An Attack on Naval Academy's Mealtime Grace     8/31/2005
By Ronald D. Ray and Linda L. Jeffrey

Who would leave our sailors and soldiers, during wartime, without a prayer?

Editor's note: Concerned Women for America believes that prayer is essential to the protection of our families, our communities and our nation. We believe that the men and women who put themselves in harm's way have the right to give public thanks to God and ask for His blessings. But some are trying to take this right away.

On July 11, 2005, the Marine Corps Times announced the Anti-Defamation League's (ADL's) reissued call to cease the traditional noon-meal prayer at the Naval Academy, and the Academy's refusal to surrender.

The ADL's demands echo the April 2003 complaint by the ACLU, which could not find a plaintiff to pursue a lawsuit.¹ However, neither the ACLU nor the Anti-Defamation League nor the Supreme Court can change the unbroken historic precedent of leader-led prayer sustaining American fighting men on the battlefield through every American war. The centrality of prayer for the protection of "those in peril upon the sea" and acknowledgment of Divine Providence is an official tenet of the preparation of the American Military, and the Naval Academy knows too much history to surrender to the attack of the ACLU, B'nai Brith and their allies.

America's dependence upon prayer and Divine Providence in time of national danger debuted prior to and in the Declaration of Independence and in the inaugural addresses of every President, also known as our "Commander in Chief," in time of war.² Ironically while nonsectarian lunch-time prayer at the Naval Academy is being challenged by the ACLU and others of their ilk, the Commander in Chief and leaders of Congress, whose sessions open with prayer, have officially called the entire nation to public prayer after the cowardly attack on 9-11.

Public prayer is not a surprising act for a nation with the official motto "In God We Trust." Attempts to restrict military prayer and other public acknowledgment of God dismay citizens, as their children are going into harm's way and may pay the ultimate price in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There are numerous examples of national and military leaders who petitioned Almighty God on behalf of those under their command, starting with most Presidents. On June 6, 1944, President Roosevelt led the entire nation in prayer during his radio address. He lifted up our assault forces and the families of those who would give the supreme sacrifice in the D-Day invasion.³ During World War II, an exemplary officer, General George Patton, led the famous prayer for favorable weather (which dramatically improved) during the crucial 1944 Battle of the Bulge. He issued 3,200 training letters to officers and chaplains in the Third Army to "urge, instruct, and indoctrinate every fighting man to pray as well as to fight."⁴

But is prayer measurably effective? "The Studies in Social Psychology in World War II Series," produced by the Social Science Research Council, was one of the largest social science research projects in history. Volume II, The American Soldier, Combat and Its Aftermath, Princeton University Press (1949), reported data on the importance of prayer to officers and enlisted infantrymen. They selected prayer most frequently as the soldier's source of combat motivation. The motivation of prayer was selected over the next highest categories of "thinking that you couldn't let the other men down," and "thinking that you had to finish the job in order to get home again."

From the responses, "did not help at all," "helped some" and "helped a lot," 70 percent of 4,734 enlisted men in the Pacific theater and 83 percent of 1,766 men in the Mediterranean theater responded "helped a lot," as did 60 percent of 319 infantry officers. Prayer was the most frequently cited combat motivator "when the going was tough." The majority of more than 6,400 soldiers in both the Mediterranean and Pacific theaters responded that prayer "helped them a lot." In its statistical analysis, the Social Science Research Council reports,

[T]he fact that such an overwhelming majority of combat men said that prayer helped them a lot certainly means that they almost universally had recourse to prayer and probably found relief, distraction or consolation in the process.⁵

Prayer is the proven American mainstay for combat success and survival. Those who would dare to deprive our deployed soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines of leader-led prayer while enjoying the well-protected comfort of homes and offices are worse than cowards. No public act in the history of America has been so despicable. For members of Congress to even consider a request to remove prayer from the Naval Academy makes them complicit, and they should be removed from office. "So help me God." Rear Admiral Jeremiah A. Denton, a graduate of the Naval Academy and former POW in North Vietnam, described his years of torture and confinement:

A man does a lot of praying in an enemy prison. Prayer, even more than sheer thought, is the firmest anchor.⁶

Denton writes that the original title he chose for his book, When Hell Was In Session, was Under God, Indivisible, because most of the prisoners, when faced with desperation, rediscovered God and became indivisible in their resistance to Communist torture and extreme deprivation.

From 1774 until today, more than 67 Armed Forces prayer books have been widely and officially distributed to our fighting forces during war, and have been a source of strength and encouragement to officers and soldiers of all ranks, from the American War for Independence to the war on terror. A sampling of two prayer books distributed during World War II and the Korean War contain recommended prayers and their background from: 34 senior uniformed military authorities, including, four- and five-star generals from the Army: Bradley, Clark, Clay, Collins, Devers, Eisenhower, MacArthur, Marshall, Patton; Navy: Nimitz, Schonland; Air Force: Vandenberg; Marines: Cates, Holcomb, Vandergrift; Coast Guard: O'Neill, Waesche; 11 senior civilian military authorities, including secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force; 11 military chaplains; and three Commanders in Chief.⁷ (See Appendix)

Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, concurs:

Prayer for the common good and acknowledgement of Divine Providence is a central, official and historical tenet of the combat leadership preparation of the American Military, particularly officer training and particularly in times of national peril or war.⁸

When the Supreme Court decided not to hear the ACLU challenge to Cadet-led prayers at Virginia Military Institute (VMI) in 2004,⁹ it uncharacteristically issued a strong statement to the lower courts affirming our military history of prayer as an essential element of officer training. Joining the ACLU in the unsuccessful attack on prayers at VMI were the American Jewish Committee, Citizens United for Separation of Church and State, and the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai Brith. The 6th and 7th Circuit Courts, Justice Stevens pointed out, have rejected constitutional challenges to nondenominational prayer at the college level reasoning that "college-age students are not particularly 'susceptible to pressure from their peers towards conformity.'" Because the 4th Circuit "endorsed that principle in theory," it is "not accurate to suggest" a conflict of authority. Justice Stephens declared, "[T]here is no injunction presently barring VMI from reinstituting the supper prayer."

Justice Scalia concurred with Justice Stevens, writing that the absence of the conflict in the circuits is "perhaps a reason why certiorari need not be granted." After all, "group prayer before military mess is more traditional than group prayer at ordinary state colleges," so it might be said that VMI's practice is "more, rather than less, likely to be constitutional." (Emphasis added.)

Leader-led military-unit prayer was an unbroken military necessity throughout American history and continues to be essential to combat effectiveness and training of future military leaders for the 21st century. From VMI's first superintendent, General Francis Smith, and General Stonewall Jackson, to General George Marshall, to the supper prayer invocations, prayer has been offered at our military academies on behalf of the nation, the family and the corps for the blessing of Divine Providence, just as every President at his Inauguration recognizes the "Creator" and through prayer and petition humbly asks for guidance to lead the nation.

In conclusion, it remains the duty of all public officials to ensure that all Military Training Academies, both state and federal, fully prepare our future officers for the rigor and peril of combat which must always include frequent leader-led unit prayer. The Declaration of Independence recognizes the "Creator" as the source of our law and liberty as "the laws of nature and of Nature's God" establishing a fixed standard, a higher discipline - a battle-tested standard - to restore and uphold against years of disturbing reports of multiple military crises against America's first military principles of virtue, honor, patriotism and subordination, called "Exemplary Conduct." From sexual abuse and rapes to claims of torture and abuse of Iraqi detainees, Exemplary Conduct had not been taught and enforced for decades until recently. Virtue, honor, and prayer recall to all military and civilian leaders that, as John Adams said, "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." This is not the time to leave the field to "domestic enemies" who would have the temerity to urge Congress to force our soldiers to fight "without a prayer."

President Herbert Hoover wrote in 1934, "The most gigantic step morally, spiritually, economically, and governmentally that a nation can take is to shift its fundamental philosophic and social ideas."¹⁰ Removing leader-led prayers from military training, especially in this time of national peril, represents a seismic shift in restricting this long-established American military practice. We are proud of the Naval Academy and its leadership who have not been bullied by repeated threats from those who would weaken military training and America in time of war and national security crisis. Prayer is a matter of honor and an American military necessity in time of war. Those who would undermine or remove it are un-American.

Col. Ronald D. Ray (USMCR) and Linda L. Jeffrey, Ed.D. wrote this as a letter to the editor to The Marine Corps Times. The history of prayer in the American military can be found at First Principles Press.

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