A Message To Garcia Analysis

After reading the book, Court-Martial at Parris Island as well as the short essay, A Message to Garcia it is unarguable that both of these bodies of text are caulked full of information. The amount of knowledge that can be pulled from the pages of these two pieces of work is far too great to address in one paper. Despite this fact it is clear that there are underlying messages about discipline, leadership, and personal courage, examples of which are also too numerous to list in one short paper. These three major Implications can be drawn from the text by the reader who can then use them as a reference for self-reflection and self-improvement. The information does take the interpretation of an open minded reader who will likely arrive at the

same conclusions as follow in this paper.

There are numerous joys in reading a great piece of literature. One is having the opportunity to self-reflect as well as learn and understand the lessons and meaning of the text. The meaning of the text is not always simple and upfront, but often times takes the open mind and understanding of the reader to bring it to the fore front. The lessons of any good piece of literature are not simply limited to one aspect of life, such as professional and or personal improvement. Instead they encompass a broad improvement base. These lessons are also encrypted in strong positive examples as well as tragedy. Two pieces of literature in particular that provide readers with a perfect opportunity to open themselves up to lessons and self-improvement are, Court-Martial at Parris Island as well as A Message to Garcia. These two pieces are caulked full of character building lessons for readers who strive to be better soldiers as well as leaders.
The most important traits for any soldier to have is discipline. The true value of this trait is displayed from the earliest point to the reader of Court-Martial at Parris Island. The lack of this disciple is the driving factor behind all of the events that occurred in what is known as the Ribbon Creek Incident and the high profile court-martial that preceded it. The author John C. Stevens III provides a vivid picture of the factual turmoil that resulted from the lack of this corner stone trait. The turmoil that arose was the tragic April 8, 1956 drowning deaths of six young marine recruits from platoon 71 under the control of Staff Sergeant McKeon. The drownings can be linked directly to multiple factors. One of which, is the lack of discipline the recruits had, (This missing discipline is what promoted Staff Sergeant McKeon to order them out on the night march. It was aimed to be a corrective action for his men. as shown in the text “ we spoke on discipline for a while, and I said, “Tonight we are going to try something different”…I’m going to take you people to the boondocks, take you people to the swamps”” (Stevens, 1999, p 26). The lack of discipline did not however stop with the talks of such a march, instead the recruits would continue to show their disregard for the importance of this simple task. The fact that the recruits put no value into the importance of discipline well become apparent to the reader, it will also prove to play a key role in the chaos that would break out in the swampy waters of Ribbon Creek. The recruits were lead under the darkness of night into the chest deep waters of Ribbon Creek, where the corrective measure of the seeming, harmless march took a tragic turn. When young recruits began to horse play and break formation, the decision to break the two column formation took them off the path of Staff Sergeant McKeon and deeper into the waters strong current and muddy bottoms this leading to chaos as the recruits broke into chaos “At that moment true panic broke out. From the darkness toward the rear and near midstream came yells, screams, and calls for help” (Stevens, 1999, p 7). The results of the chaos itself also shows the reader the damage of poor discipline, as the chaos made the already daunting task of locating and providing assistance to struggling recruits in the darkness of night even harder for McKeon and several strong recruits. Despite the efforts to provide aid to those in distress, by the time the waters settled, six recruits were missing, later to be found dead from drowning. The lack of discipline was clearly not the only cause of this tragedy; however, the monumental impact it had on the end result and the importance of soldiers or in this case marines having discipline cannot escape the reader.
The character of a Soldier is something that must be learned and evolved into, during this process many bad habits are broken with the intent of ingraining strong morals and characters such as the discipline to follow without second guessing.

The ability to unconditionally follow orders in a disciplined military manor is contrasted in Court-Martial at Parris Island; however, this highly valuable trait is the basis and the main lesson conveyed to the reader for the essay Message to Garcia. The key example of the essay by Elbert Hubbard Is the message delivered under orders from President McKinley, by a man named Rowan to a man by the name of Garcia whose location was not known other than somewhere in Cuba. The essay describes the response and action taken by Rowen in stating, “McKinley gave Rowan a letter to be delivered to Garcia; Rowan took the letter and did not ask, “Where is he at?”” (Hubbard, 1899). Rowan then proceeds to take the letter and venture into the heart of Cuba appearing three weeks later, his mission accomplished. The takeaway from this part of the essay as later reiterated throughout the remainder of the essay is the fact that no questions were asked and no complaints were made. He had the discipline to simply take the letter and accomplished his mission as ordered. The ability to simply accept orders and proceed to complete the mission, is of great value to both the leadership as well as the individual soldier. This is a rare and hard to find trait of

complete discipline and commitment. The level of discipline that a reader learns from Rowan’s actions is an extreme case; however it provides a high standard and aiming point for any soldier or civilian just the same. The relationship to the civilian aspect of life and the lack of such discipline, is the point made to the reader throughout the remainder of the essay “after you have answered the questions, and explained how to find the information, and why you want it, the clerk will go off and get one of the other clerks to help him try to find Garcia- and then come back and tell you there is no such man” (Hubbard, 1899). The reader cannot help but absorb the message being delivered in the essay, that message being, the fact that the quickly disappearing trait of discipline is a shame and something every individual should strive for.
Another critical lesson that a reader can pull from the text of Court-Martial at Parris Island is the importance of strong leadership.

The importance of leadership is shown with the weaknesses in the character trait that can quickly appear with a lapse of military manor and a slip in judgement by the Drill instructor Staff Sergeant McKeon. The terrible incident that occurred in Ribbon Creek on April 8 1956 can be attributed to two major factors discipline of the recruits and the leadership of Staff Sergeant McKeon. The choice to take the march through the swamp lands was made with good intentions by a leader who was worried about the increasingly deteriorating discipline of his recruits. The other facts surrounding the incident show the reader the flaws in McKeon as a leader, one such negative trait is the fact that he made the choice to drink while on duty earlier in the day. The drinking was not found to be a direct cause or factor in the incident, as shown by the testimony of Dr. Atcheson who administered the sobriety test the night of the incident “Sergeant McKeon was not clinically under the influence of alcohol as far as I could determine” (Stevens, 1999, p 110); however, It shows his lapse in judgement as he disregarded a clear regulation, therefore failing to live up to his role as a leader and a NCO. The other factors that the reader can pull as examples of negative leadership traits is the choices McKeon made about his path to the creek, as he cut across the

shooting ranges in the dark not allowing anyone see that they were headed to the swamp lands for a night march. The fact that McKeon took a secluded path to the swamplands is made worse in the fact that he also did not tell anyone that he was taking the recruits down there, or take any other cadre with him to assist in controlling and monitoring the young men. The last Major flaw in McKeon’s leadership is the fact that he knew he had several recruits who were known to be weak swimmers, or even non swimmers “Holben pointed out that McKeon also knew that there were men in his platoon who could not swim”(Stevens, 1999, p 54). The flaws in Sergeant McKeon’s choices on the night of April 8, 1956 were not the only cause for the death of six young recruits; however, they did make rescue of the recruits once the situation got out of control virtually impossible. The Reader can use this flaws in the leadership judgement of McKeon to understand the importance of strong capable leadership at all times, and the cost of even the smallest lapse in military manor.
The final trait presented in this literature is arguably the most important as it transcends professional importance, carrying greater value on a personal level, this trait is made clear to the reader to be personal courage. The trait of personal courage is important in all aspects of live because it is the ability to stand up for what an individual holds to be right and true, it also provides the individual the strength needed to own up to their mistakes and bear the burden of blame. One of the best examples of personal courage in Court-Martial of Parris Island is in the fact that Emile Berman a private attorney voluntarily takes on Staff Sergeant McKeon’s court-martial, providing him with a solid defense counsel free of charge “Berman readily agreed to take the case without fee, his only condition being that the court-martial be postponed until later in the summer…he would be free to devote his full time and energy to the defense” (Stevens, 1999, p 67). The reason behind Berman taking the case was the simple fact that he did not want to see a man he had no personal relationship with or had even met before to suffer as the scapegoat for the Marine Corps. The moral courage of Berman to take a stand for Staff Sergeant McKeon was the deciding factor in the reduced punishment that was received most importantly McKeon’s allowance to stay in the Marine Corps. The personal courage that it take to take credit and blame for decisions made even when they end up leading to terrible results is another major trait for great leadership as well as individual growth for everyday life. The ability to recognize his poor judgement call and to own up to it as he bearded the weight of the incident on his shoulders is shown in his testimony “I knew then that I had lost some men and I remember saying “oh my God, what have I done?”” (Stevens, 1999, 123). This shows the strengths McKeon had as a leader, an NCO, as well as a man, through his personal courage to take ownership in the flaws in his judgement as a leader of the young recruits instead of strictly placing the blame on the lack of discipline of the recruits. The facts of the incident were thrown around the courtroom to show all of the other faults that contributed to the drowning of the six recruits, even having a number of the surviving recruits take the stand in defense of McKeon’s leadership; however, through it all he still held himself as a contributing factor as the leader. The reader can easily understand the importance of personal courage, whether it be to stand for what is right or the ability to hold oneself to the negative results of their own actions is fundamental in the ability to learn from poor judgement and use it to grow as a leader, a soldier and an individual.
The reason for reading a great piece of literature is to bring some sort of joy, one of the greatest joys in reading nonfiction or fiction, essays or books is the unavoidable enlightenment of knowledge as well as the experience to self-reflect and learn from lessons that are waiting to be pulled from the text. These lessons are not always on the surface and often take the reader having an open mind and willingness to pull them from within the pages. The messages hidden in the text of all literature is an opportune jumping off point for all learning and self-improvement. This made apparent in Court-Martial at Parris Island as well as A Message to Garcia, both of these pieces of work provide lessons to the reader especially in the discipline, leadership and personal courage it takes to be a successful Soldier. While the reader can learn from the examples provided in the text they are just a jumping off point for self-improvement as put by Elbert Hubbard in A Message to Garcia “It is not book-learning young men need, nor instruction about this and that, but a stiffening of the vertebrae which will cause them to be loyal to a trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies: do the thing- "Carry a message to Garcia!"”.

References
Hubbard, E. (1899). A message to Garcia. Retrieved from http://www.benning.army.mil/infantry/199th/OCS/content/pdf/Message%20to%20Garcia.pdf

Stevens, J. C. (2007). Court-martial at Parris Island: The Ribbon Creek incident. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press.