Duty, honor, country. That’s the backbone philosophy for the cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. – short, definitive, clear and crisp. For decades, it has been honored.

One has to wonder, however, just how seriously one of the current cadets has taken to heart this time-honored code. He’s Caleb Campbell, an Army football star who was taken in the seventh round of the recent National Football League draft. He is playing by the rules but it is not hard to see why there are critics and skeptics, among them some of his fellow cadets.

Campbell is the beneficiary of a new Army policy that excuses people with “unique talents and abilities” from their active-duty commitments. He will try out with the Detroit Lions this summer and if he makes the team will serve as an Army recruiter in the off-season. That’s the least he can do.

The concept has merits and it is easy to see why the Army would like to have a football star in the front lines for its recruitment. Campbell, of course, will be expected to honor his five-year postgraduate commitment to military duty if he fails to make it in football. He should be expected to continue his recruitment activity for a full five years if he is not on active duty.

What is the thinking of the other cadets about this young man who has had a $200,000-plus education at our expense and should be as dedicated as they to justifying it? What about the Army men and women seeing hazardous duty in the Middle East, with or without West Point credentials? Couldn’t they also be effective recruiters?

Roger Staubach graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1965 and though he became a pro football hall-of-famer, he did it after honoring his commitment, including a year in Vietnam. Basketball star David Robinson served two years on active Navy duty before the “unique talents and abilities” clause kicked in. Even though Robinson got off with a shorter tour of duty than Staubach, there was no war raging at the time that demanded the very skills that military academy people develop with exceptional training.

Give Campbell credit. He is working within a system he did not twist to his advantage. While he is honoring his country in a “unique” way, what about his duty to the cadet program and his fellow officers?

Again, it is unlikely a seventh-round selection will make the grade in pro football. Without an NFL career, Campbell should be back in the ranks full-time with all his companions at the Point. Further, the all-volunteer armed forces of today need all the help they can muster in meeting personnel quotas. The personable Campbell should do well in recruitment.

But he needs to consider what “the others” are thinking and whether he can fully justify the path he has chosen.