Welcome Back – Citadel Class of 2009

Citadel Class of 2009 –that sounds unbelievable doesn’t it! It seems like we just sent off the Class 2008 into the world and now it is already time to welcome another class. Each year articles appear talking about our Cadets. Well it is that time of the year again and articles about how hard it is to be a Knob, how they are or will become great leaders either in the military or business will be common place. Read the article below to find out Robert Freer challenges to the new Knobs with this year. Welcome to the Corps of Cadets at the Citadel!

By Robert E. Freer, Jr., President of The Free Enterprise Foundation

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both and be one traveler, long I stood and looked down one as far as I could to where it bent in the undergrowth.” Robert Frost

For the estimated 2.95 million high school graduates contemplating their future this year, the road they choose is among the most life shaping decisions they will be called upon to make in their young lives. For those who select, along with a solid majority of their peers, to proceed immediately to college, they are then faced with a mind numbing array of alternatives to match their skills and interests with one of the many fine higher educational institutions available in The United States.

Amidst a boom in applications and commitments to the Corps of Cadets, The Citadel quietly travels its own road. Of those millions of graduates, an infinitesimal number, less than one percent, will elect to travel the road that includes four years at one of the national service academies, The Citadel, VMI or one of the maritime service alternatives. For those that do, their path is unique in its emphasis on self discipline, leadership and a pronounced sense of honor. Most of all, graduates who trod this path will have selected a life’s path that is directed towards service above self. These young men and women will not simply learn a marketable skill; they will build themselves into a unique product. They will become tomorrow’s leaders!

No place is that more true than at The Military College of South Carolina, known to all as ‘The Citadel.” From my close observation, “The Citadel Way,” whether you end up in a military career or leading one of our civilian enterprises, will change you. It will temper you into polished steel. It will teach you what is right and give you tools to assist you when confronted with life’s dilemma that what is right is not always easy. It remains, however, the right way, the way The Citadel and generations of its graduates have lived their lives and expect their successors to follow in providing this generation’s need for leadership in the challenges that surely will come.

One of my courses in The Citadel’s School of Business Administration allows my students approaching graduation to reflect on their ideal of a leader of principle, a central part of the school’s mission, and to express their own understanding of that term in the lives that await them beyond Lesesne Gate. For these maturing cadets on the cusp of graduation, character is everything in leadership. Writing of Robert E. Lee and George Washington, one put it this way, “They had the trust of their men behind them which, in turn, carried them through many defeats and trying times.” It is clear to my students that, like the nail in the 14th century rhyme, for want of character, trust will be lost, for want of trust, leadership is lost and for want of leadership, life’s battles will be lost.

The course exposes them to the words of leaders who have gone before, one, General Mark Clark, the eleventh president of The Citadel, noted, “I would put character at the top of the list.” as a requirement for leadership, and his words come back to me in what they write. “Leaders, one writes, are held to higher standards as they set themselves as role models to those they are leading.” Citing Gen William H. Simpson, one writes about character as the foundation of what a leader of principle is composed. “A man of high character has integrity, he is honest, he is reliable, [and] he is straightforward in dealing with people.”

Their maturity is not exhibited just by repeating what leaders who have gone before have said but by what they have done and their own experiences as a part of the Corps of Cadets. As members of The Corps, they have been stressed; they have suffered, and they have grown in their empathy for those in life they encounter. They understand the role of the human touch in leadership. One wrote of Lt. Colonel Van Antwerp during the First Iraqi War, noticing the fatigued and ragged nature of his troops. One of them was cutting the hair of a long line of his fellow soldiers with an old mechanical clipper. The Colonel had his electric clippers with him and announced. “Okay, who is the first one up?” My student wrote of it as an act of respect and concern that endeared him to his battalion. It also provided him an opportunity to get to know many of them he had not had an opportunity to speak to before. “It is imperative for a leader to take the time and get to know those he is leading. A leader is not chosen to sit quietly; they are supposed to be looking for ways to improve issues the group may have.”

Academics are taught in the classroom, leadership is taught in The Corps. One of my students writes, “To be a leader you have to know how to be a follower” The knob year makes followers of all comers and levels the class into its own identity. Great cadets hold their knobs accountable but do not abuse them. They teach and demonstrate those traits that need to be emulated to be successful in the Corps and in life.

For one knob responsibility began during “Hell Week” when he was made responsible to the cadre sergeant for his squad. If the squad didn’t look right or act right he would pay. Self motivation comes hard and fast for all knobs, but the satisfaction of doing it right is worth the effort in self respect and identification with unit goals accomplished.

As a sophomore, this cadet was responsible for three knobs and used his knob year sergeant’s lessons to pour all the motivation he could into his four charges. He drilled them hard but taught them well and was keenly proud of the result, not only on the parade deck but in their dealings with others. Junior year this cadet became a platoon sergeant responsible for 40 cadets and found it stressful but ultimately satisfying. You must know more than those you lead. He writes: “Discipline - we operate a leadership laboratory which emphasizes a structured environment, acceptance of responsibility, self confidence and service to others.” He concludes with a catalogue of leadership traits, all central to the success of cadet leaders; professional bearing, courage to stay calm in the face of danger or criticism, enthusiasm, initiative, judgment, tact, and foremost, loyalty and a high sense of duty.

While the Citadel succeeds for most, it does not succeed for all. The lessons are taught and each of our graduates is stamped with their years in this place. Those who are most successful come to understand that while what they learn in the classroom is important to prepare them to earn a living, it is what they learn in The Corps that transforms their hearts and turns them into leaders. Welcome back, cadets. We are so proud to have you amongst us.

Copyright © 2008 by Robert E. Freer, Jr. All rights reserved

About the author: Robert E. Freer, Jr. is President of The Free Enterprise Foundation. He is a Visiting Professor, at The Citadel and elected in 2005 to be their first John S. Grinalds Leader in Residence. A regular contributor to the Mercury, He can be reached by E-mail at The Citadel . Copies of his earlier columns can be found The Free Enterprise Foundation.

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