Today marks the 30th year since the day that I and my classmates in the West Point Class of 1991 took a solemn oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
The thirtieth anniversary of an event of investiture was extremely significant in ancient cultures such as ancient Egypt, where a special festival would be observed at the thirtieth year of a king's reign, for example. The significance of this anniversary likely derives from the cycle of the orbit of the planet Saturn, the farthest visible planet and the one who "gives the measures" (including the measure of time) in the world's ancient systems, as explained by the authors of Hamlet's Mill (1969).
Above is a clip of video from that day, now thirty days ago, which I assembled from videos uploaded by my West Point Class of '91 classmate Eric Kelly (and likely filmed by one of his friends or family members). You can see the original videos Eric posted on YouTube -- the footage above is from videos 4 and 5 in his 5-part series.
I chose to focus on the singing of the Alma Mater and the recitation of the Oath of Commissioning, concluding with the dismissal of the class. I find it significant that we still retain the older tradition of singing together at important occasions, something that was once an integral part of our culture but which has all but disappeared over the past one hundred years.
It is very moving for me to see the faces of my friends and classmates from that day, some of whom have now already run their course on earth and to whom we say, "Well done."
And it is equally moving for me to reflect on the feelings of that day, now so long ago, and the promise that it held, and the significance of the charge included in that Oath, recorded here, which I share with you.