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Masonic Grand Lodge of New Mexico |
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Famous Masons in New Mexico Douglas Mac Arthur |
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Duty, Honor, Country. Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying points: to build courage when courage seem to fail: to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith: to create hope when hope becomes forlorn. Unhappily, I possess neither that eloquence of diction, that poetry of imagination, nor that brilliance of metaphor to tell you what they all mean. The unbelievers will say they are but words, but a slogan but a flamboyant phrase. Every pendant, every demagogue, every cynic, every hypocrite, every troublemaker and I am sorry to say some others of an entirely different character will try to downgrade them even to the extent of mockery and ridicule. Words with lasting impact. |
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But these are some of the things they do. They build your basic character, they mold you for your future roles as the custodians of the nation’s defense, they make you strong enough to know when you are weak and brave enough to face yourself when you are afraid. They teach you to be proud and unbending in honest failure but humble and gentle in success; not to substitute words for actions, nor to seek the path of comfort, but to face the stress and spur of difficulty and challenge; to learn to stand up in the storm but to have compassion on those who fall; to master yourself before you seek to master others; to have a heart that is clean, a goal that is high; to learn to laugh yet never forget how to weep; to reach into the future yet never neglect the past; to be serious yet never to take yourself too seriously; to be modest so that you will remember the implicitly of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength. They give you a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions, a freshness of the deep springs of life, a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, an appetite for adventure over love of ease. They create in your heart the sense of wonder, the unfailing hope of what next and the joy and inspiration of life. They teach you to be an officer and a gentleman. General Douglas Mac Arthur The above is an excerpt from a speech given by the General when he received the Thayer Award from West Point in 1962. These three words as described above will also teach you to be a Mason and a gentleman. They inspire us to remember what America is all about. What freedom means and regardless of the cost why we strive so vehemently to protect it. Douglas Mac Arthur was born in 1880, the second son of General Arthur Mac Arthur. In 1884 the family moved to Fort Seldon, located 17 miles north of Las Cruces. As seen through a boy’s eyes, life at Fort Seldon was heady stuff, “My first memory was of the sound of bugles. It was here that I learned to shoot and to ride. Even before I could read or write, almost before I could walk or talk.” Mac Arthur vividly recalled riding with the soldiers of the fort to haul water from the Rio Grande. Douglas Mac Arthur spent his entire life in and around the military. He fought in both World Wars and in the Korean Conflict. He will long be remembered as a hero for his part in World War II. The son of a general in the Civil War, he and his father are the only father and son to ever be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Douglas and his father also hold the honor of being the youngest. Arthur was the youngest officer ever promoted to the rank of Colonel and Douglas was the youngest army chief of staff ever appointed. During his career, Douglas achieved one of the finest records in West Point history, was the most decorated soldier of World War I, served as an aide in Theodore Roosevelt’s White House, was Army Chief of Staff, presided over the Japanese surrender, became Supreme Commander of allied forces In Japan, supervised the reconstruction of Japan and seriously considered running for president. Korea proved to be his downfall from military command. Ironically another Mason Harry S. Truman removed him from military service. The Shadows are lengthening for me. The twilight is here. My days of old have vanished tone and tint; they have gone glimmering through the dreams of things that were. Their memory is one of wondrous beauty, watered by tears and coaxed and caressed by the smiles of yesterday. I listened vainly for the witching melody of faint bugles blowing reveille, of far drums beating the long roll. In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns and the rattle of musketry, the strange mournful mutter of the battlefield (U.S. Military Archives). Douglas Mac Arthur True to his word, the old soldier “just faded away” living quietly in New York City until his death in 1964. |
