US military academies focus on loyalty to Constitution
Teaching addresses intensifying political divisions within country
WEST POINT, N.Y. – For 75 minutes, Maj. Joe Amoroso quizzed his students in SS202, American Politics, about civilian leadership of the military, the trust between the armed forces and the public, and how the military must not become a partisan tool.
There was one answer, he said, that would always be acceptable in his class filled with second-year students at the U.S. Military Academy. Hesitantly, one cadet offered a response: “The Constitution.” “Yes,” Amoroso said emphatically.
His message to the students, known as yearlings, was simple: Their loyalty is “not about particular candidates. It’s not a particular person or personality that occupies these positions. It’s about the Constitution.”
The emphasis for the next generation of military officers that their loyalty must be focused on the nation’s democratic underpinnings rather than on any individual is a reflection of how the armed forces are being forced to deal with America’s deep political polarization at a time when trust in traditional institutions is eroding.
The role of the military in particular has come under scrutiny as former President Donald Trump runs to reclaim the White House and has laid out an aggressive agenda should he win. It includes potentially using the military in ways other presidents have not. That could mean invoking the Insurrection Act to send units to the border or patrol the streets of predominantly Democratic cities.
Trump’s rhetoric about top commanders also has raised concerns. While in office, Trump once referred to the military leaders in his administration as “my generals.” Earlier this year, he suggested that a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired Army Gen. Mark Milley, be put to death for treason.
President Joe Biden, in his first campaign address of the year, warned about Trump’s rhetoric on the military and its leadership.
With cadets and midshipmen drawn from across the U.S., students at West Point and other service academies are aware of the national mood and the potential for political divisions to seep into the military.
They encounter an array of classes on the Constitution and, in some cases, the history of the civilianmilitary relationship. Each graduate who is commissioned takes multiple oaths at school and during their service. Milley emphasized the significance of the oaths in his retirement address last fall.
“We don’t take an oath to a king or a queen or to a tyrant or a dictator. And we don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator,” he said.
At the Air Force Academy, the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol was a top subject of discussion in the Civil-Military Relations class when junior and senior-year cadets began the spring semester the next day. The coincidental timing “brought introspection about their oath as future officers,” said the instructor, Marybeth Ulrich. One result was a cadetdriven initiative, the Oath Project.
“Instigation of potential uprising or any issues on Capitol Hill creates immediate concern for the military and for the larger public as a whole. So we were very aware of the events as they were unfolding,” said 1st Lt. Darrell Miller, now stationed with the Space Force at Buckley Space Force Base near Denver, and one of 13 students in the class who started the project. Dozens of former and active duty military members have been charged in the Jan. 6 assault, an attempt to stop Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election that Democrat Biden won over Republican Trump. A recent Defense Department inspector general report showed that dozens of military members were suspected of extremist activities that included conspiring to overthrow the government, though the number represents a tiny fraction of the more than 2 million U.S. service members. When the students examined the three oaths they had sworn to, Miller said they realized there had not been much education about them – “a line by line breakdown. What does it mean? What are you really swearing your allegiance to essentially.” The group suggested more emphasis on the history and purpose of their oaths and also “what you are actually swearing your allegiance to,” he said. One point was showing the distinction between countries where the military professed allegiance to sovereigns or individuals as opposed to the U.S. military’s oath to the Constitution. “We knew what it was and the do’s and don’ts, but we didn’t really go into the why,” said 1st Lt. Bryan Agustin, another of the students behind the Oath Project who is stationed at Goodfellow Air Force Base in Texas. Although the seniors had a short time before graduation, they were able to change some of the language in their commissioning ceremony, adding more history about the oath before it was administered. The incoming basic class that fall also had the history added to their ceremony. According to copies provided by the academy, the phrasing in both cases noted that the oath had its roots in the Revolutionary War and was given to support “the democratic processes and civil liberties that our Founders enumerated in the Constitution.”