By Tim Fleischer
Editor-in-Chief
In General Douglas McArthur’s “Duty, Honor, Country” speech, he told cadets, “the Long Gray Line has never failed” the country and that if it were to fail, it would disappoint “a million ghosts in olive drab.” From the Modern War Institute at West Point website.
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Caleb (left) and Noah (right) with their father Nate Self with Nate’s 1998 edition of The Howitzer, the yearbook for the United States Military Academy at West Point. Caleb will be a Firstie in the fall and his younger brother Noah will be a Plebe after going through Beast training beginning June 26. (photo by Tim Fleischer)
The Long Gray Line refers to the close connection — a continuum that traces its beginning to 1802 when the United States Military Academy (USMA) was established under the presidency of Thomas Jefferson — between the graduates of the United States Military Academy, the current cadets and the cadets of the future.
For one Salado family, this mystic connection to a phrase whose origins may be lost in the historical record of documents and dates has taken on a new and deeper meaning.
Noah Self, a 2023 graduate of Salado High School, will report for Beast training at West Point on June 26 before beginning his Plebe year at West Point.
Once there, his name will be added to The Long Gray Line, joining that of his father Nate Self (Class of 1998) and his older brother Caleb Self (Class of 2024).
From the song “The Corps,” written in 1902 about the Academy are these lines:
“The long gray line of us stretches, thro’ the years of a century told
“And the last man feels to his marrow, the grip of your far off hold.
“Grip hands with us now though we see not, grip hands with us strengthen our hearts.
“As the long line stiffens and straightens with the thrill that your presence imparts.
“Grip hands tho’ it be from the shadows. While we swear, as you did of yore.
“Or living, or dying, to honor, the Corps, and the Corps, and the Corps.”
When Noah is a Plebe, his brother Caleb will be a Firstie. “That’s what I look forward to the most,” Noah says, “getting to spend a year with my brother at West Point.”
Getting into West Point is a big deal. Just over 1,000 are admitted each year, from a U.S. population of more than 300 million.
Cadets are nominated to West Point in a limited number of ways.
• U.S. Senators, Representatives, and Delegates, The President of the U.S. (including the governor of Puerto Rico and the delegates to Congress from Guam, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and Northern Marianas Islands)
• The Vice President of the U.S.
• Army (Active, Reserve, and National Guard)
• Army Junior and Senior Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) Units and Honor ROTC Units of other services
• Children of deceased or disabled veterans and children of prisoners of war or servicemembers missing in action
• Children of Medal of Honor Awardees.
Each year, a little over 1,000 are admitted to USMA. Fewer than 1,000 graduate four years later.
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Nate Self with his high school sweetheart and future wife Julie in 1998. Shortly after graduation the couple was married.
The Long Gray Line may be limited in numbers, but it is rich in tradition, connection and service to the nation.
Both Noah and Caleb were nominated by Congressman John Carter. Nate was nominated by Congressman Chet Edwards.
Both Noah and Caleb knew that they would join the Army. They both got their sense of service to the nation from their father, who served seven years in the Army after graduating West Point. Nate was an Army Ranger Captain who led a rescue effort to save Navy SEAL Neil C. Roberts, who had been captured by Al Qaeda in Afghanistan in the Battle of Takur Ghar. He was awarded the Silver Star, Bronze Star and Purple Heart during his service.
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Caleb Self with his classmates in the gray uniforms that make up the Long Gray Line.
Like his sons, Nate grew up in a small town, China Spring, just northwest of Salado. He married his high school sweetheart Julie and they have four children: Caleb, Noah, Elliot and Griffin. All four have grown up in Salado, as Nate and Julie moved here in 2009.
Nate got to China Spring in second grade. His wife Julie got to China Spring in fourth grade. They got married the summer after Nate graduated from West Point.
Like his father, Caleb will get married shortly after graduating from West Point next summer. Only not to a high school sweetheart. Caleb is engaged to a Second Lieutenant Nataleigh Cantu from Augusta, Kansas, a recent West Point graduate. The couple plan a June 21 wedding after graduation. Their first assignment will be Fort Riley, Kansas.
While Caleb will be in the Infantry as was his father, Noah will begin his service in Military Intelligence.
Caleb is currently majoring in Organizational Psychology. Noah will major in International Affairs at West Point.
Noah says that he wants to become an Army Chaplain, which brings the term service to a completely deeper level.
He says that he will pursue a seminary degree from Baylor University after graduating from West Point.
Becoming an Army chaplain will give him a way “to connect with people, to minister to them and share my faith. I don’t know of anything that connects you with people more than the Army does,” Noah said.
Noah says his “faith is what gives me my identity.”
Noah had multiple ways to become an Army officer. He was accepted into the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at both Oklahoma University and Baylor University before ultimately accepting the nomination to the USMA at West Point.
While there, he will compete in basketball and golf, two sports he excelled in while at Salado High.
His older brother played Sprint Football, which was once called 150 lb. Football, something his father did in his years at West Point. As a Firstie, he will coach Sprint Football.
Physical training is a fundamental part of the West Point training. A cadet’s days are marked by waking up early and going to bed late, with PT, formations, a vigorous academic schedule and discipline filling the time between.
“If you do what you’re supposed to do, you won’t have any problems,” Caleb says as a word of advice to his younger brother.
And his younger brother listens. Noah has also listened to the unspoken lessons of hard work, ethic and discipline laid out for him by his father.
Much of that, for all three men, comes from growing up in small towns like Salado and China Spring.
“Everyone knows your business,” each of them have told me. But it is something more than that, something deeper.
From talking with these men, one gets the sense that even if no one knew their business, each of them would still hold themselves to a high standard of behavior.
Both Caleb and Noah seem to hold in reverence growing up in Salado schools and the teachers they came across here.
One in particular.
Dennis Cabaniss.
“He is the best teacher I have ever had,” Caleb says, and when he says that, he includes his professors at West Point.
Noah says, “He was not like the teachers in any of the other classes I took. He taught me statistics like it is kind of a science. I can’t really describe it.”
Talking with these three men, three soldiers, three servants, one gets the sense that the words of General MacArthur of “Duty, Honor, Country,” carries a deep, fundamental and personal meaning.
Which it should, as they have joined The Long Gray Line, whose origin may be lost in history but whose meaning is not lost on the men and women who have gone this way before them.
West Point’s history is intimately and intricately linked to the founding and the foundation of this nation.
As commander of the Continental Army, George Washington considered West Point to be the most important strategic position in America.
The first fortifications were built in 1778 and Washington headquartered at the fortress along the banks of the Hudson River. It became the center point of the most famous tale of treason in America. Had Benedict Arnold’s treason been successful, the rebellion of the American colonies against the British Crown may have had a completely different ending.
Instead, Fortress West Point was never captured by the British. It is the oldest continuously occupied military post in America.
In 1802, President Thomas Jefferson signed legislation creating the United States Military Academy. Since then, graduates of West Point have led troops into battle.
One tradition that Caleb, Noah and Nate all look forward to is the Pinning Ceremony, when Caleb as a Second Lieutenant has his Butter Bars pinned on him by the person of his choosing.
Without a doubt, it will be his father Nate.
His first salute as a Commissioned Officer will be from his younger brother Noah.
And Noah’s? We have little doubt who will be involved in his ceremony as he extends The Long Gray Line.