Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?'

Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?'

Vanity asks the question, 'Is it popular?'

But, conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?'

And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right."

"Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution" (31 March 1968)

  Martin Luther King Jr.

Civilians get a taste of Marine Corps ethics

MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. - Thirteen executives from industries such as national security, telecommunications and an international beverage conglomerate, went through simulated ethics training here at TBS on Jan. 5. The participants came to The Basic School to learn how the Marine Corps teaches ethics in everything they do, using honor, courage, and commitment as the pillars to their foundation of decision making.

This group of civilians twice previously visited MCRD Parris Island, S.C., to see how ethics-values based training is taught to Marine recruits. The civilians are from the master of business administration program and executive members of the Center for Ethics and Corporation Responsibility J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University.

“It was suggested to us, after our second visit, by Col. Eric M. Mellinger, head of the recruit training regiment, that we go to Quantico to The Basic School to see how the same principles are then taught and training to the lieutenants as a leadership function,” said Dr. Steven D. Olson, the center director.

The civilians were split into three fire teams and had to hike through a marked trail at TBS to accomplish different missions along the way. With every mission faced, there was an ethical challenge thrown into the mix.

For example, during one challenge they had to secure a water point where they were confronted with a mother whose daughter who was injured by an IED. The group had to make a decision to help the daughter and how to do that without offending the customs of the local tribe.

 “Inaction is a form of action,” said Maj. Dan M. Dowd, command section head war fighting at TBS. “We accomplished our mission of securing the water point but when it came to the courage of helping the girl, we didn’t do so well.”

After the exercise was completed, the group discussed what they did and didn’t do, and how they could have done things differently. Many of the participants agreed that, even though they met their goal of securing the water point, they didn’t accomplish the overall goal of building good connections with the tribe.

“You can learn a lot about people by what they don’t do and don’t say,” Dowd said to the group. “If you are the person in charge, you have to make the choice of taking action or not taking action. The leader isn’t the only person who can say something. We all have morals and values. We all know the right thing to do, so why wouldn’t you say something? Are you going to just take orders and have no real responsibilities, or are you going to say something when the right thing isn’t being done.

“It’s difficult to figure out how to go about doing the right thing,” continued Dowd. “But that’s why we do the training.”

The training didn’t end there. After the discussion, the group was split in half and sent on separate missions, where they encountered a simulated genocide and an IED explosion which injured one of their own.

With each mission, they were faced with ethical choices and the challenge of adhering to the ethos of the Marine Corps: honor, courage and commitment.

“One of the things we want people to take away from this is a duty and obligation,” said Olson. “We want them to have responsibility that pulls them forward to a higher ethical structure rather than, ‘what’s the minimum I can do to get the advantage.’ We knew we couldn’t teach it and that it would have to come from experience, so that’s why we came here.”

“Ethics is essential to mission accomplishment,” said Olson. “The Marine Corps has been showing that for years. Now it’s time for the corporate world and business students to see and appreciate that.”

Story by Lance Cpl. Tabitha Bartley forwarded by Tom Esslinger

http://www.dvidshub.net/news/82214/civilians-get-taste-marine-corps-ethics#.Tw7e3Bw72HC

Frontpage’s Man of the Year: The Wounded Warrior

Ten years on from the invasion of Afghanistan, America has grown weary of war. President Obama, having realized his long-held target of withdrawing from Iraq, is trying to wind down the war in Afghanistan with the aim of ending American involvement by 2014. As Washington has lost faith in the war effort, so too has the broader public. Skeptical of success and encouraged in their doubts by the political establishment, Americans increasingly want the war, like a tiresome, too-long movie, to end at last. This national resignation is fraught with peril – for America’s counterterrorism objectives, for our strategic allies – but perhaps most of all for the soldiers who did the fighting. The U.S. military has a policy of leaving no man behind. But as the country turns its attention away from the warfront, it risks forgetting the servicemen who fought so valiantly on its behalf, and who have returned home bearing the wars’ indelible marks. The official end of the Iraq war this month is an occasion to reflect that, for many of America’s wounded veterans, the war will never be over, that they will always carry its scars. Over 32,000 servicemen have been wounded post-9/11, spanning all branches of the military. In the sands of Iraq, and in the mountains of Afghanistan, they have suffered horrific injuries, of which the most painful often left no outward mark. Limbs lost, lives turned upside down, futures permanently altered. For those of us safe in the comforts of civilian life, the enormity of their sacrifice is utterly beyond comprehension.

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A War Is Over But Not The Pain

"When you lose both legs, you think you can't do anything," said Dan Nevins, an Iraq war veteran with a story to tell. "The wounds last a lifetime." But seven years after a roadside bomb in Iraq took one leg and eventually the other, Nevins shoots mid-70s golf, climbs mountains and recently won a Fort Worth cutting horse contest." It took somebody to say, 'Yes, you can do it,'" he said. That's where the Wounded Warrior Project came in. Nevins called to talk Tuesday because for more than 30,000 injured veterans, the war is never over.

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Long Walk Series Of Sgt. Raaz

Our good friend Tom Esslinger of the Marine Crops Association brought the first rate reporting of Gretel Kovach to the attention of the Character Building Project. Gretel C. Kovach joined the San Diego Union-Tribune in February 2010 as a military affairs reporter. Her coverage focuses on the Marine Corps, warzone operations, combat casualty care, and the California National Guard. Kovach spent three months out of the last year reporting from the front lines of Afghanistan, embedded with U.S. Marines. She also has reported from Iraq and Ground Zero in New York City during the 9/11 attacks. Gretel’s excellent series reached me yesterday afternoon as I returned from Bethesda Naval Amputee Center after Captain Aloysius Boyle personally introduced me to scores of our wounded warriors and their equally heroic caregivers. Healing hurts for Marine after return to California

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A Call to Serve

From time to time it is our honor to introduce readers of the Character Building Project to leaders of outstanding character. One such leader is Aloysius Boyle, a Captain in the United States Marine Corps. “Ish” is a combat veteran, currently, serving as the Company Commander of Wounded Warrior Battalion at Bethesda Naval Hospital. Captain Boyle has not only not forgotten his fallen buddies but also continues to serve our wounded warriors. He has generously supported my research for Courage in America: Warriors with Character. Here follows his Memorial Day tribute to the sacrifices of our fallen warriors. "It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us-that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion-that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain." - Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address I stood numb as the helicopter approached. I rubbed his chest and consoled him as he lay in the street. He squeezed my hand acknowledging that I was there with him at this final moment and that I would not give up on him.

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Wounded Warriors Use Writing to Work Through the Woes

By Rear Admiral Alton L. Stocks, Director, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center If you asked me early in my medical career how the arts played a role in healing, I might have checked to see if you had a fever. How times have changed. Over the past 30 years, I have watched our profession evolve to meet the ever-changing needs of our wounded warriors. Some of those who have fought in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan return with challenging health issues such as Traumatic Brain Injury and Psychological Health issues. These health conditions are complex, and not readily treated by traditional medical interventions. As the military adapts, so does the medical community that serves it. We are now beginning to evaluate the use of holistic care and alternative therapies to treat our troops. This can be seen at the new National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE). The NICoE opened in June 2010, and is the first state-of-the-art center for wounded warriors to provide evaluation, treatment planning, and research for troops with Traumatic Brain Injury and Psychological Health conditions. Our interdisciplinary team harnesses the latest advances in science, therapy, education and research, while providing compassionate family centered care for service members and their loved ones through the recovery process.

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Wounded Warriors... Harnessing Adversity

At the outset of writing Courage in America, I wish to credit the ten wounded warriors who shared with me their arduous journeys from their traumatic injuries to individual greatness. I also wish to acknowledge Dr. Paul Stoltz and Erik Weihenmayer, not only for having greatly influenced my thinking by there book, The Adversity Advantage but also for their ongoing support to the Character Building Project. In Politics with Principle, I studied ten characters with character who in adulthood, achieved lives of position and prestige in service to others. In giving speeches about these “characters with character” to college age audiences, I was often asked whether I knew any young Americans of outstanding character since Politics with Principle consisted of well educated, mostly lawyers. It was during a questions and answer period of a speech at George Washington University that I determined my next book would address the character and courage of younger Americans. As part of a service project for the Knights of Malta, a Roman Catholic Hospitalier organization of which I am a member, I had occasion to visit wounded warriors at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington D.C. The results of those visits and subsequent visits to Bethesda Naval Medical Center were to focus my research for Courage in America on ten extraordinary young Americans who volunteered for military service since September 11, 2001. By selecting ten wounded warriors for Courage in America who already have, or are in the process of successfully harnessing the adversity of their traumatic injuries, I have been trying to understand why some warriors positively turn their adversity to their advantage and why many others do not.

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Watch A Game of Honor Webisode, Help Wounded Warrior Project

CBSSports.com has teamed up with Wounded Warrior Project^TM, whose mission is to honor and empower wounded warriors, for a special promotion to support wounded service members. For every view of the latest A GAME OF HONOR webisode at CBSSports.com from Dec. 6 through Dec. 10, CBSSports.com will make a donation to Wounded Warrior Project.

The donation tally began Dec. 6th with the release of the latest A GAME OF HONOR webisode titled: "Helping a Fallen Soldier: The Eric LeGrand Story." The episode details the Army football team's bond with former Rutgers football player, Eric LeGrand who was partially paralyzed in a game against the Black Knights in October of 2010. The donation will then continue to accumulate through Dec. 10th, the day of the 2011 Army-Navy football game presented by USAA.

CBSSports.com is currently featuring an exclusive 10-week web series leading up to the SHOWTIME and CBS Sports co-produced documentary film A GAME OF HONOR. The feature length film is a behind-the-scenes documentary that follows the cadets and midshipmen as they embark on a journey beginning with military boot camp and football training camp all the way to the singing of their respective fight songs at the conclusion of the Army-Navy game this Saturday. Much more than a story of a sports rivalry, A GAME OF HONOR will chronicle the players' daily challenge of balancing the rigors of school, service and sport at two of the most challenging universities in the world.

A GAME OF HONOR premieres on SHOWTIME on Wednesday, Dec. 21 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. The Army-Navy Game presented by USAA will be nationally televised from Washington D.C. on Dec. 10 at 2:30 p.m. ET on CBS Sports, and streamed live on CBSSports.com and CBS Sports Mobile. The first eight online episodes of A GAME OF HONOR and the preview video, "Prelude: The Making of A Game of Honor", are currently available on demand at CBSSports.com.

I am Samuel Michael Angert and this is my story

It was almost as if it were a sign from God. I woke up one morning deciding to join the military. Academically I was ok, if I would just put in that effort I could have accomplished more than I thought; in school that is. At the ages of 16-18 I was just another young kid running around on the streets with friends. I thought and was almost positive that the time would never come to have to grow up. I chose the paths that lead me to sitting here writing this essay. Four years later I am a decorated soldier under the United States Army in the process of retiring. Graduating high school in 2007 I went into the army at the age of 18. I was stationed with the first cavalry division that was based out of Ft. Hood, TX. In February of 2009 I left the U.S. to deploy to IRAQ with my unit. On the 23rd of Aug of 2009 my convoy was hit by what is called an IED (improvised explosive device). Out of a three-vehicle convoy my vehicle was the lead vehicle and was the first and the only to be impacted by the explosion. We had one killed in action; a young lieutenant from St.Johnsbury Vermont was killed. (Joseph D. Fortin). There were also two wounded casualties. One had sustained a leg injury right near his femoral artery, and the other was in severely critical condition and was not expected to survive.

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