How My Position as a Military Leader Influences the Values of Our Young Soldiers

Running head: HOW MY POSITION INFLUENCES VALUES

How my Position as a Military Leader Influences the Values of Our Young Soldiers

Abstract

The Kirkpatrick Signature Series is the first college level course I have taken in over 20 years. The main topic being; what is the proper role for the citizen or the individual in society?

During the course, I compared my involvement with soldiers and how, through direct or indirect measures, I influence their values. I used the two required textbooks and the internet to attempt to define what American values are, than I used military text for comparison. The project I chose was volunteering to be the course manager over a Basic Soldier Orienteering Course (BSOC) where I could identify civilians at the beginning level of their military career and attempt define their views of American values.

The course has brought me to the conclusion that values are not constant. Although the military trains and maintains their seven core values, there is no such list when it comes to the American people. American values are ever changing and society is changing with them. We as the people need to set a good example for our young in order to establish and maintain a value system that is conducive to the American life.

How my position as a military leader influences the values of our young soldiers.

The Kirkpatrick Signature Series has allowed us to examine ideas from our Western tradition and values; and gave us thought provoking questions about values, both American and Army, and their importance in the workplace, and in daily life. The site for my project was Camp Ashland. I am employed by the Nebraska Army National Guard as a Quality Assurance Officer. Our academy serves the nation with multiple schools for soldiers from the beginning to advanced level.

I chose this topic because, as a military leader, I believe that I have a direct influence over the actions of soldiers while they are here and hopefully, as they continue with their military and civilian careers. My position allows me to be directly involved with the training of soldiers from their initial introduction into the military to the final chapter in their careers. I have been in the Army for 25 years and have served in the training field for over half of that time.

As I begin to define the Army values, it would only be fitting to give a bit of history behind them. For the past 30 years many of the brightest and best leaders in the Army, from the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel to the individual Army service schools, have been engaged in the trying task of adequately describing Army values, ethics, and leadership doctrine. During that period, virtually every Chief of Staff of the Army, 11 in all, provided guidance, directly or indirectly, to those who wrote field manuals, training circulars, or lesson plans on the subjects of professional ethics and leadership. From 1968 to 1998, the list of Army values underwent four major revisions, expanding from three to seven in number, and the definition of leadership went from an art to a process, to an essential element of combat power, then back to a process.

The seven Army values of today can be remembered by the acronym LDRSHIP. If you were to go to any soldier today, they would be able to recite for you the seven Army values. They are as defined by the Field Manual FM 22-100 Army Leadership:

Loyalty: Loyalty is the faithful adherence to a person, unit, or the Army. It is the thread that binds our actions together and causes us to support each other, our superiors, our family, and our country.

Duty: Duty is the legal or moral obligation to accomplish all assigned or implied tasks to the fullest of your ability. Every solider must do