Published 22 Jan 07

Beyond the DropZone

W. Thomas Smith Jr.

Spirituality and military service

Military service, particularly in combat arms units, is something akin to a religious experience. But to an outsider who has never slogged through the mud with an M-16 rifle or winged an F-18 Hornet up into the stratosphere, such a comparison might seem nothing more than hyperbole. And if not hyperbole, perhaps something that edges close to a bridging – thus a violation – of the separation between church and state.

Combatants know better.

As I explained to radio host Steve Malzberg, during a Christmas Day interview on Bill Bennett's Morning in America, "Service in the military is very much like a religious experience." And it is important that it is so, "because to be a good soldier (and I use that term loosely to refer to military personnel who are either combatants or who serve in direct support of combat operations) one needs to be infused with the soldierly virtues [those 'religious' intangibles – things like loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, and personal courage – that the modern U.S. Army officially recognizes as key to building a warrior]." After all, soldiers often have to deal with the weighty responsibilities of life and death. Who leads? Who follows? Who lives? Who dies? And why?

Such responsibility is even greater for military commanders. "To be a good soldier, you must love the army," said Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee to one of his Corps commanders, Gen. James Longstreet. "To be a good commander, you must be willing to order the death of the thing you love."

Sacrifice, commitment, courage, even faith: American soldiers grasp and appreciate the value of these virtues implicitly.

EAST AND WEST

Martial artists (combatants in the purest sense) have embraced such virtues for thousands of years. They've long understood that without harnessing the absolute power of the body, mind, and spirit one cannot expect to achieve what the greatest practitioners of the arts have achieved. It's not all about fighting skills. It's about something difficult to articulate, transcendental, spiritually (therefore physically) disciplining and energy heightening, among other fight-enhancing and fight-surviving pluses.

"Martial arts stem from monastic traditions going back centuries," says Dr. Jennifer Lawler, a 2nd degree Black Belt in Taekwondo and author of Martial Arts for Dummies. "From the very beginning there has been the intertwining of a religious or spiritual life with a military or warrior's life. My theory for why is that early people in religious life often had a strong sense of self and purpose. Unlike a peasant who might have been crushed under the heel of any soldier who came along, these [religious or spiritual] people were willing to stand up for their beliefs and defend their beliefs. They were not going to change the color of their coat because the emperor said X or Y."

Consequently, many of the earliest Eastern warriors applied what defined them – their spirituality and commitment to faith – into their training for defense. This ultimately led to military philosophies and warrior codes such as Japan's Bushido (literally, the way or path of the warrior).

It was the same in Western Europe where knighthood – with its spiritual underpinnings and concepts of chivalry and military orders – arose from feudalism beginning around the time of the Holy Roman Empire. In fact, the religious virtues – valor, mercy, protecting the weak, a sense of fair, and faith in God – cultivated by knights and orders during the Middle Ages are the same virtues prized today in Western soldiers.

THE NATIVE AMERICAN WAY OF WAR

In the Americas, Native Indians also embraced the relationship between spirituality and warfighting, and much of the transcendental quality of Native American warfare (and preparation for war) has made its way into the traditions of the American military: Particularly modern U.S. special operations forces which trace their lineages to early American raiders, rebels, Rangers, Indian fighters and the Indians they fought.

"Spiritual preparation [including prayer] enabled the soldier to lay aside the everyday life and take on the warrior," says author Holly McClure, whose maternal ancestry is Cherokee. "When the job was done, and it was time to return to a peaceful life, ritual purification [also including prayer] provided a way to lay aside the warrior and the ordeal of war and return to a peaceful life."

Today, spiritual preparation and religious-like rituals – emphasizing a rebirth (a washing away of the old undisciplined self) – as well as Western European knighthood are very much part of developing new American recruits and standing-up military forces, particularly within elite military organizations.

OATHS AND UTTERANCES

Among the rites is the taking of oaths, similar to the ancient Apostles' Creed, the Jewish "Shmah," even the Buddhists' Brahma Net Sutra, among others. All new American recruits swear an oath upon enlisting in any of branch of service "to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic ..." bearing "true faith and allegiance to the same ..." and "So help me God."

Then there are the more martial oaths reflecting, like the knights of old, a commitment to arms.

The Rifleman's Creed, also known as the Marines' Creed is one such oath, uttered by young Marine recruits as they go through the greater rite-of-passage known as Marine boot camp. A portion of that oath reads:

"This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
My rifle is my best friend. It is my life.
I must master it as I must master my life.
My rifle, without me, is useless. Without my rifle, I am useless.
...
We will become part of each other. We will ...

Before God I swear this creed.
My rifle and I are the defenders of my country.
We are the masters of our enemy.
We are the saviors of my life."

Even the Corps' motto, "Semper Fidelis" – Latin for "Always Faithful" – expresses a commitment of eternal fidelity to God, country, and Corps: In that order.

Retired Marine Lt. Col. Heath L. McMeans, my uncle and a World War II-era Marine officer may have expressed it best when he told me years ago that the traditional American military services – Army, Navy, and Air Force – "are like Protestants" in their approaches to training and active service. Whereas, U.S. Marines are "like Catholics, maybe even Jesuits."

Now, that may be an exaggeration, an oversimplification, perhaps a bit of boasting. But it is also a recognition of the Corps' religious-like commitment to duty. In fact, the more we see spirituality and religious-like indoctrination and commitment infused into military units; the more "elite" we see they become.

SPIRITUALITY AND SPECIAL WARFARE

Special operations units within the various branches also appeal to the spirituality of their individual operators.

Commandos, in fact, pray. They appeal to something beyond their physical selves. They tap deep for something – perhaps something supernatural – within themselves for strength to excel, to endure the most extreme conditions, and to be clean, pure, and fair in all of their pursuits.

The motto of the U.S. Army's Special Forces is De Oppresso Liber (literally "To free from oppression"), a commitment to rescuing the weak and downtrodden, by extreme force if necessary.

The often-secretive U.S. Navy SEALs have a somewhat "spiritual" code, invoking members of the elite SEAL Teams to "... never quit," "excel as warriors through discipline and innovation," and to "earn your trident [the emblem of SEALs] everyday."

A portion of the U.S. Army Ranger Creed reads: "Never shall I fail my comrades. I will always keep myself mentally alert, physically strong and morally straight; I will shoulder more than my share of the task whatever it may be, one hundred percent and then some."

Granted, not all special operators, Rangers, and Marine infantrymen are "clean, pure and fair" men. But most are, and all of their organizations strive to ensure they are.

In his book, Corps Values – Everything You Need to Know I Learned in the Marines, former Georgia Governor and U.S. Senator Zell Miller wrote that the foundation for much of his personal value system was built by "experiencing and surviving the mind-expanding and soul-challenging ordeal of Marine Corps boot camp."

THE HAND OF GOD

Beyond the religiosity of military indoctrination and service, there is also what I personally believe to be the recognition by military commanders of the absolute hand of God in all things. Providence stirs history, and the greatest of the world-shaping, watershed events in history are often a direct result of the outcomes of war and military expeditions. This may well play a role in the reasoning behind the importance of – and emphasis on – religiosity in military service: Again, not in the sense of a specific denomination or faith, but in a religious-like approach to service.

America's first great commander (and yes, despite the naysayers, he was in many ways a great commander), Gen. George Washington, recognized this. On August 3, 1776, he issued the following statement to his troops: "The General [Washington speaking of himself in the third person] ... hopes that the officers ... and the men will reflect that we can have little hope of the blessing of Heaven on our arms, if we insult it by our impiety and folly."

During World War II, on the eve of the June 6, 1944 invasion of Normandy, Supreme Allied Commander U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower issued a battle message read over loudspeakers to all American and British forces as their ships cleared the harbors. The message concluded with, "...let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking."

Months later, when Gen. George S. Patton Jr. was preparing to punch through the enemy lines to relieve the besieged 101st Airborne Division at Bastogne, he prayed:

"Almighty and most merciful Father, we humbly beseech Thee, of Thy great goodness, to restrain these immoderate rains with which we have had to contend. Grant us fair weather for Battle. Graciously hearken to us as soldiers who call Thee that, armed with Thy power, we may advance from victory to victory, and crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies, and establish Thy justice among men and nations. Amen."

Clearly, there is a link between spirituality and 'combatant' military service. It extends far beyond Western culture. It is the very dynamic – that in a distorted, misinterpretation of religious teachings – has emboldened our current enemies in the Global War on Terror. But whether distorted or fairly adapted, the relationship is effective. We scoff at – or attempt to quash – that relationship within our own military forces at the risk of diluting the very soul of the American warrior. For as the great Swedish battle captain Gustavas Adolphus said in 1630, "A good Christian will never make a bad soldier."

— W. Thomas Smith Jr., a former U.S. Marine infantry leader, parachutist, and shipboard counterterrorism instructor, writes about military/defense issues and has covered conflict in the Balkans and on the West Bank. He is an award-winning author of four books, the co-author of two, and his articles have appeared in USA Today, George, U.S. News & World Report, BusinessWeek, National Review Online, CBS News, The Washington Times, and many others.

W. Thomas Smith Jr. can be reached at wthomassmithjr@yahoo.com.

© 2007 W. Thomas Smith Jr.

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