The Military Oath Soldiers Take

"I Larry Winters do solemnly swear (or affirm) 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; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God." (Title 10, US Code; Act of 5 May 1960 replacing the wording first adopted in 1789, with amendment effective 5 October 1962).

I have been thinking about the above military oath I took Oct 3, 1970 when I joined the United States Marines. Right now for the first time in my life I started wondering what oath did the citizenry I was protecting from communist insurgents take. If born in the US the answer is none, if you applied for citizenship here there is an oath you must take.

Then I started wondering if oaths were commitments that people still took seriously? Historically oaths were solemn statements that had to do with the truth, allegiance, promises, honor, ethics and the preservation of life. May oaths invoked a divine witness. As I contemplated this question of oaths I thought that maybe I’d missed the oath I was supposed to have taken as a young US citizen, my education was quite lackluster and maybe I was out the day we studied citizen oaths. Or was it as simple as the US constitution was the oath we all were given to live by. Maybe I never really understood that this was a deep commitment that should guide my personal life and behavior. Doing some research on this topic I found that there is no citizen oath for those born here in the US. I also found that there was a citizen oath in ancient Grease called the Athenian Ephebic Oath. The next installment with start with the Ephebic Oath. Comment Welcome