The difference between orders and honor.
Every service member knows the difference between orders and honor. But what happens when the two collide?
There’s a scene in A Few Good Men. Not the one you’re thinking of.
Downey: I don’t understand... Colonel Jessup said he ordered the Code Red.
Galloway: I know, but…
Downey: Colonel Jessup said he ordered the Code Red! What did we do wrong?
Galloway: It’s not that simple…
Downey: What did we do wrong? We did nothing wrong!
Dawson: Yeah, we did. We were supposed to fight for people who couldn’t fight for themselves. We were supposed to fight for Willie.
I served in the United States Marine Corps for four years.
Aviation Operations Specialist, 7041. USMC Yuma, AZ.
I was a good Marine.
I joined to escape the life I was living, and because I believed the Marines were the best. The hardest. The most honorable.
Wrong.
They are just people. No better. No worse.
But most civilians have never spoken these words:
The Oath for Officers:
“I ___, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”
The Oath for Enlisted:
“I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.”
Read those again.
Do your actions still match those words?
If you wear the uniform, and have spoken those oaths, yet carry out orders of this administration without question, you are failing in your duty.
If you wear the uniform and turn it against the very people you swore to defend, you have two choices:
Remember your oath. Or admit you’ve betrayed it.
Marines. Soldiers. Sailors. Airmen. Guardians.
Your oath wasn’t to a man or a party.
It was to the Constitution.
Your neighbor. Your sister. Your friend down the street.
And yes, the Willie’s of the world, the ones who can’t fight for themselves.
They are all people.
They all deserve your protection.