Duty?

Duty is the responsibility held by each soldier to do all that is in his or her power to accomplish the mission at hand. Every soldier has a specific job to do. In so doing, the smaller actions will build collectively to accomplish the Army’s overall goal, to fight and win the nation’s wars. Whatever our reasons were for joining, once we lace up our boots it becomes time to complete the mission at hand. When every soldier is fulfilling his or her obligation to the nation, operations run smoothly; however, it is human nature to make mistakes along the way.

At times we can see soldiers begin to lose focus on seemingly smaller mundane tasks that appear to be pointless. In the Army people get into the habit of looking at situations as a matter life and death because, let’s face it, this is a profession surrounded by loss of life. Unfortunately this concept is brought back to non-combat operations. The feeling that tasks are no longer important because they will not directly cause a loss of life, limb or eyesight can be seen in garrison operations. “Look, if I don’t get this done who’s gonna die?” This attitude becomes extremely dangerous to not only mission completion but to individuals exposed to it. Getting into the habit of not focusing on mission completion can become extremely dangerous. Not having all the supplies prepared for an exercise may not kill someone today, but not training soldiers to the greatest extent allowed by available resources may. When we stop doing all that is in our power to prepare soldiers for combat, we are putting their lives in danger and making our Army weaker.