The U. S. Army Future Concept for the Human Dimension

1-6. Essence of Army Service and Being a Professional Soldier

The Role and Purpose of the Army

The Army consists of the active Army and two reserve components, the National Guard and Army Reserve, and Army civilians. While the Constitution assumed the existence of a militia, Congress calls the Army into being under authorities of Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, “To raise and support Armies” and, “To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval forces.” The Constitution also empowers the Congress “To provide for the calling forth of the Militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions,” and “To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States…”

Section 3062 of Title 10 U.S. Code announces Congress’s intention: To provide an Army that is capable, in conjunction with the other Armed forces of: Preserving the peace and security, and providing for the defense, of the U.S., the territories, commonwealths, and possessions, and any areas occupied by the U.S.; supporting the national policies; implementing the national objectives; and overcoming any nations responsible for aggressive acts that imperil the peace and security of the U.S.
To accomplish these things, both the law and the Department of Defense (DOD) Directive 5100.1 state that the Army “shall be organized, trained, and equipped primarily for prompt and sustained combat incident to operations on land.” DOD Directive 3000.05 interprets these Congressional mandates as requiring assignment of equal priority as core missions to combat and stability and support operations. It is no longer a question of assuming inclusion of the one in the other. America’s Army must be prepared to do both, immediately.

The Army Values

Loyalty: Bear true faith and allegiance to the U.S. Constitution, the Army, your unit, and other Soldiers.

Duty: Fulfill your obligations.

Respect: Treat people as they should be treated.

Selfless Service: Put the welfare of the Nation, the Army, and subordinates before your own.

Honor: Live up to all the Army Values.

Integrity: Do what’s right – legally and morally.

Personal Courage: Face fear, danger, or adversity (Physical or Moral).

The Army Values

Loyalty: Bear true faith and allegiance to the U.S. Constitution, the Army, your unit, and other Soldiers.

Duty: Fulfill your obligations.

Respect: Treat people as they should be treated.

Selfless Service: Put the welfare of the Nation, the Army, and subordinates before your own.

Honor: Live up to all the Army Values.

Integrity: Do what’s right – legally and morally.

Personal Courage: Face fear, danger, or adversity (Physical or Moral).
A goal of the U.S. National Security Strategy is to “protect our Nation and honor our values….” There are numerous lists and documents offering variations of these American values. Most of these include America’s core values: freedom and liberty, equality and justice, democracy, the family, faith and religion, integrity and honesty, and the pursuit of happiness. As American culture and society evolve, the interpretation of these values will change to adapt to contemporary norms. While enduring, these values are not immutable, nor do they necessarily reflect the reality of American life.
Findings of three independent research organizations indicate that current Army leaders hold different values from those held by the Nation’s youth, the next generation of Soldiers. More troubling, the studies show that the two sets of values are continuing to diverge.⁵ This divergence presents a challenge to the Army. The Army must remain a values-based institution reflecting the Nation’s values, yet some recruits may not possess the traditional values embraced by the Army’s leadership. To continue its tradition as a model of selfless service to the Nation, the Army must embody values grounded in the Constitution and continue to ingrain them from the Soldier’s first day as a recruit through eventual reintegration into civilian life.
The Essence and Enduring Values of the American Warrior
Courage, discipline, and faithfulness to the governing authority and one’s fellow Soldiers, have been values of American Soldiers antedating the creation of an American Army in 1775. These values were born of the necessities of military practice and transplanted norms of British military example in their American colonies. In the general order announcing Congress’s action calling a Continental Army into existence, George Washington called for observation of “exact discipline and due Subordination…a due observance of those articles of war, established for the Government of the army, which forbid profane cursing, swearing & drunkenness,” and for officers and men “not engaged on actual duty, a punctual attendance on divine service, to implore the blessings of heaven upon the means used for our safety and defense.”⁶ The commander’s expectation that subordinate officers see to the discipline and welfare of their Soldiers followed immediately. Congress has subsequently incorporated these latter expectations of Army commanders, in Title 10 United States Code, Section 3583, Expectation of Exemplary Conduct.


The Soldier’s Creed

I am an American Soldier.

I am a Warrior and a member of a team.

I serve the people of the United States and live the Army Values.

I will always place the mission first.

I will never accept defeat.

I will never quit.

I will never leave a fallen comrade.

I am disciplined physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient in my Warrior tasks and drills.

I will always maintain my arms, my equipment, and myself.

I am an expert and I am a professional.

I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy the enemies of the United States of American in close combat.

I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life.

I am an American Soldier

The Soldier’s Creed

I am an American Soldier.

I am a Warrior and a member of a team.

I serve the people of the United States and live the Army Values.

I will always place the mission first.

I will never accept defeat.

I will never quit.

I will never leave a fallen comrade.

I am disciplined physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient in my Warrior tasks and drills.

I will always maintain my arms, my equipment, and myself.

I am an expert and I am a professional.

I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy the enemies of the United States of American in close combat.

I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life.

I am an American Soldier



In the general order actually calling the Continental Army into being New Year’s Day 1776, Washington emphasized order, regularity and discipline, observing, “it is Subordination & Discipline (the Life and Soul of an Army) which next under providence, is to make up formidable to our enemies, honorable in ourselves, and respected in the world...”⁷ Competence in military duties was assumed within the understanding of discipline. Washington’s scrupulous self-subordination to the Continental Congress and his actions quelling an incipient officer revolt in Newburgh at the end of the Revolution remain models for emulation by all American service members. For many years, the Army and the Nation considered the various oaths of office, articles of war and commission documents, adequate to express institutional values alongside the example of heroic conduct venerated publicly by the Nation and the Army. Following the war in Vietnam, it became the custom to codify official Army Values. There are seven: loyalty, duty, respect, selfless-service, honor, integrity, and personal courage.
To promulgate a more individual expression of the Soldier’s identity than the values and their associated virtues, Generals Eric Shinseki and Peter Schoomaker, successive Army Chiefs of Staff at the century’s turn, issued a statement of the warrior’s ethos and its encompassing Soldier’s Creed. The Soldier’s Creed reflects the Army values and expresses, publicly, the essence and enduring virtues of the American warrior, the expectations of all uniformed Army members for themselves and their fellow Soldiers.

Field Manual (FM) 1, The Army, officially embodies Army values and Soldiers in the context of the history and traditions of Army service and illustrated in the conduct of Medal of Honor recipients. The creed and these values are part of every Soldier’s acculturation to military service. While their form or language may adjust in the future, they are unlikely to change in their intent.

Moral, Ethical, Warrior Spirit Importance

1. 
   Military character and the professional military ethic form the foundation of the Army profession and the bond of trust with the Nation. There is no formal expression of the professional military ethic, but there is general agreement that it consists of the shared values, attitudes, and beliefs that establish the standards of competency for the profession and guide the conduct of Soldiers. The system of ethical standards and principles defines Soldiers’ commitment to the Nation. The Army Values, the warrior ethos, the Noncommissioned Officer (NCO) Creed, the Soldiers Creed, the oath of enlistment, and the oath of office articulate the norms and beliefs that guide military service. Adhering to the professional military ethic requires an understanding of the standards of personal and professional practice that Soldiers must demonstrate every day, in every duty, in peace and in war. More than a body of rules for individual behavior, the professional military ethic generates an ethos that encompasses the character of, and values peculiar to, the profession of arms. The functional requirements of warfighting, the democratic traditions of military service, laws and customs of land warfare, and our own national values, the oaths of commissioning and enlistment, and Army heritage, and traditions shape and influence the professional military ethic.
   

2. 
   The professional military ethic in turn establishes an obligation of service not shared by all other citizens. This obligation begins with the oaths taken upon entering the Army, “a moral commitment, made publicly, which we secure with our reputation.”⁸ Nowhere is the significance and power of the oath better captured than in the capstone manual FM 1.
   

3. 
   Members of the American military profession swear to support and defend a document, the Constitution of the United States—not a leader, people, government or territory. That solemn oath ties military service directly to the governing document of the Nation. It instills a nobility of purpose within each member of the Armed Forces and should provide deep personal meaning to all who serve. The profession holds common standards and a code of ethics derived from common moral obligations undertaken in its members’ oaths of office. These unite members of all the services in their common purpose: defending the Constitution and protecting the Nation’s interests, at home and abroad against all threats.
   
4. 
   
   

Ultimately, the professional military ethic rooted in fundamental American Constitutional laws distinguishes a member of the American profession of arms from irregulars, mercenaries, terrorists, or members of another armed force. Legitimacy in the eyes of the government and American society is largely contingent on the application of the military ethic and the structure it gives the other attributes of the military profession, but this affords the profession considerable scope for autonomous self-regulation to ensure professional effectiveness.

1. 
   The Army exists to serve the American people, protect enduring national interests, and to support and defend the constitution. The professional military ethic is essential to this primary mission. Over time, adherence to the professional military ethic produces habits of ethical and professional behavior essential to the primary mission. Lived by all Soldiers, a strong professional military ethic and moral character are the foundation for the warrior spirit that must permeate the entire force today and in future full spectrum operations.