Commencement address by Capus Waynick, 1959

COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS AT GRADUATION OF FIRST CLASS OF NORTH CAROLINA NATIONAL GUARD OFFICER CANDIDATE SCHOOL FORT BRAGG June 20, 1969 By Capus Waynick

We are assembled here today to celebrate the completion of the courses of instruction and training required for the first class of the North Carolina National Guard Officer Candidate School leading to a Commission in the North Carolina National Guard. As a First, this occasion has important historical significance. We originate a method for the strengthening of the command of the Guard in North Carolina by strict and thorough schooling of carefully selected candidates for commissions as Second Lieutenants.

You are privileged to be in the first graduating class of this new institution which we expect to be of great service to the State and to the reserve forces of the nation.

The Constitution of the United States in its first Article provides for the organization, arming and disciplining of the militia. The Constitution of North Carolina declares that "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed" * * * and in another Article all able-bodied men of twenty to forty years of age are declared to constitute the militia of the State. The provisions are made in the Constitution for the organization, equipment and training of these defenders of the State.

- 2 -

You qualify today for an assignment of command in this force so vital to the preservation of human freedom.

I want to quote liberally from a fine treatise on the subject of the meaning of your commission which emanates from the Department of Defense: "Upon being commissioned in the Armed Services of the United States, a man incurs a lasting obligation to cherish and protect his country and to develop within himself that capacity and reserve strength which will enable him to serve its arms and the welfare of his fellow Americans with increasing wisdom, diligence, and patriotic conviction."

This authority declares that the trust a commission reposes in the highest military commander is not more than what is encharged to the newest second lieutenant; and it is not less. The commission gives special distinction to the man and requires that "The measure of his devotion to the service of his country be distinctive, as compared with the charge laid upon the average citizen".

I quote again when I say to you that "The military officer is considered a gentleman not because Congress wills it nor because it has been the custom of people in all times to afford him that courtesy, but specifically because nothing less than a gentleman is truly suited for his particular set of responsibilities".

We are told, and I commend this statement to you, that "To call forth great loyalty in other people and to harness it to any noble undertaking, one must first be sensible of their finer instincts and feelings. Certainly these things at least are among the gentle qualities which are desired in every military officer: (1) Strong belief in human rights; (2) Respect for the dignity of every other person; (3) The Golden Rule attitude

- 3 -

towards one's daily associates; (4) An abiding interest in all aspects of human welfare; (5) a willingness to deal with every man as considerately as if he were a blood relative." I assent to the proposition that these qualities are proof of strength, not of softness. Men ought to be led by strong men, firm and demandful in discipline but gentle and considerate underneath as marks the quality of a true gentleman.

Referring again to my esteemed authority, I say to you that you may "abhor war fully, despise militarism absolutely, deplore all of the impulses in human nature which make armed force necessary and still agree that for the world as we know it the main hope is that peace-loving nations must be capable of defeating nations which are willing to wage aggressive war."

You have qualified yourselves to become part of a reserve force that is now the most important first line reserve of the Armed Services of the nation. As Adjutant General of North Carolina and Commander under the Governor of the National Guard of this State, I thank you for your dedication to this achievement and congratulate you upon it.

Recently some ill-advised effort has been made to reduce the strength of the National Guard of the United States. Rallying to defence of the Guard was a solid plalanx of Governors of The States and a practically solid Congress. These important representatives of the people were profoundly convinced that now is not a time to reduce the strength of this vital first line reserve.

Our country faces its greatest challenge in its entire history. Our country has become the strongest reliance for the defense of what remains of the free world. Therefore, you may look upon your commission as a

- 4 -

manifestation of a peculiar trust of people disturbed to their very depths as they confront the danger in this challenge.

But I want to speak to you briefly here today of another part of your role, of another angle of the basic significance of your commission. Yours, I admonish you, is a duty transcending competent command in whatever National Guard assignment you receive.

Let me attempt to make my thought here clear.

You who are tennis players or golfers know that you must have a strong stance for an effective swing. A nation must have a strong stance when it is forced to exercise its power in self-defense. This interpreted means that I place great emphasis on the vital necessity of this nation of ours to start right at home to make a better and a stronger free world. You will have a great part of the responsibility for that part of the strengthening of our forces.

The National Guard of the United States is centered in some 2600 communities in the country. This mighty organization is one of the truly disciplined elements in the population. We boast of our freedom and we are willing to fight to preserve it. But we need to strengthen and refine the enjoyment of it.

We have alarming evidence of some disintegrating forces at work in the population. I am not referring to the intrusion of communism or any political concept. I am referring to the increase of crime and of disabling delinquency representative of lost or decaying ideals. I am aware of the fact that our young people have lost some of the edge of their dedication to the patriotic fundamentals and the standards of lofty conduct. In my opinion, every member of the National Guard - and particularly every man

- 5 -

honored with a commission - can be of increasing power in aiding in the restoration of standards leading to a better disciplined, a cleaner living, a stronger fibered generation.

Recently the Governor appointed a Youth Fitness Commission which is beginning to plan a program calculated to strengthen the young people of North Carolina physically and emotionally. It is contemplated that the National Guard, with its finely trained officers and its equipment and armories, will be called upon to aid greatly in this program. I solicit your special interest in it when it is developed.

We pray for peace. We contemplate with horror the possibility that mankind has not reached the point where political leaders will do their utmost to avoid international conflict. We recognize the catastrophe that an atomic war would be. Unfortunately, we cannot decide between peace and war ourselves. We must be faithful to freedom, which means we must risk conflict and bear its terrors if it comes.

As we consider the possibility of such conflict we hear much of push button war and the increasing importance of the machine and scientific techniques in comparison with the importance of the human individual. It is my opinion that if war comes, despite all the modernization of the implements for the fight, we will be forced to recognize that the trained, disciplined and courageous individual in the Armed Services will prove to be more important than at any time in the past.

If war comes, it probably will be characterized by a blitz attack on the critical targets of our country, followed by an attempt at air invasion. The enemy will desire to take over our wealth as nearly unimpaired as possible