Submitted by Frank Garrick, Aug 28, 2007 16:06

From the day you walk on campus, to the day you graduate, the traditions of the service are taught and repeated daily. One of the quotes you learn the first month during Plebe Summer is:

"It is by no means enough that an officer of the Navy should be a capable mariner. He must be that, of course, but also a great deal more. He should be as well a gentleman of liberal education, refined manners, punctilious courtesy, and the nicest sense of personal honor.
He should be the soul of tact, patience, justice, firmness, kindness, and charity. No meritorious act of a subordinate should escape his attention or be left to pass without its reward, even if the reward is only a word of approval. Conversely, he should not be blind to a single fault in any subordinate, though at the same time, he should be quick and unfailing to distinguish error from malice, thoughtfulness from incompetency, and well meant shortcomings from heedless or stupid blunder.
In one word, every commander should keep constantly before him the great truth, that to be well obeyed, he must be perfectly esteemed. "

There are individual exceptions, but the vast majority of the graduates of all three of the service academies continue to try and meet these goals.

USNA 72

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