Over the last week, Adam Weinstein has been thinking back on his early days in the military.

So Adam, you were in the Navy for how long?

Just four years, but I've been either working in or covering military establishment since

that.

Adam's the national security editor at the New Republic now.

You talked about this poem that guys in the Navy learn.

Can you tell me about it?

So when you go to the Naval Academy, you go in for your first day.

It's called the induction day.

I day, they take you in.

They issue you uniforms.

They shape your head.

They put you in your room and teach you how to make your bed and fold your clothes.

And then they give you this small book called Reef Points, which is called the Pleab Bible.

Because you have to memorize all of this information in this Bible.

And this is a process that all the service captains have, but at Navy, they have this one particular

poem that you're also required to memorize called the laws of the Navy.

The laws of the Navy is a poem that's all about teamwork and obedience.

It's got this one stanza about taking on your chain of command.

It concludes, "'Tis well with thy seniors to fight?

They prosper, who burn in the morning.

The letters they wrote overnight.'

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