¶ … Military Officer
What does society expect from a military officer?
First of all of course an officer in the military understands that he or she must defend and support the United States Constitution. In the course of an officer's career, he or she likely will serve under more than one president (perhaps several, depending on how long the officer's career in the military turns out to be), and budgets will change, some national policies and priorities will change as well. But the shining light of liberty -- an officer's ethical, moral and strategic duties -- will stay the same, no matter what civilian leader is in charge.
Moreover when I reach my goal of being a warrant officer in the U.S. Army, I will be expected by society to possess the necessary intellectual, moral, and person-to-person skills to fulfill the duties assigned to me. Citizens do not want to feel vulnerable to threats or violence from inside or outside of society, so the military trains men and women to be officers in leadership positions. Hence, officers must be vitally aware of threats; how to understand the nature of threats and what to do when there are threats to society.
An officer thus must be able to provide honest and accurate assessments of the objectives of national defense, which requires training and intelligence and the ability to perceive threats to the homeland and to foreign nations that the United States has decided to defend against threats.
Society knows that billions of dollars of taxpayer monies are spent on national defense; those billions are...
So given that such a huge defense budget comes from the hard-working taxpayer that foots the bill, society expects that the military officer will carry out the duties and responsibilities that protect the American people.
Because all military units are hierarchical, the private of course looks up to and obeys the sergeant, and the sergeant looks up to and obeys the lieutenant or the captain. In turn, the lieutenant and captain look up to and respect the orders of the colonel; and the colonel must obey and respect the general. As for the general he or she must look to civilian leadership for orders -- and the general is beholding to what the Secretary of Defense wants him to do while at the same time the Secretary of Defense is carrying out orders and responsibilities that the President of the United States has assigned to him. This is the chain of command that society expects will be working smoothly and will ultimately protect the homeland. When the officer at the lieutenant level fails in his or her duties that can have a negative impact on one aspect of the chain of command, which is unacceptable.
Society expects good behavior and leadership from the men and women who wear the uniforms of the Armed Forces. Society also expects that there will be instilled in every soldier (and particularly every officer) a sense of respect for human and civil rights wherever that officer is deployed to.
The American society…
