On Veterans Day — and Every Day — the Oath

All soldiers entering U.S. military service recite the same oath. With the exception of promising to obey the president and commanding officers, it is virtually the same oath taken by federal officials before they take office.

Even the president promises to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” Although there are many ways to interpret the Constitution, the common belief is that, however it is applied, the goal is benefit of the common good, not a privileged few.

Almost every military veteran with whom I have had the conversation agrees: the oath is sacred and binding. Many of our comrades have paid the ultimate price to honor their obligation to that oath, and those who survive take it seriously as well.

My father raised me to believe that “your word is your bond.” If you don’t walk the talk, no one will ever trust you. The one thing every soldier believes is that the guy next to him has his back. My buddies in the American Legion believe this too, and it is an integral part of our suicide-prevention program, “Be the One.”

At the monthly general meeting of every American Legion Post, including mine (Arcata Post 274), besides honoring those soldiers unaccounted for from all wars, we recite the Preamble to the American Legion Constitution, written in 1918 in France at the end of World War I.

For God and country, we associate ourselves together for the following purposes

to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America;

to maintain law and order;

to foster and perpetuate a one-hundred percent Americanism;

to preserve the memories and incidents of our association in all wars;

to inculcate a sense of individual obligation to the community, state, and nation;

to combat the autocracy of both the classes and the masses;

to make right the master of might;

to promote peace and good will on earth; and

to safeguard and transmit to posterity the principles of justice, freedom and democracy

I don’t wait for meeting nights to think about the Preamble and what it means in my life. When I feel my civic resolve waning or challenged, I pull out my copy and consider how the promise I make each month can guide me to better serve the community I love.

If our species is to survive, we must have have each other’s backs. Not only military veterans, but the whole population of the planet.

Rich Jordan, a military veteran, lives by his oath in Arcata.