By: Tim Hanrahan
Posted In: News
Photo credit: Tim Hanrahan
Dr. Elizabeth Samet, left, talks to a Naval Academy Prep School student, right, in Salve Regina University’s Pell Center after delivering a speech about the role of literature in preparing West Point cadets for leadership roles in combat.
NEWPORT R.I.- The cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point may find an unlikely ally in literature when preparing to lead soldiers into combat as future junior officers in the U.S. Army.
Dr. Elizabeth Samet, author of the award winning “Soldier’s Heart: Reading Literature Though Peace and War at West Point” and professor of English at West Point, described a capstone project at the service academy designed to open cadets’ minds up to the benefits literature has to offer when faced with the prospect of going to war. “This course helps them imagine what kinds of lieutenants they’re going to be,” Samet said, referring to the ridged structure of the military academy in the cadets’ training to become second lieutenants in the U.S. Army. Samet spoke to a full house at Salve Regina University’s Pell Center on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2009 and immediately after hosted a signing of her book. “Literature contributes to several ways,” Samet said, when asked exactly how a piece of literature can help junior officers with their leadership skills. “I believe to creating the kind of military officers precise enough to execute plans and agile enough to seize the opportunity to change and meet unforeseen emergencies.” Anecdotes from previous military endeavors, such the triumph of Fabius Maximus, the Roman general who defeated Carthaginian General Hannibal during the Punic Wars was an example where moral courage triumphed, according to Samet. Moral courage, or the doing what is right even if the action taken is unpopular, is a corner stone of what the military academy wants to instill in its cadets. There are countless examples from literature where such moral courage shines through. But Samet kindly referred to her book and remarks as simply her own opinions and do not necessarily represent the opinions of West Point, the Department of the Army or the Department of Defense. One audience member, who referred to himself as a former cadet and teacher at the U.S. Air Force Academy, took umbrage with the West Point professor’s claim in her book that the commonly heard phrase “there are no atheists in a foxhole” is a “canard.” She defended her remark by saying that the diverse makeup of the U.S. military as a whole presents the possibility of some service members self identifying themselves as atheists even after experiencing combat and asserted that some indeed do. War experience has also changed the relationship some former cadets have had with literature. Samet talks about some of her former students serving overseas in combat zones and how the course has helped them to better lead their soldiers. She uses the example of one soldier named Adam from the class of 2005 who lost visibility while attempting to land an aircraft and how he was able to find similarities with his experience in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s memoir’s “Wind Sand and Stars.” The same soldier later reported that after his first combat mission, “The Red Badge of Courage” took on a new meaning. However the relationship with such literature is not strictly a romanticized version of war, as many works of fiction are. The total spectrum of literature should be taken into account. “I think it’s dishonest to just teach the romanticized vision of war,” Samet said. “But they are important to teach because they have shaped people’s conceptions.” The capstone literature program taught at West Point changes every year because of the student population and because the focus of the course changes. Today, the cadets at the academy are the first group to focus on “flight and perspective.” But the preparation for coming home from a battlefield, as pieces of literature such the Odyssey describe, is essential as well. “I think they should be equipped for life,” Samet said, referring to her students. “But not only life on battlefields. When most people think of preparation, they mostly think of the voyage out of what my students call ‘the nearer target.” Nevertheless, whatever trials and tribulations lay ahead for the cadets at West Point, one thing is certain: they will eventually be well read second lieutenants capable of utilizing their education to lead their soldiers into nearly any situation by using literature as a benchmark for success and inspiration.
