The Surface Warfare Officer and the English Major:  Coherence, not Schizophrenia
LT Andrew J. Clarendon

 A learned man once wrote that educating means “introducing a person to reality.”  This profound statement is one that should be pondered by all midshipmen, regardless of major, but my purpose here is to describe why you might want to choose literature as that area of emphasis that will effect, at a minimum, the rest of your time at the academy.  I am not going to spend time telling you that the English major is, in its own way, just as difficult as Aerospace Engineering; or that the ability to write and speak is much more vital to a surface warfare officer’s career than competence in computing triple integrals --meaning, of course, that being an English major will not detract from a successful naval career; or that exposure to the greatest ideas of western civilization has quite a bit to do with becoming someone your Sailors will respect and follow while being an expert on the tensile strength of the hull probably does not.  Instead, I want to talk about literature, which, classically understood, has two distinct purposes: to teach and to entertain.

 Literature does not merely demand the student master certain facts like Shakespeare died in 1616 or what an iambic foot of verse is.  The great literary works studied in the major are primarily involved with knowledge of human beings, a vast examination of human nature in all of its various manifestations.  As such, literature offers the future SWO insight into that which occupies most of an officer’s day, the Sailors over and under him.  Further, literature does not only concern itself with presenting mankind, but also—-and more importantly —-involves a sort of knowledge that is much overlooked in modern society.  What I am alluding to here are abstractions, particularly what are known as the three great transcendentals:  the good, the true, and the beautiful.  The highest literature has as its purpose an examination and exposition of the higher ideas, concepts like justice and mercy, good and evil, right and wrong.  To learn from the past masters is to stand on the shoulders of giants in the task toward becoming wise, and to study the highest and greatest ideas is to attempt to make one’s undergraduate education worth something lasting.  G. K. Chesterton, with his customary wit, comments that “tradition saves us the degradation of being children of our age.”  This is what the study of literature is about, the great tradition of thought and suffering and experience that makes up the great human drama.  In today’s increasingly dangerous world, we need adults, not children; we need ladies and gentlemen, not adolescents who are also in control of lives and equipment.  Finally, in being an English major, you will be forced to hone your writing skills.  At a not-so-high level of the military, the ability to write coherent sentences and paragraphs is what separates the officer who will advance from the one who will not.  John Paul Jones, who knew something about being a naval officer, wrote, “None other than a Gentleman, as well as a seaman, both in theory and practice is qualified to support the character of a Commissioned Officer in the Navy, nor is any man fit to command a Ship of War who is not also capable of communicating his Ideas on Paper in Language that becomes his rank.”

 The second purpose of literature is to entertain us, but the delight that comes from the great works is of a much different order than what is offered as entertainment on television or movies.  This is something deeper than just having fun; it involves "thoughts  that do often lie too deep for tears,” but in the positive sense of the soul being fed, the mind exercised, and the heart quickened.  When we follow the bloody footsteps of Macbeth to his tragic end or view the glorious quadruple wedding at the end of As You Like It, the satisfaction of having known these characters and reading how they worked through problems that are more or less the same as our own is what is meant by the delight of literature.  To read Keats’ striking description of the nightingale in his garden as he is dying is to be entertained by literature.  The greatest literature fosters our love for the good, true, and beautiful-—which is what we were created for—-and in being fully human, in ordering ourselves toward our end, we experience delight.  Finally, in studying the great masters, you will delight in your own growth of self-expression, in your own unique journey of life.  An officer who cannot think, who does not understand that ideas have consequences is not fit to lead.  A disciplined study of literature will help you to develop the character that is required of one who is in charge of others.  As the mariner uses the North Star to guide his voyage, one could do much worse than to use the great literary works of the past as wise guides.

 In the end, whether or not one can be a good naval officer and major in English is a very strange question.  The real question is whether or not you are interested in pursuing something higher than the physicality of engineering and the sciences.  Given the core curriculum at the Academy, you are going to study math, science, and engineering whether you like it or not.  To major in English—-or any of the humanities—-is to give your education a breadth not found anywhere else.  We are beings in motion and are thus defined by our ends.  The answer to what you actually want to get out of college will answer your choice of major, but for help in your next assignment—-leading Sailors in the fleet—-come to the English Department and with us study what the best minds have to say about the most important things.

LT Andrew J. Clarendon, USN
USNA Class of 1998
Surface Warfare Officer