○  thayer award acceptance address  ○

outs; those boiling suns of relentless heat, those torrential rains of devastating storms; the loneliness and utter desolation of jungle trails; the bitterness of long separation from those they loved and cherished; the deadly pestilence of tropical disease; the horror of stricken areas of war; their resolute and determined defense, their swift and sure attack, their indomitable purpose, their complete and decisive victory -- always victory. always through the bloody haze of their last reverberating shot, the vision of gaunt, ghastly men reverently following your password of: duty, honor, country.

the code which those words perpetuate embraces the highest moral laws and will stand the test of any ethics or philosophies ever promulgated for the uplift of mankind. its requirements are for the things that are right, and its restraints are from the things that are wrong.

the soldier, above all other men, is required to practice the greatest act of religious training -- sacrifice.

in battle and in the face of danger and death, he discloses those divine attributes which his maker gave when he created man in his own image. no physical courage and no brute instinct can take the place of the divine help which alone can sustain him.

however horrible the incidents of war may be, the soldier who is called upon to offer and to give his life for his country is the noblest development of mankind.

you now face a new world -- a world of change. the thrust into outer space of the satellite, spheres, and missiles mark the beginning of another epoch in the long story of mankind. in the five or more billions of years the scientists tell us it has taken to form the earth, in the three or more billion years of development of the human race, there has never been a more abrupt or staggering evolution. we deal now not with things of this world alone, but with the illimitable distances and as yet unfathomed mysteries o

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