And warriors must have a firm moral grounding as well as mental and physical proficiency. I think this is a nice way of saying that there are a number of young men and women entering the Naval Academy who are simply not equipped with an acceptable sense of right and wrong. Some have inadequate value systems. They come from backgrounds that did not provide them with a strong foundation of honor and integrity qualities essential to the character of a naval leader. Now more than ever, integrity and a refined sense of personal honor must be as much a part of our graduates as academic excellence and professional skill.
Character is the cornerstone of leadership.
Warriors must have character. I recently completed a study of Navy SEAL training that will be the subject of my first nonfiction book, The Warrior Elite . When I began this work, I knew it would be heavy on the rigorous physical and professional disciplines for which SEAL training is famous. I did not, however, anticipate that a great deal of what goes into the making of today s SEAL warrior and SEAL leader is the development of a warrior s character. A true warrior is hard from the inside out, which means he must have a firm moral foundation from which to project his strength.