Learning To Lead
Adm. Mike Mullen,
Service academies don't just provide great education--they keep us safe.
When I arrived in Annapolis in early June 1964, I was 17 and had been out of California just once in my life. The mercury read 95 degrees with 90% humidity. I started sweating right away and wondered aloud how anyone could live in such a place. I wondered even more what lay in store for me inside the Naval Academy's gates.
Then I walked through those gates, and my life changed forever.
Yet service academies place demands on young men and women that go far beyond the classroom. Cadets and midshipmen are challenged on multiple fronts--mentally, morally and physically. They learn to lead, to succeed, but also how to bounce back from failure. They learn the power of persistence and the value of service.When those less familiar with our service academies praise these institutions, they often cite conventional measures used to compare colleges and universities across the country. The remarkable facilities, beautiful vistas and first-rate faculty are certainly all there. Academically, these military schools typically rank among the best in the country.
For my classmates and me, these experiences defined us and taught us a deep will to win. In our profession, coming in second place is just not acceptable. So winning--and an appetite for achievement--is essential. This is not to say, of course, that other schools in other places don't also instill such traits. They most certainly do. But at our service academies, you don't graduate if you haven't proven your character and your leadership. Grades alone will only take you so far, and they definitely won't take you across the stage on graduation day.
Much is made of the fact that the education at a service academy is free. It's true that cadets and midshipmen do not pay tuition or room and board. But it's also true that this taxpayer-funded education has enabled many incredibly promising young Americans, regardless of their economic or social background, to earn a top-shelf degree and become more productive citizens. Our military is stronger for that diversity and those opportunities. So is our country. I note with pride the scores of chief executives, elected officials, community leaders and U.S. presidents among the ranks of service academy alumni.
Very little else, however, is actually "free." Compared to their friends at civilian universities, these young men and women live spartan lives dominated by mandatory military and extracurricular activities, room and uniform inspections and very limited social freedom. In return for their attendance, they must commit to at least five years of active service--which, for many, becomes a career. They will, over the course of that career, know other privations: frequent moves, lengthy deployments and, yes, war.
Indeed, all you have to do is read the names on any one of the academies' memorial walls, or the plaques dedicated to graduates who have given their lives in defense of our country, to see the real, high cost of their so-called free education.
Most alumni will tell you they were the last, best, toughest class. I know I certainly felt that way about my Class of 1968. I'm not so sure about that anymore.
The demands placed upon America's military are greater and more diverse than at any time in the last four decades. We're fighting two wars, modernizing our force structure and equipment, caring for a whole generation of troops and families scarred by combat, and grappling with ever-present conventional threats left over from the Cold War. Not to mention a plethora of enduring security commitments around the world.
After graduation, newly commissioned officers step out into that world. Right from day one they are expected to lead soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, often older and more experienced than they are. They are held accountable for their mission, for their people and for millions of dollars worth of state property--all of this at 22 years old.
I left Annapolis a wholly different person than the one I had been on that summer day 46 years ago. I left feeling like I was part of something far bigger than just myself--that I was now responsible in my own way and through my own efforts for helping keep our nation strong. I felt a part of a proud tradition and a sense of duty to live up to it and to the expectations of the troops I joined in the fleet.Truth is, these men and women thrive on that pressure. They welcome it. They respect it. The people they have sworn to defend can feel secure in the knowledge that the young officers our service academies produce have earned it.
I wouldn't be here today if it weren't for those troops. But I think it is fair to say that without the Naval Academy, I wouldn't have been there for them. And I can promise you every other graduate of our service academies--past, present and future--feels exactly the same way.
A pretty fair trade for a free education? I believe so, and I hope America does too.
Adm. Mike Mullen is chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff
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