The age old question…….. in the light of what I see polluting our military of late, it becomes more critical today than perhaps ever in our two and one half centuries. One of the first lessons drummed into our heads as young Midshipmen was that the US Military was apolitical. Ours not to reason why and all that; in this country civilian control of the military is the prevailing doctrine as laid out in our Constitution.

However, James Madison expressed his concerns about a strong military before the Constitutional Convention:

In time of actual war, great discretionary powers are constantly given to the Executive Magistrate. Constant apprehension of War, has the same tendency to render the head too large for the body. A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive, will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defense against foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people.

But in this country today, we see something which our founding fathers perhaps never foresaw - we see an executive who craves power for power’s sake, we see a legislative branch so filled with craven toadies that they refuse to exercise their legal power to reign in the executive, and worst of all, we are beginning to see a military force which has forgotten it’s oath. When I joined the US Navy, I swore an oath “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; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter.”

It appears that many, both civilian and military alike, have forgotten their oath. We live in a country where the sitting President has said in public that he doesn’t know if he is required to defend and follow the Constitution. And we apparently live in a country where many in government have forgotten who their boss is, who they work for - the people of this country. Not Donald Trump, and certainly not for their own aggrandizement.

I have been the watcher on the walls, the guardian of the innocent and the downtrodden, and the defender of the Constitution. And during my entire military career, I lived by the doctrine that as an officer I was not allowed to have a political opinion. Yes, I exercised my right to vote - but I kept my politics to myself. This week, I watched members of the military actually cheering while Donald Trump made blatantly political comments, while he repeated his lies about winning the 2020 election, and while he belittled his political opponents.

I am sickened by the mere thought of that happening. Yes, who shall watch the watchers now?