Address to the Class of 2013

Mike Cronin, Capt USN(ret.)

August 28, 2009

Intro and greeting of dignitaries.

One day, whether you believe it or not you will be as I am- I myself have trouble believing what you are doing now I did 50 years ago. To you 50 years is an eternity. For us in the class of 1963, our plebe year seems to have been only a few years ago and the memories are still fresh.

You are the next link in our chain of history. Our 50 year predecessors were the class of 1913, who went on to World War I and fought the first U-boats and on the Western Front at places like Bellou Wood. Their predecessors by 50 years, the class of 1863 fought in the Civil War and their predecessors, the midshipmen of 1813 fought in the War of 1812 and went on to found this institution in 1845. When you shake one of our hands, you shake the hand of a man who shook the hand of a man who shook the hand of a man who fought in the Civil War. When you look at us you see people just like you but 50 years ahead of you. When read the history of our Naval Service, never forget that you are reading about people just like you who overcame their doubts and fears to rise to whatever challenges they had to face. Your turn will come and some of you will make history.

It is embarrassing to be standing here in front of you and be introduced as somewhat of a hero and the representative of my class. That is because I am just like my classmates and just like you. Some of you will someday be decorated heroes, but you will still be the same person you are now, as I am the same person I was as a new plebe --an ordinary member of the new class of 1963, undistinguished in any way and lucky to have been admitted. Many more of you will be undecorated heroes, and there are many of those in my class. That is because you have embarked on a great adventure. None of you know how that adventure will turn out. Along the way you will be tested and tried. Some of those tests may involve combat. Perhaps what you do will be seen by others and result in praise or a decoration. But many of you will face tests just as real but known about by no one but you. Only you will know how you did.

What I was involved in Vietnam was simply the way the cookie crumbled- that is to say that as a young officer, I had wanted to fly and made all the choices that led to that. Those choices were made without any knowledge of what was to come. As fortune would have it the war came and my very first flight after I finished training in the A4 was a combat mission, followed by many more and ending with a six year long experience as a POW. My one sentence description of that experience, as honest as I can make it, is only that it was a tough situation and I did the best I could. Those words could describe the experience of a great many of my classmates in a great variety of situations other than as an attack pilot or a POW.

Some view me as a victim as much as a hero. I reject both labels. I am lucky, lucky to be alive most of all. I can think of many times when by all rights I should have been dead, but here I am.

Over the years all those experiences have morphed into treasured memories. So, in spite of my own failures and limitations as an ordinary mortal, I am at peace. I have no regrets. I am convinced that the overwhelming majority of my classmates would express the same sentiments even though their own service experiences a cover vast range, some similar to mine and some very different than mine.

I will make no attempt to explain in detail what happened in Hanoi. We don't have the time and I'm sure you don't want to hear me whine about how awful it was.

Many people when they learn that I was a POW for six years tell me that they admire and respect me for what I have been through and ask how could I have possibly gotten through it. When that comes from a military person who has committed him or herself to serve our nation in uniform I always respond with two thoughts. First, I know what you are and what makes you tick and you would have done the same things I did had it been you instead of me. How did I get through it? Well what are the other choices? At least for people like you and me, there aren't any other choices. Duty, honor, country- not perfectly, but as best you can as a mortal and fallible human being.

You are now part of a very fine sub culture of our country and for the rest of your life you will have a strong idea of what to expect when you meet one of your own even though you may not ever have met before.

What happens here at USNA will not always be nice or fun. You may already be discouraged about what you have gotten yourself into. You are not alone. Many before you have felt as you do. When I was in your place, I had already added up the days left until graduation and begun ticking them off. If you have done that, take heart. That thought also represents a determination to be here on graduation day. Here, as in many difficult situations,- and USNA is a difficult situation for a new plebe- the best way out is through.

You can do this!

During your service you will operate in situations where the rules are pervasive and sometimes overwhelming. Never forget that when the chips are down you will have to operate with no rules other than your personal integrity and the training and education you receive here. I can offer an example, but it is only an example. You will encounter situations none of us can predict, but the problem is always the same. What is the right thing to do?

The example I offer is the Code of Conduct. What did the Code require of us as POWs.? First of all, what does it say? As POWs we found that there was often sharp disagreement about what the exact wording of the Code was. There was, of course, no way to get a copy. Most important, how did it apply in practice? We knew we were to “resist to the best of our ability.” But did that mean enduring torture to the point of permanent injury to protect information of limited value? How much suffering is required?

Worst of all, your initial interrogations, the ones most likely to include severe torture almost always took place before you had contact with any other POW. You were on your own without any power other than your wits, your integrity, and whatever physical and mental endurance you could muster. You were up against an enemy that had unlimited power, unlimited time, did not appear to be restrained by any rules and was unaccountable because all that they did was done in a shroud of secrecy even from their own people and probably even from their own government.

That situation invariably resulted in the POW talking or writing or giving up at least some information, however trivial or concocted. The emotional result for the POW was devastating- until he experienced the saving grace of the support of his fellow POWs all of whom had experienced the same thing. That and keeping track of who was a POW were the two most important functions of the POW clandestine communication network. We knew that there were many many among us whose names had never been released and were simply listed as missing, presumed captured. That was my own case for the first four years I was a POW.

The Vietnamese cracked our communication network many times. Some of the most courageous action taken by many POWs was simply taking the risk of torture to repeatedly reopen communication after networks had been broken up by the Vietnamese. Communication was vital to keep morale up, to allow the leaders to lead and to make it next to impossible for the Vietnamese to hold back POWs at the end of the war.

The best answers about torture, after you managed to get in touch with other POWs, were provided by our courageous leaders like Adm. Stockdale and Admiral Lawrence. All of the leaders had suffered much torture themselves. Their guidance was that we were always to start with no and do the best we could. Do not let them do permanent damage to you. Should you falter, leave that behind and start over with no the next time. No defeat is permanent unless accepted as such.

You were always alone at interrogation and no one but you would know what really happened. The end result was that in interrogation you were on your own with only your conscience and your integrity to guide you. So the real result was to start with no, use your head and do your best and be ready to do it again the next day. There was no possibility of setting any real standard of how much pain was enough. Do your best and be sure you can live with yourself when it's over.

“No excuse sir!” By now all of you have learned to say that. I hope you have begun to understand there is more to that than plebe training.

All of you will make many mistakes in your life and in your career, just as all of us in the class of 1963 have done over and over again, for all of us are ordinary mortals. I hope you will take to heart the spirit of “No excuse sir!” That spirit is not merely the repetition of those words. It is the realization that the very best way to fix a mistake is to admit that you've made a mistake. First admit it to yourself and as appropriate to all involved. Only then can you get on with solving the problem. I think that holds true in every human activity in the Naval service or elsewhere. Through denial and rationalization you may fool yourself and those around you for a while- but not for too long. Too much of that and you are on your way to losing the respect of all with whom you interact from the highest to the lowest.

I can not give that advice any better than it has been written by Shakespeare in Hamlet. In that play, an older man like me, is wishing his son farewell as he goes of to begin his adult life, just as you are doing now. I quote the speech of Polonius to Laertes that I have always thought perfectly sums up advice to a young man or woman entering a career. And so, from all of us old guys, we offer this advice:

Give thy thoughts no tongue,

Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.

Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar;

The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,

Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;

But do not dull thy palm with entertainment

Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade. Beware

Of entrance to a quarrel, but, being in,

Bear 't that th' opposed may beware of thee.

Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice;

Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,

But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;

For the apparel oft proclaims the man.

Neither a borrower, nor a lender be;

For loan oft loses both itself and friend,

And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.

This above all: to thine own self be true,

And it must follow, as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man.

William Shakespeare.

Much of what this fine institution is trying to teach you is well expressed in that quote. These ideas have been tested in war and peace for a long long time. Absorb all you can.

You can do this!

Were it possible, I think each one of my classmates here would instantly trade places with you.

Good Luck from all of us to each and every one of you!