National defense means teamwork

Title

Language

English

Year

1953

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

... \ NATIONAL ,DEFENSE Means TEAMWORK By Brig. Gen. JE~US VARGAS T HESE are troubled times. All over the world today there exists a life-and-death struggle between two opposite ways of lifeone representing state control and the other a free way of life. In the fight to perpetnate the pattern of living that free nations hold dear, it is no longer logical to say that we do not want involvement, that we will not commit ourselves to it. When what we cherish is threatened it is incumbent upon us to meet the challenge, whatever and wherever the challenge may b~. It is to our eternal credit as a nation that Wf have not only decided to meet the challenge but are actually meeting it. A few days ago, I again had the good opportunity of touring the Korean war front and of seeing with my own eyes the cruel conduct of that war. I have seen, as in my previous visit there, the havoc and destruction, the ravage and toll of that war over both lives and properties. I have seen in the faces of the Korean refugees I encountered the unmistakable suffering of a people whose <land has been encroached upon by Communists. And I have seen on the faces of our men and other allied nations soldiers the clear signs of determination to vanquish the Red aggressors. I have emefged from that trip more convinced than ever that, to secure to ourselves and to our unborn generation the freedoms and the independence that we have so dearly achieved, we must not oHly be willing to fight but .. we must bt: trained to fight as well. We can never over26 I ~ emphasize the value of any training in any branch of bur Armed Forces. In our scheme of national defense there is no doubt that :t:J.O less important than the Army, the PC or the Air Force is the Navy, without which oul\ Armed Forces , is not complete. We must be effective on land as well as in the air and on the sea. For while guarding our land and our skies we must not in 'any way leave our sea lanes open to invader,s. Natwnal defense today means teamwork among the various compcments of our Armed Forces. Our Armt>d Forces is divided into several major services but in reality is but one organization. Any member of the Armed Farces, therefore, is1 a «member of the big Army-PC-Navy-Air Force team. In this regard I wish to stress the frequently repeated maxim that "a chain is only as sil·ong as its wt>akest link," o1· that "an organization is no more effective than the members composing it." The truth of these statements is not hard to see. If we allow one segment of ou:t; organization to weaken, if we permit our efforts in one phase of our defense work to slacken, the · entire defense establishment will 'oe rendered impotent. c But mere unity will not achieve our goal. We can have the best teamwork and coordination in the world but if we ran not do the job with "peak efficiency" we are not likely to succeed. Likewise, we can be the best individually trained Armed F.orces in the world but if we cannot work effectively as a team we are lost. There is a cause-and-effect relationship between training and teamwork; one is not complete without the other.

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