My First Oath

"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." (Title 10, US Code; Act of 5 May 1960 replacing the wording first adopted in 1789, with amendment effective 5 October 1962).

And with those words I entered the military. I enlisted in the Army National Guard when I was 19. In the six years I spent in that “reserve force” (about 2 years on active duty) I had quite a lot of time to contemplate that first oath I swore. The first thing I noticed about the oath was that it is a lifetime commitment. There is no time horizon specified, therefore even at termination of service it is still binding. This is critical for all servicemen to understand, duty does not end with discharge papers! If you have ever served in the armed forces you have taken a lifetime commitment to ‘support and defend the Constitution of the United States…”.

The next thing that struck me is the order of precedence of duty. First and foremost I swore to defend the Constitution of the United States against ALL enemies. Second I swore to be true to the principles espoused in the Constitution. Lastly I swore to obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of officers appointed over me in accordance with the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). The final clause is the only clause that is conditional. The UCMJ goes into great detail defining what lawful orders are. In the end it boils down to this: If an order is given that violates either the first or second clause of The Oath, then that order is not lawful and it is the soldier’s duty to DISOBEY the unlawful order.

So why bring this up? Why should this be a topic for discussion specifically among soldiers, sailors, marines and veterans and more generally the population at large? I chose to discuss this because much of the legislation and policies enacted recently appear to run counter to the Constitution as I understand it. Since I have sworn to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, this raises a serious dilemma. Defending the Constitution in these circumstances puts soldiers, sailors, marines, and veterans on a crash course with the Federal Government. So what are we to do? Fortunately we have provisions in place to facilitate peaceful revolutions, otherwise known as elections. The first step for anyone defending the Constitution is to lobby their elected officials at ALL LEVELS and tell them to reject further assaults on the United States Constitution and to reverse standing laws that are in conflict with it. If that fails to effect change, then it is our DUTY to vote those traitors to the Constitution out of office.

I end with a word of caution to our elected officials. The Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Veterans of these United States have all sworn an oath to defend the Constitution regardless of personal cost. For many of us, it was the first oath we swore, and as such it is our first duty. End your assaults on the Constitution of these United States or you will find yourself without employment when you are voted out of office for subverting the principles that you are supposed to defend.