ArcticWolf
25-01-06, 13:26
Basics of a Warrior Ethos
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By Col. Roderick Smith, USMCR (Ret)
Enthusiasm for the military life is a calling, not a job. It's based on the willingness to subordinate individual thoughts and concerns, including the concern to protect one's own life, for the good of the group and the mission. It's teamwork at its heart, and teamwork in its most complex form.
Such enthusiasm is gained by experience, self-discipline and camaraderie. Recruits rarely have it, although must hold the potential for it. Military recruits join their service for three primary reasons: (1) Membership-the opportunity to belong to a prideful organization and to show off that membership, (2) Challenge-the ability to undergo, endure and conquer physical and mental circumstances well beyond ordinary, daily life, and (3) Adventure-consistent with numbers 1 and 2 above, the opportunity to participate directly or vicariously in exciting, demanding and potentially dangerous activities. Service in the more "safe" military occupations-cooks, accountants, and administrators-must be viewed as valuable parts of the overall combat team, or they become mere civilian employment.
A military calling finds its core in the warrior's spirit…the desire to close with and kill your enemy; defeating his cause - all while operating under a code of honor and shared values. Any soldier, sailor, airman or Marine excelling in their occupation, but eschewing this warrior spirit, is merely a good, civil servant in uniform. Camaraderie, the ability to share this warrior's spirit with others undergoing substantially identical experiences and challenges, is the glue holding the system together.
Military pay must be present and sufficient to support the consistency of the system, and to provide for an appropriate level of lifestyle for rank attained. So long as fundamental fairness and ability to support oneself is maintained, attraction of pay is not a prime motivator to a calling.
http://www.sftt.us/article02012002a.html
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By Col. Roderick Smith, USMCR (Ret)
Enthusiasm for the military life is a calling, not a job. It's based on the willingness to subordinate individual thoughts and concerns, including the concern to protect one's own life, for the good of the group and the mission. It's teamwork at its heart, and teamwork in its most complex form.
Such enthusiasm is gained by experience, self-discipline and camaraderie. Recruits rarely have it, although must hold the potential for it. Military recruits join their service for three primary reasons: (1) Membership-the opportunity to belong to a prideful organization and to show off that membership, (2) Challenge-the ability to undergo, endure and conquer physical and mental circumstances well beyond ordinary, daily life, and (3) Adventure-consistent with numbers 1 and 2 above, the opportunity to participate directly or vicariously in exciting, demanding and potentially dangerous activities. Service in the more "safe" military occupations-cooks, accountants, and administrators-must be viewed as valuable parts of the overall combat team, or they become mere civilian employment.
A military calling finds its core in the warrior's spirit…the desire to close with and kill your enemy; defeating his cause - all while operating under a code of honor and shared values. Any soldier, sailor, airman or Marine excelling in their occupation, but eschewing this warrior spirit, is merely a good, civil servant in uniform. Camaraderie, the ability to share this warrior's spirit with others undergoing substantially identical experiences and challenges, is the glue holding the system together.
Military pay must be present and sufficient to support the consistency of the system, and to provide for an appropriate level of lifestyle for rank attained. So long as fundamental fairness and ability to support oneself is maintained, attraction of pay is not a prime motivator to a calling.
http://www.sftt.us/article02012002a.html