Days before President Donald Trump is due to speak to graduates at the United States Military Academy, a group of graduates have issued their own message to the class of 2020 outlining concerns that “fellow graduates serving in senior-level, public positions” are undermining the credibility of an apolitical military and betraying their “commitment to Duty, Honor, Country.”
Pointing to “weak” and “self-serving leaders who emphasize loyalty over duty,” the group wrote that leaders who focus on pleasing their commanders and advancing their own careers “is not just a problem, it’s a disgrace.”
West Point graduates occupy prominent roles in the Trump administration, including Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his two closest aides at the agency, Brian Bulatao and Ulrich Brechbuhl.
“When fellow graduates fail to respect the checks and balances of government, promote individual power above country, or prize loyalty to individuals over the ideals expressed in the Constitution, it is a travesty to their oath of office,” the post said.
The post, on the site Medium, was shared and signed by “Concerned Members of the Long Gray Line,” a coalition of several hundred West Point alumni from six decades of graduating classes “who collectively served across ten presidential administrations.”
“When leaders betray public faith through deceitful rhetoric, quibbling, or the appearance of unethical behavior, it erodes public trust,” the writers said. “When fellow graduates acquiesce to bullying, and fail to defend honorable subordinates, it harms the nation and the Long Gray Line.”
The coalition wrote in the aftermath of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley’s walk, in uniform, with President Donald Trump to a church after law enforcement officials violently cleared protestors peacefully demonstrating for police reform in the wake of the murder George Floyd, an African American man in Minneapolis.
Milley, who apologized Thursday for his presence at the extended photo-op, did not study at West Point, but Esper and Pompeo are both graduates of the class of 1986. Pompeo brought two fellow 1986 graduates to the State Department with him. Brechbuhl holds the title of counselor, while Bulatao is the under secretary for management.
David Urban, another 1986 West Point graduate, has gone on to become a senior adviser to Trump’s presidential campaign and a member of the Trump 2020 advisory committee. Trump nominated Mark Green, another 1986 graduate, to be secretary of the Army. Green is now a congressman representing Tennessee.
“We, a diverse group of West Point graduates, are concerned. We are concerned that fellow graduates serving in senior-level, public positions are failing to uphold their oath of office and their commitment to Duty, Honor, Country. Their actions threaten the credibility of an apolitical military,” the post said. “We ask you to join us in working to right the wrongs and to hold each other accountable to the ideals instilled by our alma mater and affirmed by each of us at graduation.”
Calling a West Point education both “a profound gift and a sacred obligation,” the writers said it was “imperative that West Point graduates work daily to serve as ‘leaders of character.’”