The Profession of Arms

Abstract

The US Army is a profession of arms. This requires Soldiers to learn both warrior and technical skills and maintain those in order to support military missions. Human Resource Specialists NCOs have the responsibility to be stewards of American resources as well as assist and maintain their Soldiers' records. Overall, 42A NCOs, like all other Soldiers, are part of a professional Army that strives to maintain “operational adaptability”.

The Profession of Arms

The critical role of our military is multifaceted in that Soldiers stand ready to support combat operations and participate in combat operations. Above all, the Army is a profession of arms, but under that guiding value, the Army has diverse military occupations specialties that conduct and support operations around the world. Therefore, Army professionalism goes beyond professionalism in the civilian world because it includes warrior skills as well as MOS proficiency.

Professionalism for Soldiers relies both on “public trust” and proficiency in MOS (Dempsey, 2010, p. 2). For Non-Commissioned Officers, professionalism relies on demonstrating the Army values for Private Soldiers while balancing the orders and mandates of Officers. Within the 42A MOS, enlisted Soldiers have a professional responsibility not only to guard their Soldier’s personal information but also to maintain reliable records as part of being good stewards of US taxpayer money.

Maintaining public trust and supporting Soldiers are not the only roles for 42As. Army doctrine values embodied by our profession relies on expertise, trust, continuous development of skills, character, service, and duty (Dempsey, 2010, p. 6). Balancing the role of the Profession’s Leaders is difficult because the skillset is diverse. Army doctrine stipulates that the force is “balanced” when military-technical expertise, human development expertise, moral-ethical expertise, and political-cultural expertise are combined in the right way to provide leadership (Dempsey, 2010, p. 7). There is no “one way” to have this balance, and this is why the Army requires insightful leaders who exemplify power. command, and moral courage, as well as a strong NCOs to action those plans.

The Army’s professional culture is continuously being modified. For more than a decade the Army has been at a fast operational tempo, and the critical need for support for deployed Soldiers has allowed the Army to consider what has worked and what requires intervention (Dempsey, 2010, p. 9). Above all, professional identity “guides the behavior of Soldiers at all levels and is characterized by an ethos of striving for excellence in functional specialties” (Dempsey, 2010, p. 10). The Warrior Ethos, contained in the Soldier’s Creed, remains important to our professional culture because it guides how we work. It is a blend of the importance of professional skill and warrior skill (Dempsey, 2010, p. 15).

Human Resource Specialists need to manage enormous amounts of personal information, Soldier records, board and promotion paperwork, and to provide support to deployed troops. While this skill set exists in the civilian world, it is different in the military because doctrine stipulates that Soldiers are first and foremost supposed to be proficient in warrior skills. The Soldier’s Creed captures the essence of this professional balance as it focuses Soldiers on maintaining arms and equipment, being amenable to army equipment modernization efforts, being professional, and standing ready to deploy on operations. 42A NCOs embody the meaning of “selfless service” because they serve not only the American people but also their fellow Soldiers. Additionally, NCOs in general shoulder the responsibility to work with superiors to help translate and execute orders. Overall, NCOs have to demonstrate professionalism and leadership to junior Soldiers while serving as a liaison between them and Command.

Reference

Dempsey, M. E. (2010). The profession of arms. An Army white paper. Fort Leavenworth: US Army.