Lieutenant Colonel Anderson Félix Geraldo
On June 11, 2023, the documentary “Brothers by Choice” premiered on NETFLIX. I couldn’t watch it without looking back on my formative years at the Agulhas Negras Military Academy (AMAN). I remembered the difficulties experienced there, the friendships built, the teachings acquired and, most importantly, the values of the warrior’s code of honor learned; the military ethos.
From Moniz Barreto to the present day, the military are misunderstood in this respect:
“Stingy hearts throw the bread they eat in their faces, as if the snakes of pre could pay for Freedom and Life. Short-sighted publicists think they are too expensive, as if anything were more expensive than servitude. But they remain silent, guarding the nation from foreigners and from itself.“
As I watched the documentary, my weary heart warmed and the warrior’s code resurfaced, bringing cheer back to this officer.
If military life was hard enough to understand in the past, imagine in today’s society where the individual is more important than the group and the law of least effort reigns supreme?
Many wonder what makes a young man join AMAN. To swear to die for their country, despising death and physical suffering? Why give up his youth and his will? The comfort of home? This is inexplicable for the majority of the population and is even considered outdated, because this society has given up values that have made us human, such as concern for the group – the spirit of the body.
Not every citizen is willing to live what the cadets live at AMAN. What they experience there seems crazy to people who have lost faith in humanity. They don’t understand why individuals put their values above their own physical survival.
To understand the military career, it is necessary to understand the military ethos. The warriors’ code of honor emerged with the first nomadic warrior societies. Its members hunted together to maintain the food and protection of the entire band. This gave rise to one of the oldest codes, the virtues of which were courage, self-denial, patience, control, determination to tolerate adversity, love and loyalty to one’s companions. For these warriors, esprit de corps was worth much more than individual spirit, with the leader playing a key role because of his responsibility to be the first to set an example.
At AMAN, during his training, the young cadet learns this code and how to be a leader. They go through an apprenticeship with theoretical and practical disciplines that culminate in various honor initiations – the Aspirant Mega and Iron Engineer tests, as well as the awarding of the rapier and sword. These initiations are important because they show society that the cadets are ready to defend it with the sacrifice of their lives.
The cadet also learns to think of the whole, of the group, and not of himself. They are shown the importance of esprit de corps and of recognizing their greatest enemy, the one within themselves. This allows you to identify your vices and weaknesses, such as envy, greed, indolence, selfishness, the ability to lie, cheat and hurt your brothers in arms.
In addition, in training, the cadet learns to be human in the midst of an increasingly chaotic and degraded world like ours, helping him to find his humanity in times of peace and war. The process of “knowing thyself” is important, as it allows the soldier to respect his enemy without dehumanizing him. It makes them understand that on the other side of the trench there is a professional like them doing their duty as a warrior for their people. That enemy could become a friend in the future.
This is a watershed between a warrior who follows a code and others who dehumanize their opponents and don’t respect the rules of armed conflict. There, the cadet discovers that the military professional must not turn to the dark version of the code, represented by criminal organizations and terrorists. These even have effective strategies, but they have terrible, petty, vulgar, low and unworthy ends. They wage war out of hatred and/or self-interest, not out of a sense of duty and mission accomplished.
These groups use the code against the warrior himself by using civilians, women and children as targets and shields. This forces the warrior to descend to their moral level, where these groups have total dominance. They are capable of anything to win the war, because they respect nothing, not even their own society. For them, the enemy must be eliminated completely, no matter what.
Our Western society will never accept its military behaving in such a way. In the same way, it doesn’t want its military to go to war, but when it does, it wants them to be able to get out of it without turning to the dark side of the code and losing their humanity. We already live in a daily war, where each interest group seeks to impose its will through force. For this reason, we increasingly need capable leaders at all levels of the fields of power.
In the military field, military leaders need to have the ability to face danger, even when their men are bleeding and dying. To earn the respect of their men through example, love and self-sacrifice for their homeland. Of being the first and last to set foot on the battlefield. To serve the nation by showing the way to victory in war. May they be better every day. May they have peace in victory and humility in defeat.
That’s why AMAN is so important. A place where military professionals learn to be leaders. To lose their individuality in favor of the group. To think, live and be a member of a group that fights in pursuit of an ideal. They will discover that happiness is directly linked to the possession of honor and that dishonor in the face of friends is greater than the weapons of the enemy. They will recognize that esprit de corps is important for winning victories and that self-sacrifice is based on a goal – the interest of the whole is always more important than individual interest.
The cadet will see that killing the enemy is not considered a sign of honor, only when really necessary, and that it is dishonorable to kill him cowardly. They will learn that death is much better than dishonor – something rare in today’s world.
He will learn to overcome his limits and his passions in order to love the society he is a part of, because love makes us overcome all fears in defense of all those we love, giving ourselves completely to an ideal that justifies our lives – love of country. This greatness of values is contagious and evokes greatness in all those who live with a military leader imbued with the warrior’s code of honor.
That’s why we need to rescue the warrior in our society and bring these values to the world! Make Brazilian citizens think of the whole and not of themselves, because “Not one of us is as strong as all of us!”
The documentary “Brothers by Choice” sought to do just that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJcbs7TJJL8&ab_channel=Irm%C3%A3osporEscolha-BrothersbyChoice
Anderson Félix Geraldo, a lieutenant colonel in the engineering corps, graduated from the Agulhas Negras Military Academy in 2002. He attended EsAO in 2011 and ECEME in 2018-2019. He was an inter-American monitor in Colombia (2014) and a mine action and peace operations instructor at CCOPAB (2015-2017; 2020-2021). He currently serves on the Permanent Executive Secretariat of the Conference of American Armies (SEPCEA).
*** Translated by DEFCONPress FYI Team ***