The Seven Army Values
Loyalty
Loyalty is the faithful adherence to a person, unit, or Army.
It is the thread that binds our actions together and causes us to support
each other, our superiors, our family, and our country.
Supporting a superior or a program even though it is being openly
criticized by peers or subordinates requires courage and loyalty. A loyal
intermediate would try to explain the rationale behind the decision and
support the decision maker. When we establish loyalty to our soldiers,
the unit, our superiors, our family, and the Army we must be sure the "correct
ordering" of our obligations are being accomplished and not the easiest.
There is no clear rule as to which comes first. Sometimes it will be the
service, sometimes the family, and sometimes the soldier.
Open criticism and being disloyal to leaders, soldiers, and the
Army destroys the foundation of the organization and results in diminished
mission accomplishment. However, loyalty should not be confused with blind
obedience to illegal orders. We all take the oath to obey the orders of
superiors appointed over us "according to law and regulations".
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Duty
Duty is the legal or moral obligation to accomplish all assigned or
implied tasks to the fullest of your ability. Every soldier must do what
needs to be done without having to be told to do it.
Duty requires a willingness to accept full responsibility for
your actions and for your soldier’s performance. It also requires a leader
to take the initiative and anticipate requirements based on the situation.
One soldier may think that duty means putting in time from 0800 to 1700
daily. Another may believe that duty is selflessly serving their country,
unit, and soldiers within the unit. Duty means accomplishing all assigned
tasks to the best of your ability. The quote "I regret that I have but
one life to give to my country" is an example of an unquestionable commitment
to duty.
You may be asked to put the nation’s welfare and mission accomplishment
ahead of the personal safety of you and your soldiers. Soldiers and leaders
must have a deep commitment to duty and what is best for the unit and
the Army. This will ensure that you make the right decision when it
really counts.
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Respect
Respect is treating others with consideration and honor. It is the
ability to accept and value other individuals.
Respect begins with a fundamental understanding that all people
possess worth as human beings. Respect is developed by accepting others
and acknowledging their worth without feeling obligated to embrace all
of their ideas. A soldier approaches you and offers a better way to get
a job done. Instead of showing the soldier respect you tell her "You’ll
do it my way because I am the boss!"
All of us possess special skills and adhere to certain values.
Without respect for all other individuals there would not be a cohesive
and team oriented Army.
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Selfless Service
Selfless service is placing your duty before your personal desires.
It is the ability to endure hardships and insurmountable odds because
of love of fellow soldiers and our country.
Placing your duty before your personal desires has always been
key to the uniqueness of the American soldier. As citizen soldiers, we claim
our service to the nation, state, and community to be an especially valuable
contribution. Imagine a unit where the value of selfless service was not
instilled. The unit receives a call to active duty and has only two weeks
to deploy. Instead of the unit working as a cohesive team in preparation
for deployment, many soldiers start to actively seek ways to avoid deployment.
Remember, the selfless soldier does not make decisions and take actions designed
to promote self, further a career, or enhance personal comfort.
For leaders, the age old phrase of "Mission, Men, and Me" still
rings true today. Selfless service is the force that encourages every
soldier. It is critical to the esprit and well being of military organizations.
By serving selflessly while on and off duty, we greatly enhance our value
to our fellow citizens.
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Honor
Honor is living up to the Army Values. It starts with being honest
with one’s self and being truthful and sincere in all of our actions.
As GEN Douglas MacArthur once said "the untruthful soldier trifles
with the lives of his countrymen and the honor and safety of his country."
Being honest with one’s self is perhaps the best way to live the Army
Values. If something does not feel right to you or you feel that you are
having to compromise your values, then you need to seriously assess the
situation and take steps to correct or report the issue. Pressures that
can challenge our ethical reasoning include self interest, peer pressure,
pressure from subordinates or pressure from superiors. If a superior asks
you to look good on an inspection by "doctoring records" then you should,
based on the Army values challenge his request.
Honor is defined as living up to the Army values. Maintaining
respect, consideration, integrity, honesty and nobleness will ensure that
you and your military organization will reflect great honor for your fellow
soldier, the nation, state, and local community.
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Integrity
Integrity means to firmly adhere to a code of moral and ethical principles.
Every soldier must possess high personal moral standards and be honest
in word and deed.
Living and speaking with integrity is very hard. You must live
by your word for everything, no buts, no excuses. Having integrity and
being honest in everything you say and do builds trust. For example,
your artillery crew accidentally damages an expensive artillery round
of ammunition. This will result in an AR 15-6 investigation. Instead
of telling the battery commander that you damaged the round, you decide
to stretch the truth and tell him the round was defective. When the
battery commander discovers the truth he will question your integrity
from that moment on.
Integrity is the basis for trust and confidence that must exist
among members of the Army. It is the source for great personal strength
and is the foundation for organizational effectiveness. As leaders,
all soldiers are watching and looking to see that you are honest and live
by your word. If you make a mistake, you should openly acknowledge it,
learn from it, and move forward.
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Personal Courage
Physical courage is overcoming fears of bodily harm while performing
your duty. Moral courage is overcoming fears of other than bodily harm
while doing what is right even if unpopular.
It takes special courage to make and support unpopular decisions.
Others may encourage you to support slightly unethical or convenient solutions.
For example your Battalion commander has asked you to change an upcoming
training date for the convenience of the battalion headquarters staff. Although
it will be an unpopular decision with the Battalion commander, you stick
to your scheduled training dates in order to support your soldiers. Do
not compromise your professional ethics or your individual values and moral
principles. If you believe you are right after sober consideration, hold
to your position.
Practicing physical and moral courage in our daily lives builds
a strong and honorable character. We expect and encourage candor and integrity
from all soldiers. Taking the immediate and "right" actions in a time
of conflict will save lives.
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