It’s that most wonderful time of year again and I’m excited by the prospect. The wind carries a chill, a bite that can leave its mark if I’m not careful when going outside. The leaves have all turned and mostly fallen to a ground littered with their brethren. And the sounds of combat echo through hallowed hills that have seen much of it over the years. A great and momentous struggle is upon us, and—through the power of modern communications technology—I can’t wait to watch!
In 333 B.C., when Alexander the Great sought to solidify his hold over Western Asia, he realized his victorious and highly professional army was at the mercy of a strong, just as professional, Persian navy, operating from bases stretching from Asia Minor (modern Turkey) to Egypt. To leave this force in his rear, forever harassing Macedonian lines of supply, while he marched inland in pursuit of final victory over the Persian King of Kings was clearly unacceptable and something needed to be done.
Short of building a navy of his own—and then pitting that untried force against the most formidable sea power of the time—he was left with only one realistic course of action. Alexander would simply take the Persian naval bases—all of them—destroying support facilities, chasing off or enslaving skilled personnel, and leaving his enemy nowhere from which to operate.
The problem was, of course, these bases stretched over 3,200 kilometers of Mediterranean coastline, and Alexander had neither aircraft nor tanks to speed his progress. The vast majority of his men would march that entire distance to see the “naval” campaign brought to its necessary conclusion.
Alexander’s Siege of Tyre by Duncan Campbell
The city states along the way—and their naval contingents within the larger Persian force—fell under Alexander’s control, one-by-one, until all the elements of the Persian Navy had been, essentially, absorbed. This slow, steady, but deliberate campaign by a land-bound army to overcome the most powerful navy of the time made possible phenomenal feats like the seizure of the island city-state of Tyre, a conquest in all ways inconceivable in the face of an unimpeded and still coherent Persian Navy. Yet by taking the time to chip away at Persia’s littoral advantage—marching what must have seemed to the men endless miles out of their way to see it done—Alexander achieved his goal and rid himself of that pesky and seemingly unassailable threat to his rear.
So … and you should all be able to see where this is going … in honor of the 121st meeting of the United States Military Academy at West Point and the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis on the field of “friendly strife”—which this year happens to be Michie Stadium at West Point—I offer the following message to the Class of ‘94, to the current Corps of Cadets, and each and every member of the Long Gray Line:
GO ARMY, BEAT NAVY!!
M. G. Haynes