The Citadel

The Citadel and The Congressional Medal of Honor Society have enjoyed a special relationship for years. Both organizations are dedicated to promoting values related to exceptional self-sacrifice and service to others. Both organizations share a mission of educating new generations of Americans in these ideals represented in The Citadel’s core

values of Honor, Duty, and Respect and the CMOHS’s values of the Medal of Honor: courage, sacrifice, integrity, commitment, patriotism, and citizenship. The relationship between the CMOH and The Citadel is strengthened both by their shared mission of educating new generations of American leaders as well as their physical proximity to one another, with just a few miles between g

The Citadel campus in downtown Charleston and the CMOH headquarters aboard the USS Yorktown in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.

At least once a year, and sometimes several times in a single year, a Recipient is honored as a VIP and speaker to the 2,300 cadets participating in The Citadel’s annual Leadership Day, typically held the third Wednesday of October, where cadets in different year groups experience service to the community, ethics seminars, and core value and leadership discussions with professional host organizations across the region. On October 21, 2021 for example, Sgt Kyle White addressed the entire South Carolina Corps of Cadets during Leadership Day closing ceremony and was honored with a lowcountry boil (a local favorite of shrimp, sausage and corn) that fed the entire college on Summerall Field in the center of campus.

Earlier this past summer, in July of 2021, three Recipients, Michael Thornton, Sammy Davis, and Harold Fitz, participated in a moderated panel for incoming freshman. These Recipients inspired and educated the class of 2025 as they matriculated. Approximately one-third of each class of roughly 600 Citadel students follows in the footsteps of these Recipients into federal military service, making the visit that much more special for both the guests and the cadets.

These visits symbolize and reinforce the mutual respect between two institutions dedicated to honoring, educating, and training American heroes, both military and civilian. The Citadel has been training cadets since 1842, and the mission of the college outlines the pursuit of the ideals of the college very clearly:

The Citadel’s Mission as an institution of higher education is to educate and develop our students to become principled leaders in all walks of life by instilling the core values of the citadel in a disciplined and intellectually challenging environment (The Citadel, 2018).

The Citadel is a rigorous environment in and out of the classroom. Freshmen that matriculate from all over the country arrive to find an atmosphere not altogether different from the

experiences of military service members encounter as they begin the process of becoming part of an organization with shared standards, a shared ethos, and shared core values.

The first core value that cadets will internalize through their freshman year is honor. Honor is a complex core value, embracing the history and the legacy of The Citadel, as well as the present-day Honor Code that states: “A cadet will not lie, cheat, or steal nor tolerate those who do” (The Citadel, 2021). The toleration clause in The Citadel Honor Code can be particularly difficult for college-aged cadets required to report peers; it is a standard that sets Citadel cadets apart from peer institutions.

The second core value taught at The Citadel is duty. Duty is reinforced in almost every area of cadet life: military drilling, inspections, standing guard, personal responsibility for fitness standards, maintain passing grades in academic work, and g

living by the aforementioned honor code. Duty is a concept reinforced by the Commandant of Cadets, currently Colonel Tom Gordon, USMC (ret.), and his staff who direct and advise the cadet chain of command led by current regimental commander Cadet Colonel Kathryn Christmas.

The third core value is respect. As a regimented senior military academy, The Citadel empowers echelons of leaders in the South Carolina Corps of Cadets to train incoming classes and lead one another. There is respect built into the fabric of The Citadel: self-respect, respect for others, respect for the military and others who serve in their communities, respect for individual ideas and opinions, and a respect of traditions and history that make The Citadel a unique college to attend. TAC (teach, advise, coach) officers, former military officers and staff non-commissioned officers, are assigned to each of the twenty-one cadet companies to reinforce respectful conduct in the barracks and assist in the development of all core values.

Ultimately, a successful four-years in the South Carolina Corps of Cadets at The Citadel results not only in earning an undergraduate degree but also earning the right to wear the ring of a Citadel graduate. The ring itself is a walk through the proud traditions and history of The Citadel and is immediately recognized among alumni who also wear the ring.

The face of The Citadel ring prominently displays the last two digits class year of the graduate along with the state tree, the palmetto, and the two state shields that form the state seal of South Carolina. The face is encircled with “The Military College of S.C. 1842,” which is the official name of the college and the year it was founded.

On one side of the ring, a single star represents both the Union supply steamer “The Star of the West” (which was shelled and repelled by Citadel cadets from its supply mission to Fort Sumter in the opening salvos of the American Civil War) as well as those Citadel cadets that have died in service to their country. The flags of the United States and South Carolina stand crossed above cannon balls. These cannon balls tie the new traditions of the college with the old as they represent one of the two original branches of military instruction when the original campus Citadel was in the center of Charleston on Marion Square. On the reverse side are a crossed rifle and sword, a memorial wreath, a 30-caliber round, an oak leaf, and a spray of laurel. These symbols represent rich traditions of military service, guardianship of community, strength and endurance, victory, and peace.

Approximately one-third of Citadel graduates commission as officers in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard, and Space Force. The remaining two-thirds are nearly all employed by the time they graduate, in large part due to the robust career services integration into the four-year program. The Citadel is widely known for engineering talent but also supplies the state, region, and nation with graduates in a variety of fields from five different schools: engineering, humanities, education, business, as well as the school of science and math.

The 2,300 students in the corps of cadets are joined by veteran day students and are further augmented by a robust graduate college offering twenty-five degree programs. The varied and challenging academic opportunities at The Citadel have been recognized by U.S. News and World Report as forming the #1 public college in the south from 2012 through 2020.

Finally, a key component of the strength of The Citadel is the quality of relationships it maintains with other proud institutions like the Congressional Medal of Honor Society. Citadel cadets benefit tremendously from interaction with Recipients and Colonel Falkenbury and his staff have become friends in the process of building a bridge between our organizations. Medal of Honor Recipients always make a lasting, personal, and very important impression on cadets working to become Principled Leaders. We are grateful for the interest by CMOHS readers in learning more about The Citadel and we welcome Recipients, their families, and friends of the CMOHS to visit us for a parade or a campus tour provided through the admissions department at any time.

References The Citadel (2021), The Citadel Honor Manual of the South Carolina Corps of Cadets 2020-2021

https://krausecenter.citadel.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/ HonorManual.pdf

The Citadel (2018), Cadet Leaders Development Program, 3rd Edition https:// krausecenter.citadel.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/LDP3rdEditionWEBVER.pdf