Free Essay

Sykes

In:

Submitted By Swri9825
Words 955
Pages 4
Military Science 402

General George Sykes
Summary
General George Sykes was born on October 9, 1822. In 1842 Sykes graduated and commissioned from the United States military academy. When he became a second lieutenant Sykes’ military career officially began. Not long after commissioning Sykes waited before his leadership and gallantry to be tested. In 1847, Sykes was sucked into the Mexican American war, during the Battle of Cerro Gordo, where his skills were put to the test. Being the leader and expert in war that he was, he excelled flawlessly. The battle was fought so well and displayed so much leadership that Sykes was later recognized for it. In recognition for his selfless service and amazing gallantry in battle, Sykes was promoted to captain. Though Sykes served with a flawless record and an excellent name in combat, his largest feat was yet on its way. Sykes’ newest focus of conflict would be the civil war. It was at this time that Sykes was promoted to the rank of major and given a battalion commander position over a group of infantry regulars. This was something very unnatural. With such a high profile war, to find a unit where every person in it was an actual soldier was like a dream made in heaven. During this time absolute chaos was not unlikely, especially with the poor training of the volunteers. Unlike many, all of Sykes troops were “regulars”. Because of this, nothing but sure success was highly expected. He continued the war with wins in battle until he was faced with the bloodiest battle in history to this day, the battle of Gettysburg. This was an all out event full of madness. Despite the activity, Sykes still held on and did what he had to do. He was called in-support of brigade commander Strong Vincent and the 20th marine Infantry Division. Sykes is best known for his defense on little round top. This conflict with in the battle is highly-respected because it is considered the turning point in the battle. It was here that Confederate soldiers were stopped dead in their tracks and all chances for advancement were omitted. The defensive position was, in a sense, converted into an offensive maneuver when confederate soldiers were pushed across the “Valley of Death”. The battle ended in the wheat field. This destroyed the moral, numbers of troops and any other options the confederacy had going for them. Due to the continued success in battle shortly after the war Sykes was promoted Colonel and served as the commander in the 20Th Infantry until his death.
Significance
The significance of this bears great importance. For any and all military personnel we know that moral and training is everything. Sykes gave soldiers a sense of pride because of whom he was and who he was leading. This allowed for those volunteers who severely lacked skill to gain a sense of patriotism in order get them to fight harder. This also unlocked the true training and knowledge strong points in each and every one of his “regulars”. This forced them to give all that they had and to exhaust all points of combat they had learned throughout their years of service and dedication to their country. This, in my opinion was one of the driving forces that kept the battle of Gettysburg alive and allowed for them to cut all chances of the Confederacy advancing. Prior to this battle, the Confederacy had been dominating the war due to their numbers and leadership. More than half of the West Point generals had attended West Point. With all of that militant expertise, this naturally would drive a long, hard road for the union. The pride for this country was shown exceptional and no other part of the Gettysburg.
Personal Thoughts My personal thoughts are simple: without such a seasoned leader, none of this would have been possible. Honestly, there are times where fresh soldiers grasp a victory in battle, whether it be by sheer luck or a leader who just makes the correct critical decision when it is needed. A conflict like this offers no room for luck. This was an absolute war zone that required significant amount of training in order to win. Sykes’ professionalism is also something to be commended. With him being the only commander with “regulars,” he rose to the occasion rather than backing down due to the lack of everyday troops. He really set the tempo and made something out of a nothing in this situation. To me this is one of the most important lessons because there will be many times where one does not possess all of the necessary tools to accomplish the mission, but that does not mean that the mission stops. Only a true leader and military genius would expect any of this. It is the traits like these that I will attempt to mirror in order to maintain and prolong a successful career. I will need to know my soldiers and their capabilities, and like Sykes, I will need to know what they can do even if they do not personally believe that they can do it. Like Sykes, I will be there to push them that extra mile and achieve nothing less than greatness on the battlefront. I say this because often times, out there, you get one chance only to prove your worth. As for the others who do not rise to the standard, they rarely live to tell the story and discuss what they would have done. Through his great leadership skills, I aspire to pick up some helpful tips so that I may secure a successful career in the United States Army.

Reviewed by: CDT Vanderpuije & CDT Lincoln

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Gresham Sykes And David Matz Article Summary

...As discussed in Hinduja’s (2007) article, he states that the researchers Gresham Sykes and David Matza introduced their theory in 1957 to explain why some juveniles are able to ignore normative societal constraints in order to justify engaging in deviant behavior. They claim that the laws, morals, and ethics that these individuals follow are not rejected by the juveniles entirely, instead these constraints are temporarily shelved for the time being so that the person will obtain a sense of liberation from the law. These people will try to convince themselves that their actions are justified, whether through verbal persuasion or mental manipulation, they will argue that they were in the right regardless of whether or not the their behavior was considered culturally...

Words: 615 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Charles Sykes '50 Rules Children Won T Learn In School'

...Charles Sykes writes at a level that people can understand in high school or maybe even junior high. Sykes makes his writings funny yet more about reality at the same time. Charles Sykes writes at a high school level to say what high school students should be told but nobody wants to say. Charles Sykes’ reading called "50 Rules Kids Won't Learn in School" is very straight and to the point which is now how many teenagers learn. One of Charles Sykes rules says "If you mess up, it's not your parents’ fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them" if that quote is not speaking 100% truth, then what is? In this reading Sykes also says “Life is not fair. Get used to it.” With that being said, people can tell that he is very straight...

Words: 382 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Wanda Sykes Uses Comedy to Increase Support for Same-Sex Marriage

...Wanda Sykes Uses Comedy to Increase Support for Same-Sex Marriage Wanda Sykes is a famous comedian. Her talent has scored her a role in many different types of popular productions, including The Chris Rock Show, a late night comedy talk show, and Monster-in-Law, a romantic-comedy movie. She has won an American Comedy Award, a BET Comedy Award, a Stephen F. Kolzak Award, and a Primetime Emmy for her performances. Entertainment Weekly also included her on the list, America’s 25 Funniest People. It is clear to see that Sykes has been very successful. In 2008, Sykes attended a pro-gay marriage rally in Las Vegas. At this rally, she publically announced that she is homosexual (“Biography for Wanda Sykes”). After this announcement, Sykes began to add things about homosexuality into her standup comedy routines. In a YouTube clip called, “Wanda Sykes on Gay Marriage”, she dove deep into the controversy of gay marriage and shared her endorsing thoughts on the subject. Consequently, support for same-sex marriage is at stake in her comedy. Her goal was to gain support, but there was no way for her to know how her audience would respond. Wanda Sykes used her comedy to poke holes in the logic of people who do not support same-sex marriage, in hopes that it will change their opinion, and produce an increase in the support for same-sex marriage. In “Wanda Sykes on Gay Marriage,” Sykes opened by saying “I’m for gay marriage” (Sykes 0:12). The crowd broke out in a supportive applause at those...

Words: 1163 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Delia's Rebellion In Sweat By Hurston

...Delia’s rebellion stems from her gradual, yet profound change in her attitude towards Sykes. Similar to the Harlem Renaissance, a time period of rebirth of African American culture, Delia too gains a new outlook on life. Delia has endured Sykes’s abuse and lack of love for fifteen years. Although it is clear that Sykes has emotionally manipulated Delia for years, the beginning of the story shows the reader that change is imminent. Initially, Delia “brought love to the union,” but was met with Sykes’s “longing after the flesh” (Hurston 388). That was her first transformation, going from a naive romantic to accepting the harsh reality. After her marriage, she suffered through Sykes’s infidelity and beatings. When the story begins, Delia is at...

Words: 1023 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

Religious Symbolism in Sweat

...consistently looks to her religion for guidance and support as she endures the many hardships that she faces because, which are caused by her abusive husband and unfaithful husband, Sykes. Delia and Sykes Jones is a couple that have opposite moral values, but yet they are tied together through marital vows, that no longer have much importance or value. Delia Jones is portrayed as the Protagonist and a very modest woman of weakness who later gains the strength to stand u to her abusive husband Skyes. Delia looks to God and her religion to help her build the strength she needs, so she can continue to be protected from her husband who is both physically and emotionally abusive to her. However, Sykes Jones, is every bit the opposite of Delia Jones. He has neither religious values nor any important moral standards. He is an adulterous, who takes Delia’s hard working money, and spends not on his wife but on his mistress Bertha. Delia who relies solely on her faith and continues to stay contempt, no matter how her husband treats her, but Delia warned him that in the end, Sykes “sometime or ruther, Sykes, like everybody else, is gointer reap his sowing (par. 26).” The white clothes that Delia washes are a symbol of Delia’s character, as being humble and having a humble spirit through all of Sykes emotional torment. While the white clothes are symbols of purity ad humbleness, Delia is a symbol of a God (Christian) like figure. The snake and whip are symbols in the story that...

Words: 988 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Sweat By Zora Neale Hurston Analysis

...are transparent to society and to their husbands. The theme for "Sweat" by Zora Neale Hurston is marriage. Delia has been married to her husband Sykes for 15 years; she received her first beating two months after they married. The reader my question 'why she hasn’t left him after being beaten for 15 years'? The answer to this is simply because leaving your husband is considered taboo in society during that time. So, instead she takes his beatings because that is how a woman shows she is a good wife. If he gets upset enough to beat her, she obviously provoked him. "Well, you better quit gittin' me riled...

Words: 662 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

5 Companies

...Management MWF/5-6:30pm/Ms. Songalia 1. Sykes Enterprises is a multinational corporation which provides business process outsourcing services, such as technical support and customer service. Sykes has over 51,000 employees at 80+ locations in 25 countries operating in 30 languages. SYKES provides customer contact management solutions and services in the business process outsourcing (BPO) arena. The company provides an array of customer contact management solutions to Fortune 1000 companies around the world, primarily in the communications, financial services, healthcare, technology and transportation and leisure industries. SYKES' services are categorized into three lines of business: Contact Center Services, TeleHealth, and Assistance Services. 1977 - SYKES begins as a small engineering firm with three employees in Charlotte, North Carolina 1979-1982 - The technical writing group begins in Charlotte marking the beginning of the Information Services branch 1992 - SYKES purchases Jones Technologies, Inc. in Sterling, Colorado and enters into customer support business 1993 - Company reorganizes, moves corporate office from Charlotte to Tampa, Florida 1996 - SYKES goes public – stock begins trading on NASDAQ First international presence with acquisition of Datasvar Support AB of Sweden 1997 - Several acquisitions including McQueen International Limited with multiple locations including operations in The Philippines 1999 - SYKES inducted into the Software Support Professional...

Words: 1266 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Zora Neale Hurston Sweat Analysis

...great virtue of hard work possessed by Delia, who continually “breaks her back” to make ends meet for her family. This text associates Delia’s character with the symbol of virtue and purity which is evident in her religious commitment to church. The text also describes Delia’s struggle and pain inflicted by her husband Sykes and likens this to the universal motif of the struggle between “good and evil” where good always triumphs over evil. In my opinion this source correctly categorizes...

Words: 788 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Delia In The Short Story Sweat By Zora Hurston

...marriage in the fifteen year, and had been a victim of domestic violence. On the other hand, the author also describes about Delia's husband, Sykes. The author uses Delia’s life as an example to talk about how oppression and physical, mental that Delia, an African American, and all the women have to deal with in this period of time. At the end of the short story, she is finally able to revenge her husband for his mistreatment over the years. The author describes Delia as a poor woman. Delia has been treated without respectful from her husband, Sykes. Her husband treats her like a disrespect teenager treats his mother, with a little respect from him to her, and expect to get back a fully obedience from Delia. The best example to show that he disrespect to her is while she is separating cloths’ color so it would be easy for her to laundry, Sykes comes and kicks all those cloth mix together, and even go ahead step on those cloth after she just finish sorted them, so Delia have to do all over again. This is one of those points that shows Sykes disrespect Delia. Not only deals with disrespect from Sykes....

Words: 622 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Mr Slim Shady

...degree in 1953 from the City of New York College. In addition he received his Masters and Doctorate degree from Princeton. Presently, Matza is a Professor Emeritus at the University of California’s Department of Sociology. David Matza, who focused on juvenile delinquency, is most popularly known for his work with Gresham Sykes and their theory of neutralization. Matza also ventured out on his own, giving further explanations and studies of juvenile delinquency. Because he was studying criminal activity during the mid-twentieth century, he was influenced by the social and political unrest in the United States. Even though theorists have criticized Matza’s work, it is still used by theorists today as a source of discussion on the topic of juvenile delinquency. Gresham Sykes and David Matza Techniques of Neutralization: A Theory of Delinquency Sykes and Matza wanted to build upon Arthur Sutherland’s Differential Association theory which states that an individual learns criminal behavior through “(a) techniques of committing crimes and (b) motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes” which go against law-abiding actions (Sykes and Matza, 1957:664). These techniques reduce the social controls over the delinquent and are also more applicable to specific juveniles. Neutralization is defined as a technique, which allows the person to rationalize or justify a criminal act. There are five techniques of neutralization; denial of responsibility, denial of injury,...

Words: 1019 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

America: Dumbing Down Our Students

...America: Dumbing Down Our Students Back in the day, school was a place to learn. It was a place to get smart. Now it has turned into a psychological headquarters. It is like America is saying, “Who cares, as long as our students feel good about themselves.” Schools have stopped teaching important facts. Some teachers do not feel their students need to know what was taught back in the day. According to Charles J. Sykes, “In a 1990 survey of college seniors, 42 percent couldn’t name the dates of the War Between the States within half a century” ( Sykes, 4). Why don’t our teachers care anymore about teaching about important events or even science? Many of them have said it is because they just are not useful facts. I would have to disagree. I believe that you should know the background of this country you live in. I think students need to be taught about our founding fathers. I fear for our future generations. The school systems are dumbing our students down and they are too worried about how the students are feeling than what they are learning. So the question we are all asking teachers along with the school system is, “Why are we allowing students to be dumbed down?” How are we going to elect a president in the future who never had a background in math, science, or most importantly, history? Our future generation does not know what we were taught when we were in school. Some public schools have even removed certain subjects because they are not necessary or the school cannot...

Words: 3076 - Pages: 13

Premium Essay

Sweat Zora Neale Hurston Essay

...The first is the difficulty of economic hardship. This is cosmetic, it is surface and something that most likely had been her experience since birth. The second is physical abuse at the hands of her husband Syke. This is a much more intimate experience, and has much more potential to corrupt Delia into something that falls far short of Hurston’s ideal. Hurston does this to provide for herself fitting obstacles upon which she can highlight the moral strengths she has placed inside of Delia. It is Hurston’s beliefs regarding what true strength is that she establishes her crucial plot reversal upon. Syke is the one in the relationship who is appearing strong, but his pride proves his mortal weakness. Delia, though seeming weak, puts to shame the strength of Syke with her kindness. Though Hurston is the craftswoman of this short story, creating what she is desiring to see, the characterizations themselves emanate from her belief system, and are as honest in heart as Delia is in her own. "Sweat" is Hurston’s vision of a true femininity liberated from oppression, and the moral victory experienced when the oppressors are their own...

Words: 2342 - Pages: 10

Free Essay

In the Belly of the Beast

...| In the Belly of the Beast | Jack Henry Abbott | The "Pains of Imprisonment" and "The Inmate Social System" | | | "In the Belly of the Beast" is a generous collection of autobiographical, political, and philosophical letters to an author from a man who takes life head on, but with a different approach. Norman Mailer, an author, was in the middle of writing a novel entitled "The Executioner Song", which is the story about a murderer named Gary Gilmore. While this novel was in the works, Mailer received a letter from Jack Henry Abbott, a convict having been in jail most of his life. Abbott's letter was solely criticism that accused Mailer of not knowing what real life in prison is like, but that Abbott would do everything in his power to clarify the aspects of what violence and everyday life is like in prison. A wide array of subject matter was covered far past the basic account of "a day in the life of an prisoner". The rationale of the inmate hierarchy is displayed from the inside with a totality that would take years of research and interviews. It is clear that there is no doubt concerning the feelings Abbott has for his jailers, and the establishment they represent. He clearly expresses throughout his writings that the corrections system exists to oppress the unfortunate and underprivileged. Abbott began to talk about the fact that he was in and out of foster homes almost from the time of his birth. By the age of nine, he was already in juvenile detention...

Words: 2678 - Pages: 11

Premium Essay

Relationships In The Story Of An Hour, By Zora Neale Hurston

...Delia is an all around good woman minus the fact that she is married to Sykes, a cold-hearted, violent man. For fifteen years, Delia has provided for her husband when he has never deserved it. In the beginning of the story Sykes terrifies Delia with an enormous whip. While Sykes thinks this is funny, Delia immediately fights back, as she does throughout the story. She is slightly hard headed, yet extremely bold with her words. Later on in the story, Sykes brings home a real snake to enforce his dominance in the house. His idea completely backfires. Delia uses the last match to see her way around the snake and to prevent Sykes from having any knowledge of the location of the snake when he comes home. Her plan works and Sykes is killed by the snake. After fifteen years of suffering, Delia has set herself...

Words: 502 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Assignment 1: Making Decisions Based on Demand and Forecasting

...techniques that facilitate modeling and analysis of several variables. It focuses on the relationship between a dependent variable and one or more independent variables (Sykes, 2000). To be specific, regression analysis allows understanding of the typicality of value of the dependent variable changes, while any one of the independent variables is varied. At the same time, the other independent variables must be fixed. Usually, regression analysis estimates the expectation of conditions connected to the dependent variable given the independent variables (Sykes, 2000). Thus, the average value of the dependent variable is calculated using condition that the independent variables are held fixed. Not that often, regression analysis focuses on a quantile, or other location parameter of the conditional distribution of the dependent variable given the independent variables. Nevertheless, the regression function is the estimation target, which is a function of the independent variables. In regression analysis, it is also necessary to characterize the variation of the dependent variable around the regression function. This can be described by a probability distribution (Sykes, 2000). Regression analysis is usually and successfully used to predict and forecast various data such as time-series data, for example (Sykes, 2000). It is also used to understand the connection between the independent variables and the...

Words: 608 - Pages: 3