Thank you for your service. A soldiers credo is to be loyal to the Constitution and not a President. Do you agree?
Thank you, it is my honor to have Served.
I do not agree. To explain why, I have to ask you this question first—a question I know you cannot answer, but I have to ask anyway. I am going to assume the answer because you cannot answer.
Do you know the difference between a 'credo' and an 'oath'?
I am going to assume your answer to be 'yes' and we can move forward.
I do not agree that a Soldier's 'credo' is to be loyal to the Constitution and not a President. A 'credo' is nothing more than a personal belief—an idea that what they believe is right and true. The literal translation from credere is 'I believe' or 'I trust.' Although I do believe and trust in my choices as a Soldier, my reason why is a little bit more formal.
On 27 November 1989, I took my first real Oath of Enlistment at Fort McClellan, Alabama. That Oath is a formal promise not to the President, not to the Constitution of the United States, but to 'We The People' that I will always defend the Constitution first and foremost. I will defend every single word as written, not as implied or reimagined to mean. I will defend the parts I do not like just as much as the parts I do. I do not get a say in what is best or worst about the Constitution. I only have to understand my Oath requires me to defend it even if no one pays attention to it.
I will defend a flag burner because they have that Right; I do not have to like it, but the Right is there to use. Equally, I will defend a human's Right not to be owned by another human.
The Rights laid out in the Constitution are not a list of things that the government is giving us through their benevolence. It is a list of Rights that exist before the laws of man. They preempt the laws of man and tell the world, 'These Rights already exist. This list is what the government is tasked with safeguarding for "We The People".'
My Oath is a formal, lifelong contract between the people of the United States and me—that I will always hold the Constitution over a political party, over the ebbs and flows of political and military powers. I will ALWAYS keep the Constitution as my one guiding star. My Oath is to the Constitution, not to a person or idea. That is much more powerful than a credo.
As for the 'President of the United States' and 'officers appointed over me' and 'regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice,' we have baked-in checks and balances in our General Orders, Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) Article 92, Law of Armed Conflict, Law of Land Warfare, and many other documents. Humans are capable of failure, of nefarious want and need, of vanity and the need for retaliation. The Constitution has no such failings.
If the President and all the officers over me issue an illegal order, I am obligated to NOT follow those orders. If I do that based on a 'credo,' there is a good chance I will be doomed. But if I follow the Constitution, I might still be persecuted and prosecuted, but my Oath will still be intact.
So, I do not believe it is a Soldier's duty or obligation to follow a 'credo' because we do not have the luxury of a credo, but I do believe that a Soldier should always follow their Oath.