Soldiers Creed

I am an American Soldier. I am a Warrior and a member of a team. I serve the people of the United States, and live the Army Values. I will always place the mission first. I will never accept defeat. I will never quit. I will never leave a fallen comrade. I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient in my warrior tasks and drills. I always maintain my arms, my equipment and myself. I am an expert and I am a professional. I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy, the enemies of the United States of America in close combat. I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life. I am an American Soldier. This is the Soldier’s Creed. Drawing from the snazzy and quite handy web page of Wikipedia I was able to find out that, ”The current version of the Soldier's Creed is a product of the Warrior Ethos program authorized by the then Army Chief of Staff Eric Shineski in May 2003. It was written in part by Matt Larsen, who also founded the Army’s hand-to-hand combat program and was first presented to senior Army leaders on June 7, 2003[.The Soldiers Creed was approved in its current format by the next Army Chief of Staff Peter Schoomaker on the 24th of November of 2003. The introduction of the Soldier's Creed kicked off a campaign known as Task Force Soldier. This is a leadership commitment to soldiers ensuring that they are prepared for combat and embody the Warrior Ethos that is contained in the Soldier's Creed. It seems to have been discussed in Congress in a Hearing on Army Issues held by Senator John Warner on or about November 19, 2003. It was first published in the magazine Infantry on December 22, 2003.” I know while I was in Basic Training that saying this with your entire company, reciting it at almost a yell that it can get the blood pumping quite satisfactorily. While researching online, I found that before this particular version of the soldiers creed there was one quite a bit different, and this is how it went. I am an