http://www.longislandpress.com/2011/05/21/more-than-1000-cadets-to-graduate-from-west-point/“I guess we’ve been a little busy,” said Mullen, who is retiring at the end of September. “But that doesn’t excuse us from making the effort. That doesn’t excuse us from our own constitutional responsibilities — as citizens and as soldiers — to promote the general welfare, in addition to providing for the common defense.”
Mullen echoed some of the duty-related themes touched on Friday night by first lady Michelle Obama, who urged the graduating cadets at a banquet to keep in mind the families of the soldiers they will lead.
Mullen noted that the gray-clad graduates before him were just 11 or 12 during the Sept. 11 attacks — “getting your braces off” — and that the country has been at war for nearly half their lives.
“Yet, all of you made a choice, freely, to serve your country, to come here to West Point,” he said.
Graduates interviewed in the elated moments after they tossed their caps into the air said the