Gates extols public service to graduates of VMI

Young people continue to answer the call to service, be it in uniform or civilian endeavors, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told graduates of Virginia Military Institute on Friday.

Gates, speaking at the campus in Lexington, congratulated 246 graduates of the state military college on their accomplishments.

"You have made it from the 'Rat Line' to the finish line," he said. "And it was undoubtedly hard – not just a demanding curriculum, but all the things that you had to do that students at other places don’t."

His remarks were sometimes light-hearted, such as when he cited the words of two women on finding the route to success.

"First, opera star Beverly Sills, who said, 'There are no short cuts to anyplace worth going.' And second, Katharine Hepburn, who wrote: 'Life is to be lived. If you have to support yourself, you had bloody well find some way that is going to be interesting. And you don’t do that by sitting around wondering about yourself.' ”

But he also struck a serious note. 

"For generations, VMI has graduated young people ready to raise their right hands and defend their homeland," Gates said. "This is something to be grateful for in any time period, but never more so than in a time of war."

Since Sept. 11, 2001, the number of VMI graduates taking commissions in the armed forces has risen, the Pentagon said Friday. More than half of the class of 2008 will serve, Gates said.

"One of the strengths of America is that we have institutions like VMI, and young men and women like those sitting here today, who are answering this generation's challenge," he said. "From Kabul to Kirkuk, former VMI cadets are serving throughout the armed forces and the U.S. government in many roles: in military intelligence, organizing reconstruction efforts, building infrastructure, and commanding troops in the field."

Since 2001, 75 VMI cadets have served on active duty and 41 have been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, the Pentagon said.

"More than 1,200 graduates of VMI have been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan since the start of the war on terror," Gates said. "Eight of them have not returned."

The need for such service "has never been in higher demand, or those duties more daunting," Gates said.

"It has now been 6 1/2 years since the attacks of September 11th, and we just marked the fifth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war," he said. "For America, this has been the second-longest war in our history since the Revolution, and the first since then to be fought throughout with an all-volunteer force."

He said ongoing efforts to bring stabilitry and peace in Iraq and Afghanistan have "tested the mettle of our government, our military, and the patience of our people in ways we haven't seen in a generation."

Not all graduates of the institute serve in the military, but all serve the nation in some way.

Gates quoted from Gen. George C. Marshall, the most distinguished graduate of the college, who said, "Our graduates seldom amass great wealth, but just as seldom do they display weakness or indifference to their duties as citizens. They are trained to be soldiers, if there be need for soldiers.... But what is far more important, they are trained to be good citizens."

Today, the United States faces many challenges at home and abroad, Gates said.

"We live in a time of great necessities, a time in which we cannot avoid the burdens of global leadership," he said. "The stakes are too high. And it is precisely during these times that America needs its best and brightest from all walks of life to step forward and commit to public service – to exchange the life of ease and contentment and take on the burdens and the bugwriters."

If America "is to exercise global leadership consistent with our better angels, then the most able and idealistic of today's young people must step forward and agree to serve their country with the same honor and courage and dignity that marked the service of the long line of patriots that came before them," Gates said.

"Your country asks nothing more than that you live up to the values you have learned and lived in this place for these past four years," he said. "You owe yourself nothing less."