Military Leaders From The United States

"Developed and refined over two centuries, the Cadet Honor Code is a foundation for a lifelong commitment to doing what's right."

"Lieutenant General Robert F. Foley graduated in 1963 from the U.S. Military Academy. He was a company commander during the War in Vietnam, a battalion and brigade commander with the 3rd Infantry Division in Germany, assistant division commander, 2nd Infantry Division in Korea, West Point's commandant of cadets, and commanding general, Fifth U.S. Army. His awards include the Medal of Honor, the Farleigh-Dickinson University Pinnacle Award, and the U.S. Military Academy Distinguished Graduate Award. General Foley and his wife, Julie, reside in Alexandria, VA and have two sons, a daughter and seven grandchildren."

"On the other hand, there have been incidents in the past where Medal of Honor recipients expected special treatment. On one occasion, I received a phone call from the Fort Benning garrison commander requesting my advice about a newly arrived Medal of Honor recipient who complained that he was not being saluted as he wore his award around post and wanted to know when his welcome parade would be scheduled. I took very little time to straighten this soldier out. I see no evidence of expectations from today's recipients, but I have witnessed disdain from a few leaders with preconceived notions about the self-aggrandizing nature of Medal of Honor recipients. For example, one time a general officer and senior rater of my officer efficiency report said to me, "The blue ribbon you wear is an albatross around your neck." I am convinced that I have earned respect from others not due to past awards but because of who I am and the leadership attributes I possess that can help accomplish the mission and make a difference in leading soldiers."

"For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Capt. Foley's company was ordered to extricate another company of the battalion. Moving through the dense jungle to aid the besieged unit, Company A encountered a strong enemy force occupying well-concealed, defensive positions, and the company's leading element quickly sustained several casualties. Capt. Foley immediately ran forward to the scene of the most intense action to direct the company's efforts. Deploying one platoon on the flank, he led the other two platoons in an attack on the enemy in the face of intense fire. During this action both radio operators accompanying him were wounded. At grave risk to himself, he defied the enemy's murderous fire and helped the wounded operators to a position where they could receive medical care. As he moved forward again one of his machine-gun crews was wounded. Seizing the weapon, he charged forward firing the machine gun, shouting orders, and rallying his men, thus maintaining the momentum of the attack. Under increasingly heavy enemy fire he ordered his assistant to take cover and, alone, Capt. Foley continued to advance firing the machine gun until the wounded had been evacuated and the attack in this area could be resumed. When movement on the other flank was halted by the enemy's fanatical defense, Capt. Foley moved to personally direct this critical phase of the battle. Leading the renewed effort he was blown off his feet and wounded by an enemy grenade. Despite his painful wounds he refused medical aid and persevered in the forefront of the attack on the enemy redoubt. He led the assault on several enemy gun emplacements and, singlehandedly, destroyed three such positions. His outstanding personal leadership under intense enemy fire during the fierce battle which lasted for several hours inspired his men to heroic efforts and was instrumental in the ultimate success of the operation. Capt. Foley's magnificent courage, selfless concern for his men, and professional skill reflect the utmost credit upon himself and the U.S. Army."

"I have been asked if the Medal of Honor helped me advance throughout my career. When U.S. Army centralized selection boards meet to consider a soldier's qualifications for schools, commands, and promotion, awards and decorations are certainly considered. My philosophy has been straightforward- I paid little attention to where my officers went to college or what awards they have received in the past. Instead, I focused on what they could do today, tomorrow, and the next day in leading their soldiers and enhancing unit readiness. I am convinced that my superiors have, for the most part, exercised a similar outlook."

"Before my introduction, the master of ceremonies asked all graduates to stand. The colonel then told all those who graduated in the top 10 percent of their class to be seated- expecting me to sit. But I remained standing. He then asked all who graduated in the top 25 percent and then top 50 percent of their class to be seated. I continued to stand. After going to the top 75 percent of the class, I was the only one left standing. Finding himself in an awkward position the colonel decided that a protocol along the lines of discipline instead of academics would be more appropriate for the commandant of cadets. He again directed the graduates to stand and asked all who had never walked the area to take a seat. (Walking the area was punishment for misconduct violations and conducted in dress gray uniform with rifle in front of the central area guard room.) The great majority of the graduates sat down- but not me. He then went to less than 25 hours, fully expecting me to sit, but I remained on my feet. Visibly sweating, he then decided to clear up the predicament by jumping to less than 75 hours on the area. I was the only one in the banquet hall left standing. With no credibility left as the commandant of cadets, I was introduced to a standing ovation."

"But a positive command environment doesn't just magically show up. It is created by the people in the organization reaching out to their fellow soldiers or employees who pursue excellence in all that they do every day. In the final analysis, leaders instill the values, courtesies, consideration, and standards that establish and sustain a positive command climate. Soldiers and civilian employees take pride in the camaraderie of a professional, upbeat organization in which they can feel good about who they are, where they are, and where they are headed in life."

"The most dangerous threat in combat is not the enemy- it's complacency. Stop everything when you hear the terms "routine mission" or "all is going well." Continuous threat analysis is vital. A patrol that leaves at the same time at night, using the same path, and returns on the same route at the same time subjects the patrol and the parent unit to ambush and infiltration. The same is true for commercial enterprises that are competing in the marketplace every day- embracing new ideas and securing proprietary technology is key to corporate longevity."

"The United States Military Academy was born of necessity. In its earliest days our Nation found itself reliant on Armed Forces to first establish and then maintain itself in the face of external military challenges. Lacking experience and expertise in that realm, we were often obliged to look abroad for examples and guidance. Fortunately, men of genius and dedication came forward such as Lafayette, von Steuben, and Kosciusko, yet America clearly needed her own school for professional officers. General George Washington had been advocating establishment of such an institution for many years, as had other senior officers of the Continental Army. Events in his presidency convinced Thomas Jefferson of the necessity, leading him on 16 March 1802 to sign a bill establishing the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. Developing and commissioning leaders of character for the United States Army has been West Point's mission ever since, with the inspiration and the challenge of its Cadet Honor Code setting a high standard for those who would choose to earn the right to lead America's Soldiers."

"There is an old saying, "Give every dog two bites"; but Kimmel and Short were not even allowed one; they were relieved from active duty forthwith. Admiral Turner, however, was conceded two bites- Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Savo Island, after which he became a highly successful practitioner of amphibious warfare. General Marshall functioned brilliantly as Chief of Staff; and Admiral Stark, as Commander United States Naval Forces Europe in London, acquitted himself very well. Admiral Kimmel and General Short were so shaken by the attack that they had to be relieved anyway; but they might, with justice, have been given honorable commands elsewhere."

"The gravest charge against Admiral Kimmel and General Short is that they virtually ignored the "war warning" dispatch of 17 November from Washington. Admiral Kimmel, as we have seen, did send air reinforcement promptly to Wake and Midway Islands. He had already (with Admiral Bloch's cooperation) set up the surface and air patrol off the mouth of Pearl Harbor which encountered the midget submarines. Thus, the charge whittles down to this: that he did not repeat this warning and beef-up air patrol after 17 November. He thought that he had done everything that could reasonably be expected, in view of the intelligence received. Nevertheless, an "unwarranted feeling of immunity from attack" prevailed in Oahu at the crucial moment, as Admiral King observed; and it is not unfair to hold Kimmel and Short responsible."

"The Pacific Fleet was inferior to the Japanese Fleet in every category of fighting ship... Japan, at the outbreak of hostilities, had nine aircraft carriers in commission. We had three carriers in the Pacific and those did not have their full quota of planes. Although the battleships of the fleet were all approximately the same age as the heavy ships of the Japanese Navy, our ships were particularly deficient in short-range anti-aircraft weapons..."

"I was in such a hurry to see Kimmel that I commandeered the first boat I found. Machine-gunners were firing at everything that moved, and bullets whizzed around us all the way to CINCPAC's landing, but the black-out saved us from damage. In peacetime Pearl, the officers wore whites on Sundays. Kimmel and his staff were still wearing their Sunday uniforms, crumpled, and spotted with mud. Their faces were haggard and unshaven, but their chins were up. Kimmel himself was a marvel of cool efficiency, although the hysteria that surged around him mounted by the minute: eight Japanese transports had been seen rounding Barbers Point; Jap gliders and paratroopers- their uniforms were described- had just landed at Kanoehe. I broke out laughing. Kimmel wheeled on me. "What the hell is there to laugh about?" I said, I've heard a lot of wild reports in my life, but that's the wildest I ever heard! The Japs can't possibly tow gliders here from their nearest base, and certainly they're not going to waste their precious carrier decks on any such nonsense. My God!""

"Even then, I think everyone present knew that the disaster would be formally investigated, but I'll take my oath that not one of us would have guessed that the blame would fall on Kimmel, because not one of us thought he deserved it- any part of it. I want to emphasize my next statement. In all my experience, I have never known a Commander in Chief of any United States Fleet who worked harder, and under more adverse circumstances, to increase its efficiency and to prepare it for war; further, I know of no officer who might have been in command at the time who could have done more than Kimmel did. I also want to repeat and reemphasize the answer I made when the Roberts Commission asked me how I happened to be ready for the Japanese attack. I told them, "Because of one man: Admiral Kimmel." Who, then, is to blame? Look at it logically: the attack succeeded because Admiral Kimmel and General Short could not give Pearl Harbor adequate protection. They could not give it because they did not have it to give. They did not have it because Congress would not authorize it. Congress is elected by the American people. And the blame for Pearl Harbor rests squarely on the American people and nowhere else. Instead of trying to dodge our responsibility by smirching two splendid officers, we should be big enough to acknowledge our mistakes- and wise enough to profit by him."

"From: CINCPAC To: All ships present AIR RAID PEARL HARBOR X THIS IS NO DRILL"

"Goddamnit, use your common sense!"

"All this was long ago. Nearly two-thirds of my classmates are dead, and not one of us is left on active duty. But there might be one if a close friend of mine received his justice. I refer, and will refer again, to Husband E. Kimmel."

"Well, at this point, I think, we have to conclude that there is a universal opposition to any peace arrangement that involves a recognition of any Russian success. In fact, if anything, it looks more and more as though Ukrainians are almost incidental to the operation, in the sense that they are there to impale themselves on the Russian army and die in great numbers. Because the real goal of this entire thing is the destruction of the Russian state and Vladimir Putin. And no one is prepared to stop anything as long as there is the slightest hope that something terrible will happen to Russia and to Putin. Of course, I don't see much evidence that that's going to be the case, but it doesn’t really matter here. Everyone has universally signed on for the Russian hate campaign, or hatred for Russia campaign, and that seems to go on regardless of what is reported. And frankly, the absence of much truth and reporting and a lot of wishful thinking in its place is hard to overestimate or exaggerate. It’s terrible."

"The issue for the Russians from the very beginning has been, "How do we proceed without killing large numbers of civilians and inflicting a lot of property damage?" And Putin gave very strict orders from the outset that they were to avoid these things. The problem with avoiding it is that it has slowed the progress of the operation to the point where it has given false hope both to the Ukrainians, but I think has been seized on by people in the West to try and convince the world that a defeat is in progress when, in fact, the opposite is the case. So, the war itself at this stage of the game could be decided very, very rapidly—permanently if Putin were to give the order and allow the forces to disregard the concern for civilians and property damage. But he hasn't done that. He has continued to negotiate even though he recognizes that the people sitting across from him really are not in a position to deliver very much. They’re being told what to do, and it's very obvious that Washington wants this to continue as long as possible in the hopes that Russia will be desperately harmed. I just don’t see that happening."

"I really think the president and his supporting advisers believe that somehow or another, they're going to arrive at a negotiating table in the future where they will be able to dictate terms to Moscow. And that's not going to happen."

"One Sunday, I was carrying out my training in a reveries, my imagination running wild as I gunned my machine into a tight turn, dipping low to compensate for centrifugal force. Suddenly over the din of the exhaust there came the frantic scream of a frightened horse. I hurriedly braked and watched the terrified animal plunge down the side of the mountain, then across the stream and into the trees on the other side. It was obviously a U.S. Cavalry mount. Between calling soothing words to his animal, the uniformed rider shouted for me to cut my engine. I almost fell off the motorcycle when I realized it was Colonel Robert C. Richardson, the commandant of cadets. Fumbling to still my raving engine, I leaped from the machine, praying out loud that the "Com" could regain control before both he and his horse were killed. All my plans for a commission as a second lieutenant seemed to hang in the balance, but I dismissed these selfish thoughts and raced down the mountain, determined to reach the Com in time to be of some aid."

"Colonel Richardson had everything safely under control long before I caught up with him, drenched to the waist after splashing through the creek. He sat in the saddle, speaking soothingly to the panting animal and rubbing its quivering neck. I stood there at attention, feeling more in a state of shock than the horse. At least, the thought came to me, that the Com had not hit me with his riding crop. Finally, having attended to what every cavalryman considers his first duty, he turned his attention to me. "Don't you know, Mr. Scott," he said calmly, "that the bridle paths are off limits to you, much less motorcycles?" Only then did he dismount and slowly lead the quieted horse back across the stream and uphill to the path where my motorcycle lay. I tried to explain my fascination with the journeys of Marco Polo, my training for an attempt to retrace his route on a motorcycle. I even discussed with him that puzzled me. In all his journeys Marco Polo had never mentioned the Great Wall of China. The Com listened intently as we walked our mounts down the bridle path. He asked about logistics. Could I make such a journey? Had I considered every angle? I kept waiting for him to revert to being the commandant, to quote some regulation prohibiting my summer plans, but such an announcement never came. When we reached the crossroads near the Cadet Chapel, he remounted to return to the stables. Before he turned away told me to come see him at some convenient time the following week, saying that he had served as military attache in Rome before his present duty assignment. Perhaps he might be able to tell me something to help me on my monumental journey. "Good luck, Mr. Scott," he concluded. "You represent something of an enigma yourself.""

"Why are such machines necessary, a schoolchild might well ask? I would answer that having such weapons ready is the best way to make sure they will not be needed or used. I would say that if we did not have the proper state-of-the-art weapons, chances are the next generation would indeed have to fight yet another war. I would explain about the early days of World War II when we were losing all over the world; how it took two dangerous and costly years to get into service critically-needed aircraft of the right kind like the P-51 and B-29."

"The greatest thrill was the first time I ever flew with the Flying Tigers before I joined them. You see, they didn’t think much of us regular fliers. I had come in and gone to sleep under the mosquito netting, when a bunch of the Flying Tigers burst into my room. Not knowing what was happening, I grabbed the revolver I kept under my pillow and pointed it at them. They had come to ask if I would go on a mission with them, never thinking that I would. I readily agreed. They were really testing me out."

"Anyway, my adventures had run out by 1982 when I made the worst mistake of my life by shutting myself away to work night and day on this book. I gradually became worse than bored until, as the year came to a close, I knew something was very wrong with me. I could not sleep and the thought of food- even breakfast, my favorite meal of the day- made me ill. As a teen-age Merchant Marine sailor I had never been seasick even in North Atlantic storms. As a flight instructor, I had never known airsuckness in all my years of teaching acrobatics. Now my force-feedings left me nauseated. I no longer bounced out of bed, awakening to sunrises full of plans, expectations, and promises. A fog had rolled in and with it came fear, cold and stark. I have always worked to remain in good physical condition and all medical tests failed to find any problem. Then they sent me to the last department, Psychiatry. I had reactive depression. As a psychiatrist explained it, I had lived a full and productive life only to become a recluse in my self-made prison. I learned then that depression is a disease; for me, accustomed as I was to boundless good health, it was the worst sickness I have ever known. In these more enlightened times, help is finally available in some measure for the millions who suffer from depression. Just recognizing it as a disease that can be treated has been a major step."

"As these words are being written, I am in the process of moving back to Georgia. Whatever the merits of Horace Greeley's advice, I have to paraphrase Walt Whitman and say that the farther west I have gone, the worse I have felt. It took me years to catch on. Then one day I flew east to the Museum of Flight and heard a fine lady by the name of Peggy Young tell me what it was, and I was hooked; I had found my ultimate purpose in life. I am now back in the Cherokee rose state to stay, near my hometown of Macon where- so many years ago- I jumped off the roof of the tallest house in town in a homemade glider. The Museum of Aviation only came into my life recently; it was not many years ago that I lacked the sense of purpose and satisfaction that it brings me. After coming home from China, victorious over my dual obsessions, I went through the worst period of my life, and found out how very much I needed goals. Big ones, too, because I never did learn how to do anything at less than full throttle."

"Every time I flew a mission, I had the nose of my plane painted a different color so that the Japanese would think these were different planes. I got credit for that idea back in America, but really the idea was not mine. It was Chennault’s. When flying over a city, we would split up, two or three going to the right, several over the center, some to the left. The noise created the impression that there were more planes than we really had."

"I was flying with 1,000-pound bombs attached to my P-51. We were escorting B-29s sent to bomb steel mills in Korea. On the return I flew over Peking and over the Great Wall. I was fascinated with it and followed it all the way to the Yangtze River. My plane made a shadow over the wall and I said out loud, ‘O God, let me one day walk were my shadow walks.’"

"I tried to kill the plane, not people. We heard that the Japanese shot our parachuting pilots, but I never saw that. We never shot a pilot who had bailed out. Sometimes you would fly near them and they would salute you. As for the planes, it varied. For a fighter, you fired where the wing joined the fuselage. For the bombers, you went for the engines. You didn’t want to get too close because the wounded plane would spew engine oil all over your plane."

"There is an archaic regulation at West Point that says a cadet shall not own a horse, a dog, or a moustache. Had the Powers That Be even suspected that I had a motorcycle that spring of 1932, it, too, would undoubtedly have been outlawed by the book of regulations. I had rented it from a shop in Highland Farms, a red Indian Scout that I had practically lived on it during the weekends from the time ice left the Hudson River. Four years of schooling in tactics and logistics had impressed upon me that no individual, much less an army, can do anything near perfect the first try. Success demands practice, doing things over and over again- what the military calls "dry runs." Thus, as the day drew closer for me to follow in the footsteps of the Venetian, I prepared by becoming completely at home on the vehicle I had chosen for my journey. The Indian was for training; I would buy another motorcycle for the trip when I got to France."

"For now, the seriousness of war had gradually come to me. Unless men like myself-thousands and millions of them-left these wonderful luxuries in this great land of America we could lose it all forever. I loved these two with all my heart, but the only way in all the world to keep them living in the clean world they were accustomed to was to steel myself to the pain of parting with them for months or years-or even forever. The actuality of war, grim war, had come. I knew then that the theoretical word “Democracy” was not what we were to fight for. I knew it was for no party, no race, creed, or color. We were going to fight, and many of us were to die, for just what I had here- my wife and family. To me, they were all that was real, they were all that I could understand. To me, they were America."

"Weekends became training manoeuvres conducted in total secrecy- a uniformed cadet could hardly ride a motorcycle openly along the Plain of West Point- to prepare myself for thousands of miles along Marco Polo's route. I soon realized that New York State roads bore little resemblance to the rough terrain I would probably encounter in Europe and Asia Minor, but in the beautiful wooded hills sloping down past Callum Hall to the Hudson River, I found mountain trails running well past Cranberry Pond that seemed ideal for my purposes. These were bridle paths used occasionally by tactical officers on duty at the Academy- many from the cavalry- or by cadets with special riding privileges."

"The only time I've ever been moderately successful in combat was in the bottom of my class at West Point because of a goat mind. And a goat is the bottom of the bottom."

"I cleared the first magnolia, but then the main wing strut broke, and I came down in Mrs. Napier's rose bushes. It's the only plane I ever crashed"

"When you run into the enemy, you’ve got to attack, no question about it."

"As far as the Breakout is that...Breakout, itself is concerned, it was dark, and it was a rather rainy, misty night. We went at high speed, ran through the mine fields, which we knew like the palm of our hands...no problem at all."

"What else could I do? You engage, you fight, you win. That is the reputation of our Navy, then and in the future."

"I don't know what a hero is. This business of the captain taking all the credit, ordering someone else and so forth -- that's not it. The men who do the actual fighting, man the guns, they're the guys that really win the war."

"PT boats are very, very, in many ways, very fine to keep at sea at long times and do varied jobs. Well, since D-day, my boats have been out here in the line from 10 to 14 days at a time. We often run out of food, we have trouble with the weather, but the boys are taking it fine. I think we've done the hardest thing of all, kept on our toes for whatever might have happened."

"For extraordinary heroism, distinguished service, and conspicuous gallantry above and beyond the call of duty as commander of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 3, in Philippine waters during the period from 7 December 1941 to 10 April 1942. The remarkable achievement of Lt. Comdr. Bulkeley's command in damaging or destroying a notable number of Japanese enemy planes, surface combatant and merchant ships, and in dispersing landing parties and land-based enemy forces during the four months and eight days of operation without benefit of repairs, overhaul, or maintenance facilities for his squadron, is believed to be without precedence in this type of warfare. His dynamic forcefulness and daring in offensive action, his brilliantly planned and skillfully executed attacks, supplemented by a unique resourcefullness and ingenuity, characterize him as an outstanding leader of men and a gallant and intrepid seaman. These qualities coupled with a complete disregard for his own personal safety reflect great credit upon him and the Naval Service."

"As a retired U.S. Army soldier and as a historian, I consider the issue simple. My former hero, Robert E. Lee, committed treason to preserve slavery. After the Civil War, former Confederates, their children, and their grandchildren created a series of myths and lies to hide the essential truth and sustain a racial hierarchy dedicated to white political power reinforced by violence. But for decades, I believed the Confederates and Lee were romantic warriors of a doomed but noble cause. As a soldier, a scholar, and a southerner, I believe that American history demands, at least from me, a reckoning."

"When the Supreme Court issued its decision in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, it overturned one aspect of the carefully constructed system of the racial police state in the South. Virginia did not accept the Supreme Court's decision. Initially, the Virginia governor Lindsay Almond counseled moderation, but the U.S. senator Harry Byrd, who controlled Virginia politics with an iron fist, reacted with fury when he heard Almond would acquiesce to the highest court in the land. "The top blew off the U.S. Capitol," Almond recalled. Byrd announced the state's strategy in 1956: "If we can organize the Southern states for massive resistance order... the rest of the country will realize that racial integration is not going to be accepted in the South." Almond was soon on board, declaring, "We will oppose with every facility at our command, and with every ounce of our energy, the attempt being made to mix the white and Negro races in our classrooms." Virginia followed that pronouncement with laws to back up its position, ordering schools to shutter rather than integrate."

"Resist until you are tortured, but do not take torture to the point where you lose the permanent use of your limbs."

"I never lost hope, and never did I despair of coming back alive."

"Fear is a luxury one can’t afford."

"Korea was probably the high point of my whole career as far as real gratification is concerned."

"During the whole period of time we were in prison we heard of protests. Of course, the Vietnamese exposed us to four hours minimum of propaganda a day because we had slave speakers in every cell. There was no way to get away from that. So, they dreamed up all kinds of wild tales. If 200 people marched on Washington, they made it 200,000. We learned how to deal with the numbers. Of course, every protest, every anti-war speech made by a person such as McGovern, Jane Fonda, Galbraith, all of those only encouraged the Vietnamese, prolonged the war, worsened our condition and cost the lives of more Americans on the battlefield."

"Of all the indignities we were forced to undergo, I guess I resented meeting the foreign delegations more than any other. There was something so basically inhuman about appearing before the delegations and being asked how your food was and having to say it was excellent when it was not. Or to questions of your treatment, to lie in front of the cameras and say it was great, when they had literally tortured the stuffings out of you to make you appear."

"I lived in abject misery for the rest of the time I was a prisoner, knowing that I had not upheld the standards that I expected of everyone else. Certainly it did one thing. It made me a lot more compassionate to other PW's who might be called upon or forced to give more than name, rank, serial number and date of birth."

"We were highly combat ready. We believed that the North Vietnamese, who were Communists led by the old atheist dictator, Ho Chi Minh, wanted to take over the rest of Southeast Asia. In other words, his doctrine was the same as Mao Tse Tung's and all of the rest of the militant Communists. We didn't want this to happen."