The Role of a Soldier in the United States Army
This paper examines the diverse roles and responsibilities of soldiers in the United States Army. Beginning with a brief history of the Army from the Continental Army to the modern all-volunteer force, the paper outlines the three main combat arms — combat, combat support, and combat-service-support — and surveys the wide range of career specializations available to enlisted personnel. It also addresses the personal challenges soldiers face, including extended separation from family and the psychological demands of service. The paper argues that there is no single role of an American soldier; rather, each individual's skills and aptitudes determine their unique contribution to the Army's mission.
- Introduction: The Soldier's Mission: Overview of the soldier's primary purpose and many roles
- A Brief History of the American Army: From Continental Army to all-volunteer force
- Army Structure and Combat Arms: Three army arms and unit sizes explained
- Career Specializations in the U.S. Army: Wide range of military occupational specialties listed
- The Personal Challenges of Military Service: Isolation, communication, and psychological hardships of service
- Conclusion: No Single Role: Individual skills determine each soldier's unique contribution
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper opens with a striking epigraph that anchors its central theme — the importance of the soldier's spirit — and immediately orients the reader to the topic.
- It moves logically from historical context to structural analysis to individual career paths, giving a well-rounded overview of Army service without losing focus.
- The use of direct quotations from published sources lends authority to claims about both the Army's history and the personal experience of soldiers.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper effectively uses synthesis across multiple sources to build a layered argument. Rather than relying on a single authority, the writer draws on military history (Hearn), institutional documentation (U.S. Army), and general reference works (Bartlett, Green) to support the central claim that soldiers occupy many roles, not one. This multi-source integration is a foundational skill in academic writing at the undergraduate level.
Structure breakdown
The paper is organized thematically: an introduction establishes the central claim, a historical section provides context, a structural overview describes the Army's three combat arms, a specialization section catalogues career options, a personal reflection section addresses human challenges, and a conclusion synthesizes the argument. Each section builds on the last, giving the paper a coherent arc from general to specific and back to general.
Introduction: The Soldier's Mission
"The soldier's heart, the soldier's spirit, the soldier's soul, are everything. Unless the soldier's soul sustains him he cannot be relied on and will fail" (U.S. Army 2001, p. 4).
What is the job of an American soldier? The soldier's primary role is to work and fight to protect their country. The life of a soldier can be a very difficult one. A person who enters the army finds him or herself away from friends and family for long periods of time. They put themselves in danger, literally risking life and limb for the greater good. These men and women are heroes who willingly put themselves in harm's way so that the country they love can be protected.
When a person joins the United States Army, that individual makes the choice to follow the orders of their superiors and to put their faith and future in the hands of their fellow soldiers. There are many positions and jobs that need to be performed in order for the Army to function as a successful unit. Therefore, there is no one role of an American soldier, but many roles filled by brave men and women.
A Brief History of the American Army
Since the very first militia of the United States — the Continental Army — the armed forces have relied on this branch of the military to keep the nation free from tyranny. According to Chester Hearn (2006):
"The United States Army is and always has been a work in progress. Ever since the formation of the Continental Army on June 15, 1775, the soldier has always been the protector of American democracy. Those men were a special breed of patriots willing to sacrifice their lives so that others may enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. From a rabble in homespun rags fighting under George Washington in 1775, the American soldier has transformed through the centuries into 'An Army of One,' which is actually much more than a slogan. The army is a team of professionals interacting together as one, but the soldier of today is a highly capable individual fitted out to fight as an army of one. The U.S. Army was not always the best equipped, the best trained, the best led, and the most respected and highly motivated volunteer military organization on earth, but it is today, and the soldier makes it so" (p. 6).
This is very true. In some countries of the world, men and women have no choice but to serve in their military. Nations like Israel make it a law that every able-bodied individual must participate in the armed services upon reaching legal adulthood. This used to be the case in the United States until the mid-1970s. After the Vietnam War and the loss of so many men who had been drafted into service rather than choosing a military life, U.S. policy changed so that those who fought for their country did so only by their own volition.
It is the policy of the United States Army that they fight either in the name of their country in a war against an enemy of the U.S., or they undertake humanitarian missions of mercy in countries all over the world (Bartlett 2004, p. 4). Sometimes soldiers are sent in to rescue people during natural disasters or to help peoples living under tyrannical and inhuman governments. Humanitarian missions are usually only possible during peacetime, when soldiers have the time and extra resources to make those endeavors a priority. Soldiers can also be utilized for activities such as crowd control and recapturing escaped prisoners.
Army Structure and Combat Arms
At present, there are approximately 500,000 men and women serving in the United States Army (Green 1998, p. 7). Of these, some are full-time soldiers and others are in the Army Reserves, seeing action only in cases of extreme military crisis. Within the Army branch of the U.S. military, there are three arms: the combat arm, the combat support arm, and the combat-service-support arm. None of these arms is more important than the others. The initial combat branch will likely see action before the other two groups, but that does not mean the soldiers in the other two arms are any less heroic or any less in danger while on the job.
The smallest group of soldiers in the army is a company, with 90–200 men and women. The largest group is a field army, which contains anywhere between 40,000 and 100,000 people. Within these groups, individuals are assigned a variety of jobs based on their particular skills and the immediate needs of the army. Some jobs include operating tanks, artillery, helicopters, and communications equipment (Bartlett 2004, p. 9). There are also ground troops, or foot soldiers — as a singular unit, these are called the infantry.
The combat arm of the United States Army is considered the "fighting part" of the army (Green 1998, p. 7). It is these soldiers who find themselves on the front line of battle, facing the most danger, with only their hand-held weapons to protect them from their enemies.
Another arm of the U.S. Army is the combat support group. These soldiers are directly responsible for the safety and ultimate success of the combat arm. The combat support arm provides information and technologies to troops on the front line. It is their job to ensure direct communication between ground troops and the rest of the forces. Combat support is also responsible for gathering intelligence about the enemy to ensure soldiers are adequately prepared to face them (Green 1998, p. 9). This group is further tasked with providing food and supplies to men and women on the front.
The third arm is the combat-service-support arm. They are responsible for providing supplies to the other two groups, as well as transportation to move ground troops and combat support personnel to wherever they need to go. This arm also includes the medical officials who provide treatment and legal aid to soldiers, and they handle the financial operations of the United States Army, including payroll.
Conclusion: No Single Role
Over time, the position of the American soldier has changed. In the modern era, there is no draft board. A person who joins the Army does so not through coercion or compulsion, but through a personal commitment to serve. Instead, the individual must look within and determine that the call to serve, fight, and, if necessary, die for their country is what they were meant to do.
As explored throughout this paper, there is no single role that the soldier is expected to fill. Rather, each recruit is trained in basic training, and the Army determines where his or her greatest strengths lie. The innate abilities of each individual determine where that person is placed within the Army's many corps and branches. Those abilities also determine the final role that individual will play in the continuation of the long and distinguished military history of the United States.
Works Cited
Bartlett, Richard. (2004). United States Army. Heinemann: Chicago.
Green, Michael. (1998). The United States Army. Capstone.
Hearn, Chester G. (2006). Army: An Illustrated History.
U.S. Army. (2001). The Writing of American Military History: A Guide. University Press of the Pacific: Honolulu, Hawaii.
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