A Noble Warrior’s Gift
By Col. “Stretch” Dunn
C.H. “Stretch” Dunn, Jr. (U.S. Army Retired), PE, is a 1966 honor graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, a distinguished graduate of the Command and General Staff College, and a professional engineer. Col. Dunn served in three infantry divisions, earned the Expert Infantryman Badge and four awards for bravery, including the Silver Star in Vietnam. He co-invented the Dunn-Kempf war game used to teach a generation of small unit leaders war fighting techniques. Later, he headed a 1,000 soldier combat unit and a 3,000-person engineering and construction management organization with 40 field offices in the Southeast U.S. and Latin America. Following retirement after 26 years in America’s Army, Stretch served 10 years in corporate America with an engineering and construction company. As president of Dyson Leadership Institute, he writes and teaches seminars on Professionalism Under Stress and Ethics. He serves on the board for his West Point class, Board of Stewards at Bluff Park United Methodist Church, Norton Board of Birmingham Southern College and several philanthropic organizations in the Birmingham Area.

A warrior is the end of the spear in battle. I have read considerable prose that argues that war is morally neutral. For a nation like ours, the decision to go to battle is the last resort-- a means to preserve our people’s freedom. It is not a decision based on centuries of feuds or festering revenge. My thoughts are not an effort to rationalize the consequences of killing in combat. Rather I believe they are centered on pragmatism and reality. When our national security and freedoms are at stake, someone must be the protector. But such a protector should not be unleashed without limits on his conduct. Our military seeks volunteers to train as a “band of brothers (and sisters)” who exercise their trade with noble intent—to give their nation the gift of enduring freedom.

Not all who choose the profession of arms do so with noble intent. Some are evil and full of hate bred by ancient feuds or zealous passion, often under the guise of religion. A noble warrior subscribes to the “warrior ethos”—a set of beliefs that characterize the desire to show a high degree of moral character. The noble soldier refuses to accept failure, retains a tight fabric of loyalty, believes in leader accountability and living up to military values—honor, selfless service, integrity, and personal courage.

The noble soldier is an instrument of his people and a tool of his government’s policies, sworn to obedience in accordance with their decisions. Such soldiers deserve acknowledgement for the difficulty of their trade and its many paradoxes.

A nation’s warriors have both men and women of extraordinary mental, emotional, and physical character a as well as a few liars, tyrants, bullies, and cowards. The warrior ethos seeks to attract and keep many of the former and as few as possible of the latter. Soldiers do not claim to be perfect, but good soldiers aspire to be heroic and place others before themselves. Winston Churchill observed, “at any moment in history the world is in the hands of two percent of the people, the excited and the committed.” The American soldiers I served with in combat were part of that two percent.

How do warriors retain a sense of civilized equilibrium in such a harsh profession? In some societies military captains are expected to balance their battlefield prowess with more peaceful passions. General Vo Nguyen Giap, the architect of victory of the Viet Minh victory over the French prior to defeating the United states in Vietnam was a poet. Crazy Horse, the Lakota battlefield leader who defeated Generals Crook and Custer in the span of eight days, was a “Thunder Dreamer” who sought to be a complete man in the Sioux society.

I believe such men represent warriors who seek insightful ways to gain introspection into their soul. I can appreciate Giap’s search for balance but cannot relate to his method—his strategy cost the lives of about a million of his soldiers. In Western cultures, we tend to be “yang-centric” –competitive, end-focused, assertive, and rational. Yet we place value on every human life. In my own pursuit of balance I seek a “yin-yang” strength by embracing what I call a sense of “spiritual centeredness.” It is the essence of my ability to come to terms with the harsh realities of war. It gave me the confidence to reconcile suffering and killing before facing combat and living with the paradoxes and choices made afterward.

The soldier, above all other members of humanity,
is required to perform the highest act of religious
offering—and that is the sacrifice of life.
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur

Here are some paradoxes of combat with which those in our profession of arms have to make peace:

• Having to take someone’s life to save the lives of others, especially when your spiritual foundation values life;
• The possibility of harming innocent people or fellow soldiers through “friendly fire;”
• Witnessing death, disfigurement, and destruction;
• The possibility of making a mistake of dire consequences when an instantaneous decision is required;
• Harming women or young enemy combatants when one’s own culture has an ingrained desire to protect women and youth;
• Facing fight-or-flight situations where instantaneous decisions are necessary;
• Having to sacrifice for all, even those whose actions seem undeserving or unappreciative.

As a Christian, I believe a spiritually-centered heart goes a long way toward living afterward with the consequences of seeing comrades die and the killing of enemy soldiers, noble or otherwise. Seeking such a heart is not an irrational dedication. Our country was founded on a transcendent belief in a higher entity, and this belief was infused in me by my parents. I sought solace in a spiritually-centered heart.

The following ideas can help prepare a soldier’s mind, soul and instincts at a higher level of spiritual centeredness and fitness before facing combat:

• Decide what kind of soldier and person you will be. Seek to be your “best-self.”
• Write, review often, and internalize your beliefs, and values.
• Develop competence in the skills of the profession of arms.
• List as many of the paradoxes, contradictions, other challenges you can imagine, and describe how you will act if faced with the inevitable “fog of war.”
• Pray regularly, seeking strength, guidance, and serenity.
• Seek quality time with spiritual mentors, such as chaplains or Christian combat veterans, to help you be grounded and decisive in a firefight.
• Address with veterans whom you respect ways they came to terms with those Americans who “aid and abet the enemy” through inappropriate dissent that hurts our country’s cause.
• Read the works of authors like Colonel Roger Nye [The Challenge of Command, 1986] where the role of the warrior as a moral arbiter is addressed.
• Contact the Simon Center for the Professional Military Ethic at West Point for material on the warrior ethos.
• Use your church as a source of fuel. Pastor Doug Giles of Miami speaks eloquently about re-establishing the definition of a strong warrior in his latest book, Ruling in Babylon. He sees the church not as an extended womb to keep members in therapy for life, but as a source of fuel for avoiding the secure, for accepting the tasks of the warrior—as a base of strength. Spiritual-centeredness is not about church, it is about an individual’s very personal discovery of peace through his relationship with God.
• Accept in advance the fact that a few sacrifice for all, even those you may think are undeserving of the sacrifice. During any conflict there will always be dissent. That is a greatness of this country.

The enormous psychological and physical pressure of combat derives from the ever-present knowledge that someone is trying to kill you. Combat is a confusing, amorphous, and bloody struggle. Invariably there will be situations where events do not take place as planned and units are isolated, communication breaks down, soldiers are captured, and unrestrained, self-destructive fear can creep in. Every military member must develop the individual wherewithal to keep panic at bay. Firmly grounded confidence in one’s preparation, trust in the cause and in those leading them, and considerable soul-searching for one’s own sense of spiritual centeredness creates service members who fight with a warrior’s ethos, complying with the codes that govern their behavior regardless of the codes of the enemy. Such is the noble warrior’s gift.

The importance of the spiritual dimension of a noble soldier is aptly described by one of our nation’s greatest generals.

I look upon the spiritual life of the soldier as even more important than his physical equipment. The soldier’s heart, the soldier’s spirit, the soldier’s soul is everything. Unless the soldier’s soul sustains him, he cannot be relied upon and will fail himself and his country in the end. It is morale… and I mean spiritual morale...that wins the victory in the ultimate. And that type of morale can only come out of the soldier who knows God and who has the Spirit of religious fervor in his soul. I count heavily on that type of soldier and that kind of Army.
General of the Army George C. Marshall

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