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My Father's Loyalties Since Coming To The Naval Academy

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When discussing loyalties with my fourth class, he said his loyalties haven’t changed very much since coming to the academy, and, initially, he didn’t see how having his loyalty to his friends and family above all else could cause conflict. During the first part of the conversation, he was pretty adamant that he would “just have to deal with it” if anything ever came up that would take him away from an important family event or would test his loyalty to his friends. His loyalty to the institution and mission would come later and weren’t very important to think about at this point. When I started to give him more situations, some of which have happened to friends of mine, he became very unsettled that the academy really could cause you to miss momentous events, such as weddings and funerals. After wrestling with what to do, he decided he would send the request as high up the chain of command as possible and fight for the request’s approval. If his request still was denied because it interfered with his Naval Academy duties, he said he’d be angry and bitter. When I asked him how he’d handle that anger, he realized that he didn’t have a plan of action because he doesn’t often get upset or angry and therefore doesn’t have a way to cope. Finally, he decided he’d probably talk to classmates (or…show more content…
For him, if a friend is in the way of his military loyalties, then they aren’t a friend worth keeping. This is very different than his loyalty to his family, for whom he will fight to be with for all momentous events. However, he believes that in the fleet his loyalty hierarchy will be situational, because lives may be on the line. If the situation allows for him to put his family loyalty first, he will do that but he will not be bitter if the mission needs him. On the other hand, while at the academy, he thinks his family loyalties will always be more important to him than academy
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