immediately told the shop foreman and while he was not happy at all we fixed it and shipped it out the same day and I got to keep my job.

	Honor, courage, and commitment make up the foundation of any good service member. They are essential to and complement one another. In order to ensure the continued success of our military we must encourage our service members to act with integrity and boldness, and reprimand dishonesty and cowardice swiftly. We must continue to maintain, and increase if possible, the level of commitment exhibited by those who serve our country in order to stay the worlds most elite and professional fighting force.