Duty, Honor, Country

¹Duty, Honor, Country — those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be.

²They are your rallying point to build courage when courage seems to fail, to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith, to create hope when hope becomes forlorn.

³They build your basic character. They mold you for your future roles as the custodians of the nation's defense.

⁴They make you strong enough to know when you are weak, and brave enough to face yourself when you are afraid.

⁵They teach you to be proud and unbending in honest failure, but humble and gentle in success;

⁶not to substitute words for action; not to seek the path of comfort, but to face the stress and spur of difficulty and challenge;

⁷to learn to stand up in the storm, but to have compassion on those who fall;

⁸to master yourself before you seek to master others; to have a heart that is clean, a goal that is high;

⁹to learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; to reach into the future, yet never neglect the past;

¹⁰to be serious, yet never take yourself too seriously; to be modest so that you will remember the simplicity of true greatness; the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength.