Palm Beach North Sports - March 2023

6 P A L M B E A C H N O R T H SPORTS | M a r c h 2 0 2 3 With all the political vitriol, division, and uncertainty facing our country today, if the average American wants to see what is right with America, watch the Army-Navy football game. Every year, not only is it the premier football game on TV that weekend with ESPN’s Game Day outside the stadium, the pageantry includes a march-on by the entire Corps of Cadets and Brigade of Midshipmen, the return of the “exchange” cadets and midshipmen, and a combined Glee Club singing our National Anthem. Commonly referred to as “America’s Game”, you will often see among the fans in attendance the President of the United States, numerous senior Congressional legislators, cabinet members, and the most senior leadership within the entire Army and Navy. You’ll see two teams that will play their hearts out, who will lay it on the line for their Academy brothers and sisters, their school, and most important, you’ll see the senior football players who almost all will play their last game, only to join the many who have gone before them to stand in the gap between the evil that threatens our Nation and the American people. Their next game is not on some football field someplace; it is with a Kevlar helmet, body armor, and an M4 rifle in some God-forsaken place in our world, protecting what our Nation stands for. Every profession has a client, and in the profession of arms, our client is the American people. There is also a unique relationship with the client – one that is built on trust, which is a function of both competence and character. In other words, if the American people were to trust their military, they would unequivocally demand that their military is competent, and they would use lethal force consistent within the values of our nation and our military. I recall during the Vietnam era; the military did not have a trusted relationship with their client, the American people. I was a West Point cadet at the time, and experienced jarring comments, criticism, hatred, and even had people spit at me for wearing a military uniform. Whenever I left the West Point grounds, I would immediately go to the closest public bathroom, and quickly change into civilian clothes. Unfortunately, my military haircut always gave away that I was in the military, and I did all I could to grow my hair as long as possible without getting demerits for an “unauthorized haircut”. COMMUNITY CORNER THE ARMY-NAVY GAME; WHAT IT MEANS TO AMERICA By Lt. Robert Caslen, U.S. Army (Retired) | Photos courtesy of Lt. Robert Caslen