Allegiance, The Assistant Secretary Called The Roll: Fill & Download for Free

Ooh, a classic historical “what-if!” Let’s see…(Apologies for any unintentional historical inaccuracies. Also, by no means do I support Nazism in anyway; I just wanted to look at this from a military/diplomatic standpoint.)(WARNING: this is extremely long)The Timeline:The year is 1933. Hitler has just risen to power in Germany, dismantling its democratic mechanisms in favor of a fascist state. Britain is ruled by a government fearful of another world war; France is content with relying on a defensive posture to ward off any German threat. The Soviets have been secretly assisting the Germans in creating military technology, and rearmament has been going on for a few years now (albeit in great secrecy).At this point in time, tensions between Japan and China are slowly rising: Germany has been backing the Chinese since the 1920s, providing military aid and assistance in trade for raw materials. Hitler realizes that he can’t afford to abandon this plan: to build his army, he’s going to need all of the raw materials he can get. Thus, as tensions rise between the Japanese and Chinese, Hitler takes steps to try to negotiate a peace between the two countries, while using the time to help build up China’s military.Hitler also begins building his own military: he organizes the Reichswehr into the Wehrmacht, expanding it from 10 divisions to 36; an air force is created, and the navy is expanded. He begins looking into armored vehicles, and a fledgling Panzerwaffe begins to grow. During this time, he also implements large-scale infastructure construction and creates fascist-based aid organizations to encourage fascist popularity while helping to improve Germany’s economy.Meanwhile, in foreign affairs, he makes efforts to try to make himself appear as a defender of Europe against Communism; he signs the German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact in 1934, and offers to aid the Baltic States and Finland build their militaries and economies for a war against the Soviets (they gladly accept). In the League of Nations, Germany begins making overtures of alliance with France, Italy, and Britain against the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union halts its technological assistance of Germany, and relations between the two countries grow rather frosty. However, unbeknownst to the world, the Germans secretly send large, constant streams of funds to Communist parties in France and Britain.In 1935, the Italians have launched an invasion of Ethiopia in their quest to create a true Italian Empire. The Germans join the rest of the world in censuring Italy’s actions; however, Germany goes even further, sending “volunteers” (in the form of infantry, tanks, and airplanes) to aid the Ethiopian army. The unprepared Italians eventually find themselves pushed out of Italian Somaliland and on the defensive in Eritrea. Mussolini’s popularity plummets, and he eventually surrenders his position after the king of Italy refuses to continue back him.1936 sees Hitler as a defender of the status quo: many are impressed with his no-nonsense ways and his standing-up for minor countries against the “bullies of the world” (such as the Soviet Union or Italy). Britain and France see Hitler as a useful ally against the Communists, and they begin to ignore the military restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles (and laxing the financial burdens the treaty imposed on Germany). Fascist parties begin to spring up across Europe; some (along with other right-wing non-fascist parties) spark off the Spanish Civil War. Hitler initally publicly advocates for a policy of nonintervention while perparing yet another “volunteer” force. When Soviet “volunteers” are confirmed to be aiding the Republicans, Hitler gives a series of highly-publicized speeches denouncing the Soviet Union’s encroaching ways and declares a German policy to “fight Communism wherever it rears its ugly head.” He then announces the formation of a German military force being sent to aid the Nationalists in their “fight against Communism.” France and Britain, seeing that their failure to act against the Communists would be unpopular amongst their communities (although not unpopular amongst the growing number of Communists in both states), prepare military forces to assist the Germans against the Republicans, and the Spanish Civil War finishes in 1938 with a Nationalist victory.German prestige skyrockets internationally: Germany is seen as having taken decisive action against the threat of Communism while Britain and France twiddled their thumbs. More and more people flock to fascism; the growing number of Communists (aided by German funding) and Fascists in France and Britain leads to brawls in the streets, and more and more often the British and French are forced to use police or military action to halt them.Germany annexes Austria during this time; the Anschluss is not opposed, and many ignore it due to the news of rising tensions between the Soviet Union and its Eastern European neighbors. A Lithuanian passenger plane is destroyed flying over the Baltic Sea; the Germans and Lithuanians claim the Soviets destroyed it, while the Soviets refuse to accept responsibility. Meanwhile, a Finnish fishing trawler is boarded by men in Russian uniforms, causing even more tensions between the Soviets and their western neighbors.The year 1939 comes around, and the world appears to reaching boiling point: the Soviet Union looms as the great threat to Western civilization, and the Baltic States, Finland, and Poland shiver under its shadow. Only Germany appears powerful enough to ward off the Communist threat, as France and Britain appear to be relatively weak (especially due to inner political conflicts between Fascists and Communists). Then, the unthinkable happens: a Soviet warship sailing in the Gulf of Finland is torpedoed, resulting in the loss of hundreds of sailors. The Soviets blame the Poles, as a Polish sub was known to be in the area: after hurried communications between the Poles and Soviets, the Soviets declare war on Poland in May 1939. The Germans have been preparing their armies for such a manuever, and put up a stiff defense of the Baltic States and Poland (aided by the respective countries’ armies) while launching an offensive from Finland. The Germans invoke the League of Nations’ Article X and implore France and Britain to aid them: Britain and France, although hesitant, are pushed to act by the rules of the League of Nations and strong support for fighting the Communists amongst the relatively large Fascist parties in their countries. The Germans and their allies initially find themselves slowly being pushed back along the main front (the Baltic-Polish front), and the German-Finnish offensive in the north begins to bog down in te face of stiff Russian resistance. However, the arrival of French and British troops bolster the Baltic-Polish front, and a major offensive launched in August begins to push the Soviets back. The Soviets move troops halting the German-Finnish offensive to try to stop the Allied offensive, but the Germans and Finns take advantage of the weakened troops and break through, quickly pushing to seize Leningrad and Arkhangelsk. More major offensives along all fronts begin to roll back the Soviets, who, lacking allies or sufficient amounts of modern gear, are forced to surrender large tracts of land. Large numbers of Soviets are captured or killed as the Soviets make an unorderly retreat, but the aggressive pushes of combined French, British, and German armor (backed by mechanized infantry) allows the Allied forces to seize Moscow in the early days of the winter. Then, all hell breaks loose.In France, a Communist uprising seizes key government buildings in Paris. The Fascists, unwilling to permit the Communists to seize France, begin to fight them, sparking a civil war in France. Meanwhile, the fascists in Britain, worried about the large numbers of Communists in Britain and warily watching the proceedings across the Channel, launch a coup against the British government; the government, filled with Fascist sympathisers, largely steps aside, and Britain finds itself under the rule of a Fascist government. French forces begin to return from the front to aid the government in the three-way war (between government forces, fascists, and Communists); German forces, however, have been prepared in western Germany for such a contingency and march into Alsace, claiming to be “aiding the rightful government of France.”In Russia, the Allied offensives, weakened by the leaving of French troops, begins to falter. The Soviets, seeing their opportunity, launch a massive counter-attack; however, their lack of equipment (along with a courageous Allied defense and competent Allied leadership) leads to the failure of the offensive, and an Allied counterattack begins to roll the Soviets back even further. A coup is launched by several high-ranking Soviet officers against Stalin (aided by undercover German agents); the Soviets surrender in February 1940, accepting the establishment of a fascist government (at the behest of Britain and Germany) and cede large tracts of land to the Baltic States, Poland, and Finland.When the German troops return from the East, Hitler orders several of his battle-hardened divisions to aid the German forces in France, who are more and more showing themselves to be aiding the Fascists, rather than the French government. The French government decides to form an alliance with the Communists against the Fascist-German threat, and for a while the civil war is at a stalemate. However, the British government, now completely behind Hitler, launches an invasion of Normandy to aid the Fascists; meanwhile, the Spanish government, allied with Hitler since he aided them in the Spanish Civil War, marches across the Spanish-French border and invades southwest France. Squeezed from three sides, the government and Communist forces surrender, and a fascist government is established in France (while the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine are returned to Germany, who also seizes the French colonies).The year is now 1953. Hitler lays dying in a hospital in Berlin. His secretary approaches him, and asks if he has any requests.“It wasn’t the Russians,” Hitler whispers weakly.“What?” the secretary inquires, confused, leaning closer to hear him.“It wasn't the Russians who assaulted that plane, or boarded that boat.”Hitler coughs, a hacking cough that shakes his entire body. The secretary remembers when this frail body in front of him was full of life, and he wonders what secrets it still holds. Hitler continues:“The Russians did nothing. We couldn’t let them just be, however: had we let them live, they would only have grown stronger, spreading their disgusting beliefs and infiltrating the civilized people. But the world wasn’t ready for a war: the French and the British were gutless cowards who could barely see two inches in front of them.”Hitler coughs again, his body convulsing. The secretary begins to call for a nurse, but Hitler grabs her arm.“We had to show the world what needed to be done. So we started the war, yes - but the Soviets would have started it sooner or later.”The secretary stands up to leave, but then she remembers a rumor she’d heard, passing by the office of a high-ranking government official.“Did we fund the Communists?” she asked, hoping desperately for a “no.”Hitler’s blank expression told her otherwise.“Why?” she asked, incredulous. “Weren’t they the enemy?”Hitler smiles, a strange, grotesque gesture highlighted by his face, gaunt from the sickness which had largely consumed him.“The French and British - they were weak, cowardly peoples. Yet they were blind to their failings, ignorant of their backward ways. We already had the Communists labelled as a threat by the world - this much they understood. So we funded the Communists in France and Britain” - at this point, he’s gasping for breath, his eyes glistening with the conviction of a fanatic - “because we needed for them to realize that their government, their politics, their ways - were flawed. We needed for them to see the light - and through the purifying fire of war, they came to see it.”The secretary looks away, scared and confused. She can barely believe what she’s heard - she wishes that it wasn’t true. But she looks at a map on the hospital wall: she sees the German Reich, spanning from France to the Urals, reaching as far north as Scandinavia and as far south as Africa. She remembers how after the French Civil War, the Germans had defeated their former allies piece-meal; she remembers how her family had cheered as they watched a newsreel of the Germany Army marching into Warsaw, and into Tallinn, and Riga. And she remembers how countries soon began to court Germany; how Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Romania pledged their allegiance to the German Reich, and how the Greek prime minister himself groveled at Hitler’s feet for mercy. She remembers a conference she had attended, as a member of Hitler’s entourage: she remembers how he had sat at the front of a large table, the British leader and the Spanish leader at his sides like two dogs, and how powerful he had seemed.She looked back at the frail body lying in the bed. She wanted to ask it questions, see what it was thinking, pry it for knowledge. But she looked away, knowing, fully, that Hitler was dead.

The Five Percenters are a fascinating sect, in my opinion. Their cultural influence in urban America is far more widespread than actual knowledge of the movement, so I think it merits exploration.So buckle up, you Eighty-Fivers, and prepare to be civilized!(I promise that will make more sense by the end of the answer.)The religious sect commonly known as the “Five Percent Nation” or just “Five Percenters” is officially titled The Nation of Gods and Earths, and is an offshoot of the better-known Nation of Islam (NOI). In order to understand the movement and its influence on urban Black culture across the country, I think it is important to first understand its origins.It should be understood that I am both White and atheist, and as such my analysis of the NOI will naturally not be the same as what you would be told if you asked an actual NOI member. At the same time, I will endeavor to do the movement justice and acknowledge the value of the vision they presented, even though I disagree with it. When we get to the Five Percenters, I should be able to let them speak for themselves, though I will also explain their history and outline their philosophy to the best of my ability.So before we get started, let’s take a brief look at the Nation of Islam, which laid the foundation for the Five Percent Nation.The Nation of Islam (NOI): A Brief OverviewThe Nation of Islam was a religious movement that began in Detroit in 1930 and grew to prominence during the 50s and 60s, especially with the public persona of Malcolm X, along with the conversion of Muhammad Ali.But instead of going into the specific facts of NOI history, I want to look at its message and outlook as I think that’s what it is most important to understand.In my view, the conundrum of the NOI was that it took a deep and profound Truth that spoke to many people suffering under the yoke of racial oppression and conflated it with elements of bizarre mythology. In that respect it is quite a bit like all religions, in my atheistic view at least. Religions that are not our own almost always look absurd in a way that our own superstitions or faith-based beliefs do not.With that in mind, I ask you to open your mind for a moment and to try to understand the appeal that NOI doctrine would present to a new convert, without regard for the historicity of its claims or the more remote implications of its creeds. Such intricacies are, after all, seldom in the mind of the newly converted, and usually only come with time and study. To the fresh convert, religion is all about a new identity, an new community, and a new basic Truth.To those of us too young to remember the days of Jim Crow, it can be difficult to understand the degree of oppression that Black people have faced in America over the course of centuries. White America seems largely to have bought into a belief that the abolition of slavery undid at least 85% of racial injustice, and Martin Luther King took care of another 20%, leaving Black Americans somehow 5% ahead of Whites, despite their being poorer and more frequently imprisoned. This belief has almost become religious in many White communities, and its primary fruit is a deep and abiding faith in the idea that any kind of welfare that is “given” to Blacks by the same government that deprived them of so much is somehow an unearned handout meant to hold them subservient. And that is just talking about today.In 1930, the year that the NOI was founded, the century-long campaign of terrorism carried out by the KKK was still going strong, with 20 lynchings of African Americans carried out that year alone, an average of about one every two-and-a-half weeks. From 1882 to 1922, an average of 1.5 lynchings of African Americans were carried out each week for forty years.[1]The dominant religious narrative at the time included the “Curse of Ham” mythology, which still persists to this day in some denominations, and which holds that Black people were/are the descendants of Noah’s son Ham and of his son Canaan. In the 20th Chapter of Genesis, Noah gets drunk and passes out naked in his tent, and his son Ham sees him in that state, while his brothers go in with a blanket and overt their eyes to cover their father. As a result of having seen him naked, Noah curses Ham and his descendants to be slaves to the descendants of his brothers.[2] As utterly absurd as it is, this story was actually held as the core biblical foundation for the practice of chattel slavery, often paired with another myth holding all Black people to be the descendants of the Egyptians whom God had scattered through the continent, and praised African Slavery in America as God’s righteous retribution for Egypt’s ahistorical enslavement of the “White” Biblical Jews in Exodus.By the early 20th century, Christian doctrine had a strong hold among African Americans, and many had found ways to accept these stories that held their suffering under the chains and whips of slavery to have been part of God’s divine plan, just as many had been pressed into viewing their own race as somehow inferior in the eyes of their God, and saw nothing awry in the White face of Jesus to whom they sang gospel songs imploring the Lord to wash them to be white as snow. At the same time, the narrative of the Exodus found a place in the heart-of-hearts of the African American community, and many Black Christians strongly identified with the Israelites in Egypt, meekly bearing the scourges of slavery through the faith that one day God would see fit to end their suffering, and allow them to his table of pure-white perfection.This was the world in which the NOI emerged, and turned this absurd racism on its head.It is not hard to understand why Black people in this world of rampant terrorism and oppression found the message of NOI Founder Wallace Fard Muhammad and of Elijah Muhammad (who took over leadership of the NOI after the founder’s mysterious disappearance in 1934) compelling. It took the same racial theology of the Curse of Ham, but turned the tables entirely.The NOI proudly announced its revolutionary call to prayer: God is Black, and man was created Black in his divine image! Your dark skin is not the shameful mark of a curse that renders you subservient and inferior, but rather a badge of honor, marking you as one of God’s chosen people! Allah, the one true God, created Black people to be his disciples, but the slavers have stolen your true religion from you along with your true names and all knowledge of your noble heritage so that they could keep you in bondage. But rejoice, for you are God’s chosen people, not your enslavers, and Allah is now recalling you to his side!While Christianity taught that subservience and meekness were what God wanted from his servants, the NOI spoke to Black people of strength and nobility, telling them that they should be proud because of their blackness, not in spite of it.It was this call that brought the likes of Malcolm X and Clarence 13X (founder of the Five Percenters, to whom we will return momentarily) into the fold. Many African Americans were tired of praying to any God who had given his blessing to the oppression they faced, and were eager to be leaders of their own people without needing to wait for Whites to get on board.Unfortunately, as so often happens with cults, the appealing message became tied to unhealthy exploitation. The NOI demanded that its participants pay large portions of their meager salaries to its leaders, and even prohibited its followers from eating more than one or two small meals per day. Gaining weight was grounds for expulsion, as was any engagement in extramarital sex or even smoking a single cigarette, and those who faced discipline for misconduct were coldly shunned by their communities. All the while, Elijah Muhammad made millions of dollars and had clandestine sexual affairs with many of the women that the NOI employed as secretaries, fathering numerous illegitimate children.In time, the call that had brought many of the true believers into the fold was no longer strong enough to overpower the hypocrisy they saw at the top, and many of the Nation’s foremost voices went their own ways to explore their new religion outside of Elijah Muhammad’s reach. Malcolm X’s departure in the early 60s and conversion to mainstream Sunni Islam directly resulted in his assassination by a team of NOI operatives in February, 1965.Clarence 13X and the Birth of the Nation of Gods and EarthsSo now that we have a sense of the soil from which the Five Percent Nation grew, I think we have the proper context to understand its beginnings.Clarence 13X had converted to the NOI following his wife, who had converted while he was serving in the Korean War, and was a member of Mosque Number Seven in Harlem, of which Malcolm X was the minister. He left the NOI following his realization of the level of corruption among its leaders, but didn’t leave all of its teachings behind. He came to the belief that the fundamental message of the NOI had indeed contained strands of the Truth, but that it had been twisted by the greed of its leaders.So it was that Clarence began a mini protestant reformation that sprouted from the NOI, and which took the most powerful aspects of its message and combined it with a profound strain of humanism that helped it to reach a broader audience.As part of his religious transformation, Clarence 13X changed his name once again, but this time the change was a bit more jarring. He assumed the name of Allah instead. Now even for those unfamiliar with Islamic doctrine, it should be easy to understand that a man referring to himself as Allah is generally considered as about the worst form of blasphemy, and he took the name in the full knowledge that it would cause a stir in the Black Muslim community. But at the same time, he paired it with a new doctrine of Black humanism that allowed the very waves he caused to wash more followers his way.His new religious movement taught that mankind was God incarnate. While the NOI taught that God was a Black deity and created a Black man in his image, from whom the Black race had sprouted, he now taught that the creator and the God of the universe was not a Black man but was in fact Black man, in the collective sense. He taught that the original man was the “Asiatic Black Man” whom he called “the maker, the owner, the cream of the planet Earth, the father of civilization and God of the universe,” and held that his descendants shared fully in this divine lineage.Now I expect that—given the nature of both Quora and dominant White culture—most readers will focus in on the fact that he saw divinity as coextensive with the Black race and fixate on the racial supremacy of his message while missing the most powerful elements of his humanism. But the world into which this movement was born was a world already separated by race, and the most important element to understand is the claim that God exists within mankind. That new prophetic message was the whole heart of his movement.Of course, the context in which the movement progressed through its early days is just as important to understand as the soil from which it grew. This new reformation was born in Harlem and nurtured in other urban Black Neighborhoods. Within its native habitat, nuclear families were far less common than in White America, and this absence was frequently used to justify the second-class status of Black Americans.As a result, this new movement, like the NOI that it had sprouted from, leaned into an extremely patriarchal vision of the family. It told men that they were called to be the head of the household, to provide for and protect their families. This calling helped its message speak to young men who had never known their fathers, and most of its initial converts gave from that demographic. Before long, Clarence was known as Allah the Father to his followers, especially because “many of them were the products of broken homes and this was the only father they knew.”[3] This new call for Black men to assume their divine status as the sun at the center of their solar systems spoke to a new generation of fatherless Black men, and in its earliest days, the sect neither sought nor entirely accepted female converts.Soon, however, Allah the Father recognized the important place that women would play in his new humanist social cosmology. Just as men, as Gods, were the suns of their own solar systems, women were the planets that brought forth life. Women were Earths, the fertile soil that nurtured the seed beneath the light of the sun. So the Nation of Gods and Earths—the Nation of empowered men and fertile women—came to be.The term “Five Percenters” or “Five Percent Nation” came as a result of the one of Clarence’s new doctrines. He taught that the people of the slave diaspora—and eventually expanded this to all mankind—were divided into three mutable classes, referred to by the percentage of their prevalence in society:The 85%—The vast majority of people fall into this bracket. These are the common and unenlightened masses, who wander the world spiritually blind in search of something to believe and someone to follow. They generally prefer comforting lies to harsh Truth, making them easy to lead in the wrong direction and difficult to lead in the right. They are not evil or sinful only ignorant, but they are not condemned to remain so. By teaching them the truth of their internal divinity and true potential, they can become civilized and enlightened. Essentially everyone begins here.The 10%—Also known as the Rich Bloodsuckers of the Poor, these are the partially-enlightened who have some knowledge of some portion of the Truth, but who use it to deceive the 85% into following false religions for their own profit. It is likely that Clarence viewed Elijah Muhammad, who was using the NOI to force followers into giving him money and selling his newspaper, as the archetype of the 10%, though essentially all leaders of organized religion and politicians are here, as is anyone who runs a business with predatory practices.The 5%—Also known as the Poor Righteous Teachers, these are the enlightened who do not believe in the false teachings of the 10% and who know of their Godly status and accept their duty as fathers of civilization to nurture knowledge, art, and culture, and to spread enlightenment and civilization to the ignorant masses around them. The church therefore came to be known as the Five-Percent Nation.In order to preach his new message, Clarence/Allah took another controversial step away from the rigidity of NOI life: believing that his mission was to teach the 85%, he went to seek them out, smoking weed with them and shooting dice with them in alleys. He began to circulate in the very same circles of iniquity that the NOI had taught them to view with contempt, all the while preaching his message. He called these young Black men who had been deprived of hopes and dreams to stand up and be Gods, to take control of their lives, and to become masters of their divine inheritance. It’s not difficult to understand why many found his message so compelling.Clarence also adapted some of the customs of the NOI to assist in broadening his reach. He felt that the use of the greeting “as-salaam-alaikum” was misguided, as the people to whom he now preached had no connection to the Arabic language. Indeed, he felt that the expectation that Muslims who spoke no Arabic should still use Arabic greetings with each other was yet another instance of cultural imperialism of foreigners over Black people. as such, he replaced the phrase with the basic concept behind it translated into English, the single word “peace.” As such, because Five-Percenters recognize one another as Gods, the most common greeting when two meet is simply “Peace, God.”As a result of this unconventionally worldly proselytization technique, his religious following became strongly related to another blossoming cultural movement that emerged in the late 20th century from those same worldly circles: Hip-Hop Music, and it is through that medium that I will relate the rest of this answer.Five-Percenter Hip-HopFor those readers who have ever heard of the Five-Percenters before—and I am guessing that many haven’t—I would bet money that your first exposure to the group was through Hip-Hop lyrics. Indeed the ties between Rastafari—another religion of Black nobility with some remarkably similar elements—and Reggae.At the start of the answer, I said that I would try to let the Five-Percenters speak for themselves, and through Hip-Hop lyrics and interviews I will do exactly that. But before diving in, I want to look at a couple of Five-Percenter terms that have become so ubiquitous in Hip-Hop music and culture that many people have heard them without knowing their origins and assumed that they were just “Hip-Hop slang.”Cypher—One of the tools that Five-Percenters use to teach their philosophy is what they call Supreme Mathematics and the Supreme Alphabet. These are symbolic frameworks in which each digit from 0–9 and each letter of the alphabet are given a corresponding word and idea, usually starting with that same letter. One exception to this initialistic trend is that the letter O represents the cypher, or perfect circle. A Five-Percenter should be focused only on his own circle or sphere of influence and responsibility. Instead of worrying about what he cannot change, he should become master of his own cypher. It’s perfect circle also represents enlightenment and completion. As Hip-Hop took to the streets, the word cypher came to refer to the circles that would form around stereos or turntables, where individual participants would improvise flows together over the beat, and is often used today to refer to any kind of freestyle rapping, such as Eminem’s now-famous BET “Freestyle Cypher” in 2017.[4]Dropping Science—From the beginning, the Five Percenters heavily identified with science, often referring to themselves as “scientists.” Within Five Percenter circles, “dropping science” refers to spreading knowledge to the unenlightened eighty-fivers, but it was rapidly assimilated into general rap terminology, featuring heavily on songs like “The Sounds of Science” by the Beastie Boys.[5]Now those are just examples of Five Percenter slang that became widespread. There are also many rappers who converted to the Five Percent nation and who rapped about its teachings and philosophy extensively. So, without further ado, I figure I will hit you with some Hip-Hop to elucidate further.It should be noted that as the Five-Percent Nation branched out through the veins of Hip-Hop, it let go of much of its dogma. Many rappers who identify as Five Percenters are not necessarily members of a particular congregation. In many cases, you have people who have never been affiliated with any organized church structure or codified creed but find the basic ideas of God as Humanity and the mission of spreading knowledge as profound and meaningful, and developed their own slightly unique creeds around the Five-Percent core. As such, the views expressed in the following songs should not necessarily be seen as those of all Five-Percenters, but rather individual informed interpretations.While he wasn’t the first, it seems like a good place to begin would be with the man who essentially invented the sound of Rap’s Golden Age. Rakim (pronounced rah-KIM, not rah-KEEM) might be the single most influential rapper of all time, and his 1997 track “The Mystery (Who Is God?)” provides us with an excellent summary of Five Percenter cosmology and beliefs. Parenthetical notes are my own additions, as is the bolded emphasis.The Mystery (Who Is God) by RakimHook:If you can, see if you can solve the mysteryThe answer revolves around your historySo carefully, I drop this degreeScientifically and realistically (x2)In eternal blackness, in the midst of the darkest nightProteins and minerals exist within specks of lightSolids liquids and gases, and sparks of light withinInfinite lengths and widths and depths and heightsNo beginning or ending, with seven dimensionsEnough space for more than a million words and inventionsTo travel through time within enough room to be the wombOf the most high’s great mind which he will soon make shineWith intelligent elements insight that he will gatherIn the realms of relativity electricity struck matterEnergies explode he reload and keep releasingAtoms by the millions ‘til the numbers increasing‘Til it was burning he kept returning himself to the sourceThe hotter his thoughts it gave the center more forceHe gave birth to the sun which would follow his lawsAll caused by his mental intercourse, who is God?HookHe began to explain his craft, the master in the atticHe dealt with measurements, his language was mathematicsHis theoretical wisdom of the numerical systemThe complete number nine, which mean “born” or “existin’” (Supreme Mathematics)He gave birth to all planets, inorganic, and organicSo you wouldn't take it for grantedThey rotated their own distance around the sunAnd fully submit to the existence of oneAnd each one was promised everlasting perfectionIf each one keeps spinning in the same directionTo the East, and each speak the motion of peaceAnd harmony, and each show devotion to teachThe universe is to come, the whole world must go accordingKnow your galaxies and mirages stars start fallingSo stay in your orbit maintain safe and soundLike the planets each cypher remains perfectly roundHookFrom unconsciousness to consciousnessBy knowledge and his wisdom his response is this:An understanding, which is the best partHe picked the third planet where new forms of life would startHe pursued show improve every move in orderBack to the source he let off his resources in the waterClimb his climax, where the climate is at, high degreesSee he start to breathe deep in the darkest seasAnd the plan is, to lay in the clays to form landAnd expand, usin’ the same clays to born manIn his own image our origin begins in the EastCulture rise to breed, with the powers of peaceDeal in equality nature's policy is to be GodBuild or destroy positively born life like AllahAnd each one was given everlasting perfectionIf each one keep living in the same directionAnd life was life, and love was loveWe went according by the laws of the world aboveThey showed us physically, we could reach infinityBut mentally, through the century we lost our identityLife start and ending, we got trife and started sinningLost touch with the beginning now cyphers stop spinnin’And what was once easy became confused and hardWhich brings us back, to the mystic question, who is God?Sixty-six trillion years since his face was shownWhen the seventh angel appears, the mystery will be knownCheck Revelations and Genesis, St. Luke and JohnIt even tells us we are Gods in the Holy QuranWisdom Strength and Beauty, one of the meanings of GodG.O.D. you and me Gomar Oz DubarKnowledge Wisdom Understanding Sun Moon and StarMan Woman and Child, and so is AllahHookOutro:Bear witness to Allah, gave birth to allFor Allah was all, and therefore, life itselfAnd the universe gave birth to manThe universe was man, and man was the universeAnd the universe was always existingAnd existence was lifeAnd life is AllahAnd Allah had no beginning because he is what always wasRakim AllahPeaceNow who is God?I promise that I won’t type out all of the lyrics for every song that I cite, but I think this one provides a sufficiently far-reaching illustration of Five Percenter philosophy that the whole thing merits a look. We see the symbolism of the solar system compared to mankind and the family structure. The analogy of Sun, Moon, and Star as Man, Woman, and Child is a motif that we will see repeated many times. Furthermore, just as the stars and planets rotate in their orderly cyphers, divine man is also called to act out his nature and complete his cypher.(It is interesting to note that this song focuses on evolution as the means by which Allah brought forth the biodiversity of Earth, while some Five Percenters are more skeptical regarding evolution. We should remember that the theory of evolution has been heavily used to prop up racist ideas through the idea that Blacks were somehow less-evolved and closer to apes than Whites. In this regard, it is not difficult to see why some Five Percenters would come to view it as a tool of oppression, especially in the belief that Mankind was Allah made flesh and therefore not descended from lower imperfect life forms. In short, we see the diversity of views even within the Five Percenters on this particular point.)Moving on, I will turn my focus next to the group that really brought the Five-Percent Nation into the centerstage: The Wu-Tang Clan. While certainly not the first Five-Percent rappers, they put its message at the core of a lot of their music and adopted its slang completely. Their habit of all addressing each other as “God” is ubiquitous through most of their recordings, and their albums hare littered with Supreme Mathematics and Five-Percent Slang.Perhaps the most shocking example of just how deep their ties ran, on their second album, the colossal Wu-Tang Forever, their opening track featured none of their nine members, but was instead dedicated to two of the Five-Percent affiliates explaining the core beliefs of the movement. Here we see an unfiltered glimpse of what most in the movement believe. The track is quite long and a bit rambling, so I will only include those lyrics that I consider especially illuminating:Wu-Revolution by Wu-Tang Clan (featuring Poppa-Wu and Uncle Pete)We have original man, the Asiatic Black manThe maker, the owner, the cream of the planet EarthFather of civilization and God of the universe…Arise you Gods, it's the time for the Revolutional WarThat's the mental warThat's the battle between God and DevilTake the devil off your planeTake him off your mental mentality, take him off your brainLeave all the cigarettes and guns, the alcohol and everythingThats the mental devil that exists within your bodyThat's destroying and decaying your mindThe mind controls the bodyEverything within must come outDon't look towards the sky cause there's no heaven aboveDon't look down beneath your feet, there's no hell belowBut heaven and hell exist withinHeaven is what you make it and hell is what you go through…It was a hundred percent of usThat came on the slave shipsEighty five percent of our people was uncivilizedPoison animal eatersThey're slaves of the mental powersThey don't know who the true and living God isAnd their origins in the worldSo they worship what they know notAnd they're easily led in the wrong directionHard to be led in the rightAnd now you got the ten percent who are rich slave makers of the poorWho teach the poor lies that make the people believeThat the all mighty true and living God is a spook in the skyAnd you can't see him with the physical eyesThey're also known as blood suckers of the poorAnd then you got the five percentWho are the poor righteous teachersWho do not believe in the teachings of the ten percentWho is all wise and know who the true and living god isAnd teach that the true and living god is a supreme being: Black man from AsiaOtherwise known as civilized peopleAlso Muslims, and Muslim's sonsPeaceNot all of the members of Wu-Tang have remained Five Percenters (I know that Ghostface Killah at least has transitioned to mainstream Sunni Islam), but their guiding Abbot, RZA, has remained one of the most poetically outspoken voices of Five-Percent philosophy in the world.On their 2007 album 8 Diagrams, Wu-Tang included a song called “Sunlight,” which is notable for being solely performed by RZA. On it, he provides a deep and mellifluous overview of his own interpretation of the movement’s philosophy. It strikes me as reminiscent of Bob Marley’s interpretation of Rastafarianism, keeping the poetry and philosophy while letting go of the more anti-White elements (though RZA does seem to make a reference to the comparative rapidity of visual aging among Whites as a sort of punishment). This song is one of my favorite ever written, and I couldn’t remove any part of it, so I will include its full lyrics as well, though I will skip the Kung-Fu excerpts at the beginning and end.In order to understand the opening image, I should show you the emblem of the Five Percent Nation:[6]Sunlight by Wu-Tang ClanI’m the seven in the center of the sun, I keep shiningMy inner light will turn my baby’s teardrops to small diamondsThat be twinklin’, while my love be sprinklin’We stay young while y’all old wicked faces be wrinklin’Allah’s the most gracious, he made the universe the most spaciousSeen and heard in all places, but still appear facelessEmbraces all races, all castes, and all casesIn every speck of life, he’s the substance of all tracesThe answer to all questions, the spark of all suggestionsOf righteousness, the pathway to the road of perfectionWho gives you all, and never asks more of youThe faithful companion that fights every war with youBefore the mortal view of the prehistorical/historicalHe’s the all-in-all, you searchin’ for the OracleA mission impossible, it’s purely philosophicalBut you call him on your death bed when you layin’ in the hospital(Note: in the preceding lines, RZA is comparing the common conception of God as an absent-or-hidden oracle/power who becomes more relevant after death to the divinity-within and rejection of the afterlife by Five Percenters.)And as you play all day like the grasshopper, we work and toilLike armies of ants, carrying stones and soilBuilding a home for themselves, and storing foodAt night we praise Allah and adore the Moon(Note: The moon is heavily identified with the feminine in Five Percenter teachings, just as Allah is heavily identified with man. Therefore, the act of sexual intercourse between a loving and committed man and woman would be an example of “praising Allah and adoring the moon”)It seems like the Flow of the Nile, the growth of a childOnly fearing God, we meet a ghost with a smileThat which is Spirit is Spirit, which is Flesh is FleshMeaning Life has no partnership with DeathYo, I been highly misunderstood by those that met usThey had ears of corn, and heads of lettuceMentally dead, essentially ledBy the false teachings, and eventually pledgedTheir allegiance to that which was against themThen exempt them from the Truth, then juiced them and pimped themTo giving in tithes, so the Church could riseWhile your baby’s home, hungry, covered with fliesBzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt!(Note: The preceding lines refer to the abuse an manipulation of the 85% by the 10% through false religions.)Trying our hardest to win,Allah’s the father from without and withinOn Christ’s return, who will announce him?Every tree is numbered, but who can count them?The name of all things in this world, who can pronounce them?Allah is the Father of all, why do you doubt him?I won’t pretend to understand every part of RZA’s exposition here (the bit about Christ is especially confusing), but I think it gives a solid idea of the way that Five-Percenters view the world, and repeats some of its beautiful analogies.Returning for a moment to the symbol above the video—the “seven in the center of the sun”—we can see many images combined. In Supreme Mathematics, the number 7 represents God, and the Sun, Moon, and Stars represent Man, Woman, and Child in the core family unit. The symbol itself pops up even with people who don’t openly talk much about being Five-Percenters. One notable example would be Jay-Z, who sparked a bunch of queries about his religion when he began openly wearing this chain:[7]Indeed, now that you know what it looks like, you will likely see it more frequently than you might expect in the future.Returning to Rappers who identify as Five Percenters, the New Orleans-born emcee Jay Electronica briefly relates the story of his own conversion while homeless in New York in his breakout release Exhibit C:Exhibit C by Jay ElectronicaI ain’t believe it then, nigga, I was homelessFightin’, shootin’ dice, smokin’ weed on the cornersTryin’ to find the meaning of Life in the Coronas’Til the Five Percenters rolled up on a nigga and informed him:"You either build or destroy, where you come from?""The Magnolia projects in the 3rd Ward slum""Hmm, it's quite amazing that you rhyme how you doAnd that you shine like you grew up in a shrine in Peru"Question Fourteen, Muslim Lesson Two:Dip-diver, civilize an eighty-fiverI make the devil hit his knees and say the "Our Father"Indeed, the term “civilize an eighty-fiver” has become widespread even beyond the confines of Five Percenters. In the opening track of his monumental album All My Heroes Are Dead, champion underground White rapper and definite non-five-percenter R.A. the Rugged Man includes the line:Society despiser, grind of a violent viking fighterVibin' to the violence inside ya, the suicide survivorCivilize an eighty-fiver, mind of Malcolm and ElijahTiger-manimal hybrid, island of Dr. Frankenheimer[8]So the idea of “civilizing an eighty-fiver” has become a widely-used synonym for speaking Truth to the ignorant. References to “eighty-fivers” “eighty-five percent” or even just “eighty-fives” also turns up throughout the rest of Wu-Tangs repertoire:From Impossible:Innocent black immigrants locked in housing tenementsEighty-five percent tenants dependent welfare recipients[9]From Lab Drunk:Innocent drive-bys, eighty-fives shoot to overthrow usBut they love us like babies once they get to know us[10]From Bong Bong:You eighty-fives eatin’ swine like that?We ain’t tryin’ to beef, cause y’all blind like that[11]And so forth. The last reference reminds me that another common element of the Five-Percenter Movement is an adoption of a vegetarian and/or vegan diet. All members of Wu-Tang Clan are or were at one point vegetarian, and Ghostface has specifically mentioned in interviews that the choice to abstain from eating flesh is rooted in a greater belief in nonviolence, saying “I don’t even kill insects.” If you look back to Wu-Revolution, you will see that the 85% are identified as “poison animal eaters.”While Wu-Tang may have broken the Five-Percent Nation fully into the mainstream, they were not the first, and it should be understood that the Five Percenters had a place in the Hip-Hop community from the beginning. The rap group Brand Nubian is an earlier example:Brand Nubian by Brand NubianMy inspiration is the Five-Percent NationEveryone who has played GTA: San Andreas is guaranteed to have heard that song at some point, which brings me to my more broad-reaching observation: even those readers who had never knowingly heard of the Five-percent Nation have almost certainly heard its language and its slang before if they have listened to Hip-Hop, they just didn’t know it yet.I realize that I have gone on for entirely too long in this answer already, but before I go, I want to drop the poetry and let you hear a Five-Percenter just talk about his beliefs for a second. I could keep going with hip-hop references all day, but this seems a good way to conclude.I present to you Busta Rhymes explaining the Five Percent Nation in an interview:So there you go.In Conclusion: the Nation of Gods and Earths, also known as the Five-Percent Nation is a religious sect that began in Harlem and which is centered around these core beliefs:That God exists not as a distant or hidden entity but as a force within mankindThat there is no afterlife, but that we are called to build our heaven on EarthThat the world is divided into the ignorant, the deceivers, and the enlightened, and the righteous path is to spread knowledge to the ignorant and to deny the teachings of the deceiversThere are numerous other teachings and slangs associated with it, but those three points define its core. This religious movement found a powerful voice through Hip-Hop music, which it helped to shape from its early days.Thanks for reading, all you former-eighty-fivers.Consider yourselves officially civilized.Peace, God.Disclaimer: Tom Robinson is not nor has he ever claimed to be a Five-Percenter. He is just an atheist dude who likes Hip-Hop and philosophy and has too much time on his hands because of Quarantine. Don’t take his fake proselytizing too seriously.Footnotes[1] Lynching Statistics by Year[2] Bible Gateway passage: Genesis 9 - New Revised Standard Version[3] In the Name of Allah Vol. 1 a History of Clarence 13x and the Five Percenters.[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LunHybOKIjU[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtdKvEpl-Uo[6] What I Learned from the Five Percenters[7] White People Outraged By Jay Z’s Five Percent Nation Medallion[8] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbCV24IHWOY[9] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp-0-I1uUgs[10] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkQdMJPJNjM[11] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yb91C6QaRJQ

I went to Navy ROTC, 4 year scholarship, Marine Option.However, I was already an enlisted Marine noncommissioned officer.This created a sort of “cognitive dissonance” that I was never really able to overcome: I was already a Marine…but I then had to become a “Midshipman.” I had completed 12 weeks of Marine boot camp, follow on training, and was in the combat arms for about 2 years. And I had already accumulated about half of the credits required for a baccalaureate degree…So, although I originally thought I was just going to take the minimum credits every term (12 credits), and take my sweet time until graduation in the NROTC program, there were three things that radically altered my plan:My aforementioned cognitive dissonance…I was simply too prideful as a Marine NCO, bursting with youthful arrogance and a bunch of real world leadership and military experience, to feel comfortable “stripped” of my “real” Marine identity while being forcibly submerged in the ways of the Navy ROTC program. Essentially, in their own way, the ROTC program was trying to mold tomorrow’s commissioned officers, one year at a time, over 4 years…BUT I WAS ALREADY MOLDED INTO A US MARINE. Thus, a personal identity crisis!I realized that although the NROTC program was paying for my entire class tuition, and all my book fees and lab fees, AND $100/month in subsistence for 9 months of the year (I think it now pays $350–650/month), that as an “independent student,” i.e., without parental support, no longer on active duty and earning a paycheck, even with loans and some scholarships and living like a frugal monk, I was going to be completely broke well before 4 years just paying for my lodging expenses and gas money for an old car.And, a completely unforeseen complication: the Gulf War. By the late summer of 1990, it was already painfully obvious that SOMETHING was going to happen in the Persian Gulf, and that “something” was very likely going to involve US Marines as the tip of the spear for readiness and/or amphibious forcible entry capability. By the time I returned from the holiday break in January 1991, the DESERT SHIELD buildup had largely been completed, with tens of thousands of Marines deployed afloat, in the air, and on land, as part of the coalition.So, I had forged ahead, even before DESERT SHIELD/STORM, and finished almost the entire 4 year NROTC course of instruction in the 18 months since I had arrived, and was only 26 credits away from graduation in January 1991.I completed my final 26 credits in the winter quarter, and graduated in March 1991 as a Marine Second Lieutenant…and DESERT STORM was over in 96 hours, and even the mopping up was largely done by the time I was commissioned as an officer in the US Armed Forces under Article II of the US Constitution (the Appointments Clause), and taken the Oath of Office which still binds me today, and will bind me until I die because I’m a retired officer. (And even though retired from duty, retired officers retain their “Office” even though they have nothing to do in that Office; after retirement, the Office is a place in the heart where your patriotism, memories both good and bad, and duty continue.)Back to the question: my circumstances, while far from unique, still are uncommon. Most Army and Air Force ROTC cadets, and Navy ROTC midshipmen (of whom some will be Marine Options), enter the program straight from high school, as high achievers with a sincere desire to serve their country as officers, and along the way get help paying for college. That’s a good deal.Most of my ROTC peers were just regular college kids, taking a military ROTC class every term, wearing their uniforms on campus every Tuesday, going to a weekly “drill assembly” (ours were usually at 0600 on Tuesday, with a brief “passing the word,” followed by a uniform inspection, and some drill movements and “junior leader time” for the appointed ROTC squad leaders, platoon commanders, and company commanders to exercise a little leadership), and perhaps becoming involved in some extracurricular ROTC activities like shooting teams, drill team, honor guard, etc.Each summer, between spring and fall terms, ROTC go to their service’s “summer cruise.” Whatever form it happens to take, based on their branch of service, and whether they are rising sophomores/juniors/seniors. For example:Although I was only in NROTC long enough to attend one “summer cruise,” which for a rising senior in my last year was Marine Corps 6 weeks Officer Candidate School, the standard NROTC summers cruises in the two previous summers involved a combination of sea time on a Navy ship, and shore time at either/both Navy and Marine installations.I understand that some Army ROTC cadets may be able to attend Airborne School, or other interesting schools but I can’t speak from personal experience.The essence of ROTC is a very serious club. The ROTC unit provides leadership opportunities, training, specific military classes, and structure for the cadet/midshipman as they go through college, and of course they provide a healthy educational scholarship as well.Since there is no such thing as a free lunch, of course all Scholarship cadets/midshipmen, and certain others in their final two years based on the type of program and their service’s requirements (called “Advanced Training” in the final two years),[1] are sworn into the US Armed Forces as “Cadets” or “Midshipmen,” with an 8 year service obligation. Of which any part not served on active duty will be served in the reserves.[2]Immediately upon commissioning, all officers swear the Oath of Office and are given a new contract and their old one is voided. Their new contract spells out how long they will remain in the military (for most, it will again be 8 more years, of which any part not served on active duty must be served in the reserves), and they will know how much obligated service they will have. I believe it is typically 5 years of active duty and then three in the Ready Reserve now, but when I was commissioned it was 4 x 4 years.[3]Different services may do it differently; some may do a 2 x 6, or some other arrangement. Once an officer completes their follow on training, some such as pilots will have many more years of obligated service, often 8–10 years.Here are some FAQs:1. What happens to a ROTC scholarship or Advanced Training cadet/midshipman if they refuse their commission? Or if they simply “quit”?Well, each service may work it differently, and of course the circumstances are going to be individualized, but the general response is: once you start taking the Government’s money, if you don’t finish ROTC or you refuse a commission of your own free will, you will either have to pay back at least a proportion of what the Government spent on your behalf for tuition, etc., OR you will have to serve a period of active duty as an enlisted soldier/Marine/Sailor/airman as “pay back.”If you cannot finish ROTC due to circumstances beyond your control, like you broke your back, or you came down with leukemia, each Service Secretary (Army/Navy/Air Force) has procedures in place and the power to waive recoupment, if they believe that is the proper response in the given circumstances.2. Are ROTC cadets/midshipmen actually “in the military”?Yes, unless they were previously sworn into any branch of the active or reserve components of the armed forces (including Coast Guard), upon being contracted and sworn into their ROTC program, they will be establishing their date of original entry in the military.If they were already in the military, their status will change from whatever they were, to “cadets/midshipman.” Which under the law is a sort of “no man’s land” where the individual holds military status, but their rank status is somewhere between the most senior enlisted grades and the most junior warrant officers. And you won’t find “Cadet/Midshipman” on the standard US military rank charts…it used to be there, codified as the most junior “officers” but after 1912 it was no longer considered a warrant officer grade.The exception is Army enlisted reservists who join the “Simultaneous Membership Program” whereby after completing their basic Army training and joining a reserve unit, they also join an Army ROTC program while they attend college. They are allowed to do their reserve drill weekends, and get service credit and pay for that, while they also participate in their ROTC program until they are commissioned, at which point their status will change to whatever the Army says it will be based on their contract, etc.3. Do cadets/midshipmen get service credit for any portion of their time in ROTC?No, per 10 USC 2107g (and a couple of other sections of the US Code, but that’s the big one), ROTC program service, although under contract, does NOT count for “computing length of service for any purpose.”This means that it doesn’t count for calculating your years of service for pay, or for active duty, or even for inactive service like a reservist.It doesn’t count toward retirement.Even the summer cruises, while they ARE IN FACT LEGALLY CONSIDERED “Active Duty for Training,” just like any reserve annual training, do NOT count for service credit. (Except the joy of learning, and the fact that they are required for completing the ROTC program and obtaining the commission…)4. What type of commission does ROTC give?When the ROTC program is nearing completion, the program administrators will make sure the cadet/midshipman is medically qualified, initiate a security clearance background check, a criminal check, and notify their Service Headquarters that the individual will be complete with BOTH the program AND their degree on XXX date.[4]Normally, at that late point in the game, everybody will already know they are mentally, physically, and morally qualified for a commission, or their status would already be under review.And, almost all cadets/midshipmen are commissioned in the branch of service for which they completed the ROTC program: Army, Air Force, or Navy. A few NROTC midshipmen will be commissioned in the Marine Corps, typically known as “Marine Option.”But, it is possible (although generally difficult without a good reason) for a graduate of any of the programs, who is otherwise qualified, to be commissioned into any of the branches (including Coast Guard, which doesn’t have an ROTC). Each of the Services has its own prerequisites and procedures in such cases when someone is asking for an “interservice commission.”As noted above, while most ROTC graduates will serve a period of obligated active service after graduation, they may be commissioned in either the active or reserve components, based on laws and regulations and their contracts. For the Navy/Marine Corps, very, very few ROTC graduates will serve less than the standard active duty 5 years.The Commission itself is notional; it is that portion of the sovereign Constitutional authority of the United States that is delegated, in special trust and confidence, to the Officer. The authority flows from Article II of the Constitution, and permits the President and delegated civilian leaders of the Department of Defense (and Dept of Homeland Security in the case of the Coast Guard) to appoint “Officers of the United States.” (Each service submits “scrolls” of newly commissioned officers for appointment, so in a sense, the “scroll” gives a written form to the authority.)Each new officer will also get a nice, suitable to be framed, commission document from their Service. To be clear: the document that is framed on the wall is NOT the actual commission…it is only a paper representation of that sovereign authority exercised and entrusted to that “Officer of the United States.”5. What is the Oath of Office?The newly commissioned officer will, immediately upon taking up their new “Office,” i.e., on the day of commissioning, and pinning the insignia of grade upon the uniform, again swear (or “affirm” for those who may be averse to “swearing”) the Oath of Office (for most officer, it will be the last time they are legally required to swear the Oath):“I, (name), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.” 5 U.S. Code § 3331 - Oath of officeThis Oath is different than the Oath of Enlistment, and unlike the Oath of Enlistment, is only required ONCE for a warranted or commissioned officer, unless that officer has “broken service” whereby they are completely removed from military service (neither active or reserve…civilian only), and then reappointed to an officer status at some later time.While it common to recite the Oath of Office upon promotions, doing so is NOT required, and has no legal effect. (It just adds an element of elegance, and since the Oath of Enlistment is often recited for enlisted, it just “sounds right.”)Notice that Oath of Office, unlike the Oath of Enlistment, does not mention “obeying the orders of the officers appointed over me.” Instead, the Officer is freely accepting their Office (i.e., the duties and responsibilities with which they may be entrusted, not a physical space), and affirming they will perform their duties as best they can.Without broken service, an officer who serves to retirement (whether in the active or reserve component) will carry both their Oath and their Office with them into retirement, and remain bound by their Oath and their Office until their death. There is of course a reason why most retired officers may be recalled to active service, without their consent…even upon recall, their original Oath and Office remain effective under the Constitution and needn’t be restated.6. Can cadets/midshipmen in ROTC be called to duty?Yes, although this would be highly unlikely except in the event of an extremely dire and direct threat to national security.Once ROTC cadets/midshipmen are sworn into the ROTC program, they are contracted into the US Armed Forces. While technically their 8-year statutory Military Service Obligation contracts are “enlistments,” as required by Title 10 of the US Code, the Oath they use at that time is not the Oath of Enlistment, but the Oath of Office.[5] (The Cadets and Midshipmen who are commissioned later will recite the Oath of Office once more…but without their underlying enlisted status…at their commissioned, as noted above.)The fine print — which of course is unlikely to be fully explained because who would think it ever needed to be explained? — says that as sworn members of the ROTC, they are carried on the rolls of their Service as “Untrained Individual Ready Reservists.”The IRR is a huge holding pool for hundreds of thousands of servicemembers who are still on a contract, and thus have some sort of obligated service time remaining on their contract, or they have completed their obligated service and voluntarily remained in the IRR because they do not wish to retire, resign, or separate from the military. The IRR is a national asset for mobilization, but it is stratified into various levels of readiness for mobilization…and Service Academy and ROTC cadets/midshipmen are going to be down at the bottom. Although they will be higher than “delayed entry program (DEP)” enlisted poolees who have signed their 8-year statutory Military Service Obligation contract, but not yet shipped off to their service’s basic training, because poolees are expected to have even less military training than Academy and ROTC cadets and midshipmen.So, while it is theoretically possible that ANY member of the military, from an enlisted DEP poolee or ROTC midshipman up to a retired servicemember or a currently serving reservist, to be recalled to active service, the recall of enlistees without basic training, officer candidates, and cadets and midshipmen is an extremely remote possibility. Not since World War II has that happened…and even then, many of the Service Academy and ROTC cadets/midshipmen were simply expedited through as much of their officer training programs as they could finish, and then graduated and commissioned and sent off to join the fight. IN that respect, they weren’t “recalled to duty” so much as “graduated early.”7. What happens if you are injured while in ROTC?While very few ROTC would spend time thinking about it, there ARE physical standards that must be maintained while in ROTC, and then to be commissioned.ROTC doesn’t provide any medical coverage, except during the actual summer cruises which are “Active Duty for Training,” so the ROTC cadet/midshipman that gets injured has to inform their ROTC unit.Based on the nature and severity of the injury/illness, and how close they are to a summer period of active duty, or commissioning, the ROTC unit will work with the member and their Service HQ.A very serious injury/illness, especially right before commissioning, or that delays scholastic progress significantly (say, having to take a semester off due to an illness), MAY result in termination of the ROTC contract. Every case is different, and is treated on its own merits.Thus, ROTC members are in a difficult position: they are young, strong, healthy, and generally willing and able to participate in aggressive physical training, martial arts, contact sports, or even non-contact sports like gymnastics with a potential for serious injury. And yet, they have no medical coverage from ROTC, and if they get injured doing anything except during a period of bonafide military active duty orders they may end becoming “unfit” (or physically unqualified) for commissioning. Being careful, without unnecessary risks, is the key.Footnotes[1] 10 U.S. Code § 2104 - Advanced training; eligibility for[2] 10 U.S. Code § 2107 - Financial assistance program for specially selected members[3] https://www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/Documents/DD/issuances/dodi/121508p.pdf?ver=2019-01-29-121836-737, p. 26[4] https://www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/Documents/DD/issuances/dodi/121508p.pdf?ver=2019-01-29-121836-737[5] https://www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/Documents/DD/issuances/dodi/121508p.pdf?ver=2019-01-29-121836-737