CHAPTER 5 - HONOR AND CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

501. Overview

502. The Military Ethic

503. The Army Values

504. Ethics and Leadership

505. Integrity as an Element of Leadership

501. OVERVIEW. The Honor Code and the Honor System are staple to the cadet experience and paramount to Cadet Character Development. When it comes to the concept of character development, some may question why the values of honesty, ethical behavior and character are so important to the Corps of Cadets. Why is the bedrock value of Honor so essential to the United States Military Academy?

The mission statement of The United States Military Academy is to educate, train, and inspire the Corps of Cadets so that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character committed to the values of Duty, Honor, Country; professional growth throughout a career as an officer in the United States Army; and a lifetime of selfless service to the Nation. The mission illustrates to what end USMA’s mission goes beyond the scope of cadet ethical development. As the mission states, USMA is dedicated to training commissioned leaders of character dedicated to a lifetime of service to the Nation. In the Armed Forces, the fate of our nation depends on leaders who can make crucial decisions under pressure. The ability to make those crucial decisions depends on the ethical values of our leaders being so internal that they can make the hard decisions without sacrificing the high standards that we strive to maintain.

Leadership through strong character development is cardinal to officers in the Armed Forces. As future commissioned officers, we are responsible for creating an ethical environment that will develop the soldiers of the 21^st century. Through an intense focus on ethical behavior, USMA strives to mentor each cadet through four years of character development. In order to ensure our leaders leave with the enthusiasm to inspire others to live ethically, we parallel our cadet experiences to our future as Army officers. By focusing on the importance of ethics in cadet life, USMA graduates carry the values of strong ethical standards into their careers as commissioned officers.

502. THE MILITARY ETHIC.

In any approach to understanding the larger professional military ethic, the Honor Code must be seen in terms of the Academy motto, "Duty, Honor, Country." More than a motto, these words become for each cadet deeply ingrained guiding principles. Of the three elements, Duty and Country are indoctrinated and sustained in various ways: through the cadet entry oath; through academic courses such as military and constitutional law; through contact with professors, tactical officers, and coaches; and through the Academy's intrinsic ethos that emphasizes the soldier's obligations to duty.

The Honor Code is simple, terse, and incomplete as an expression of the total ethic of the professional officer. Having accepted and obeyed proscriptions against lying, cheating, and stealing, graduates will enter the Army with a growing appreciation for wider principles such as the sanctity of truth, of fairness, of stewardship, of self-discipline, of group discipline, and of value-enforcement.

Owing to its breadth and the varied demands placed upon it, the professional ethic of the officer corps is nowhere expressed in a single document. However, an excellent point of reference is the oath that each officer must take upon commissioning:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, that take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

Beyond the commissioning oath, the Army has formally delineated a set of values that "set the moral context for the Army" and "guide the way we live our lives and perform our duties." These are presented in Field Manual 100-1, The Army, the capstone document describing Army roles and missions, and are further explained and emphasized in Field Manual 22-100, Army Leadership. The values identified as components of the Army's professional ethic are loyalty, duty, selfless service, integrity, commitment, competence, candor, and courage. The Officer Evaluation Report attempts to calibrate these qualities.

Concepts of integrity, honesty, and responsibility inherent in the Cadet Honor Code manifest the professional military ethic (though such guiding concepts cannot be reduced to lists of specific actions). The military education program for Army officers contains formal instruction in professional ethics at every level, from Officer Basic Courses for new lieutenants through the Army War College course for lieutenant colonels and colonels. The instruction recognizes ethical growth through earlier stages and attempts to prepare officers for new and more complex ethical challenges as they advance in responsibility. As philosopher John Dewey reminded us, "Moral growth derives from the struggles and anguish in making difficult decisions, not in the routine observance of rules and regulations."

There are generally prescribed minimum standards of behavior and sanctions outlined in the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Article 133, "Conduct Unbecoming an Officer and Gentleman," holds officers to higher standards than enlisted soldiers. Conduct in violation of Article 133 is that which dishonors or disgraces the person as an officer, compromises the officer's character, or compromises the person's standing as an officer. The Manual for Courts Martial explains the article as follows:

In previous years, the officer corps acquired entrants with a fairly uniform ethical foundation. The challenges then were to strengthen the new officers' commitment to accepted ethical values, to develop their strength of character, and to induce them to enforce accepted ethical standards widely throughout the Army. In recent decades, however, our nation has undergone such severe social transformation that there are widely varying interpretations as to the limits of acceptable moral behavior. There is even more need for education in ethics, and a growing relevance of the West Point Honor Code. Fundamentally, "Duty, Honor, Country" is an ethical formulation with implications far beyond West Point and its history.

In conclusion, the Cadet Honor Code is at the heart of each cadet's West Point experience. The Code plays a central role in academics, military training, athletics, and social development. When taken into context with the Spirit of the Code, the Cadet Honor Code forms a part of the ethical foundation for each graduate's life and career.

503. THE ARMY VALUES. FM 22-100 Army Leadership recently outlined an updated way to look at honor and ethics in the Army. The 7 Army Values, as captured in the acronym LDRSHIP, epitomize what every soldier should internalize as ethical guidelines. The following sections are excerpts from the initial draft of FM 22-100 updated in March of 1998.

The focus for Army leadership, though, is on the Army values. Army values serve several functions. First, values help to define the identity of America’s Army. The trust that America’s Army has among its members is dependent on individuals identifying with these values. The trust that the American people have in the Army also depends on members of America’s Army identifying with these values. Second, values help to define a person’s character. Third, values will also provide guideposts--a compass--for personal character development and moral reasoning, resulting in good behavior. The Moral Compass specifies seven Army values that serve these three functions.

a. Values Defined. The Army has seven values: loyalty, duty, respect, selfless-service, honor, integrity, and personal courage. The following definitions will not stand alone, for the definitions are just the starting points toward gaining an appreciation and understanding of the Army values. The values themselves will provide only the basis for complete ethical understanding and complete moral development. The following definitions are accompanied by some behavioral descriptions that leaders should exhibit to demonstrate the acquisition of the value.

(1) Loyalty. Loyalty is an intangible bond based on a legitimate obligation; it entails the correct ordering of our obligations and commitments, starting with the Constitution, but also including the US Army, the unit, the family, friends, and finally the self. Being unswerving in our allegiance to the Constitution and faithful to the lawful government will prevent us from misplacing our loyalties. All Army leaders take an oath in which they swear allegiance to the US Constitution. Loyalty demands commitment to the institution and is a pre-condition for trust, cooperation, teamwork, and camaraderie.

(2) Duty. Duty outlines the sum total of all laws, rules, etc., that make up the professional, civic, and moral obligations of leaders. Army values start with duty because we expect all members of the Army to fulfill their obligations, at a minimum. We often expect individuals to exceed their duty, especially in ethical matters that are encouraged by morality, but not required by it. For example, the nation’s highest award, the Congressional Medal of Honor, imparts the notion of an individual acting "above and beyond the call of duty."

(3) Respect. Respect denotes the regard and recognition of the absolute dignity that every human being possesses. Respect is treating people as they should be treated. Specifically, respect is indicative of compassion and consideration of others, which includes a sensitivity to and regard for the feelings and needs of others and an awareness of the effect of one’s own behavior on them. Respect also involves the notion of treating people justly. Respect is the value that informs the Army leader on those issues related to equal opportunity and the prevention of sexual harassment.

(4) Selfless-service. Selfless-service signifies the proper ordering of priorities. Think of it as service before self. The welfare of the nation and the organization come before the individual. While the focus is on service to the nation, this does not mean that the individual member neglects to take care of family or self. The value does not preclude the Army leader from having a healthy ego or self esteem, nor does it preclude the leader from having a healthy sense of ambition. It does, however, preclude selfish careerism.

(5) Honor. Honor is a moral virtue, a state of being or state of character, that people possess by living up to the complex or the set of all the values that make up the public moral Code for the Army, "public" meaning the Army’s public declaration of espoused values. These publicly declared values provide the objective standard for the Army. "Public" does not refer to the public’s perception of what honor means to the Army, nor does it refer to a legal Code, complete with very specific rules, regulations, and sanctions. Honor includes: integrity, courage, loyalty, respect, selfless-service, and duty. Honor and moral identity stand together because the honorable individual identifies with the Army values. Significantly, honor provides the motive for action. Honor demands adherence to a public moral Code, not protection of a reputation.

(6) Integrity. Integrity is also a moral virtue, one that encompasses the sum total of a person’s set of values, his private moral Code. A breach of any of these values will damage the integrity of the individual. Integrity, coming from the same Latin root (integritas) as the word "integer," really refers to a notion of completeness, wholeness, and uniqueness. Integrity also entails the consistent adherence of action to one’s personal moral beliefs. Over time, an Army leader’s integrity, his private moral Code, should converge and be consistent with the publicly declared Code of honor for the Army.

(7) Personal Courage. Personal Courage depicts the military virtue that enables us to face fear, danger, or adversity, no matter what the context happens to be (physical or moral). Courage includes the notion of taking responsibility for decisions and actions. Additionally, courage involves the ability to perform critical self-assessment, to confront new ideas, and to change.

504. ETHICS AND LEADERSHIP. Ethics is a province that belongs to leaders. Those in charge, leaders, are in charge of the ethical development of their people. Leaders are in charge of their people’s character development, which includes the development of their skill of moral reasoning. Leaders are also responsible for the ethical climate they set in their unit. Leaders retain their ethical responsibilities, as just outlined. Leaders cannot delegate their responsibilities regarding ethics to anyone else.

a. The Role of Character in Ethics. Character develops early in an individual, long before the person self-consciously deliberates over moral matters with an adequate theoretical understanding. By the time a person becomes a member of the Army, some part of that person’s character has already developed. But that does not mean that character is completely developed by that time. Character development is a life-long process. Character development progress can take many upward and downward swings throughout a lifetime. A role of the Army leader is to encourage, and to set the conditions for, positive character development in others. The individual leader in the Army also has the individual responsibility to develop his or her own character in a positive way throughout his service.

The focus on character gives us a key advantage when considering ethical development. Character, or disposition, governs action. A person with good character normally will act in accordance with his character. For example, an honest person is one who has the quality of honesty as part of his character. An honest person will, more likely than a dishonest person, be honest in an ambiguous situation or when no one is watching. Learning the skill of moral reasoning will be much easier for those who already have good character. When discussing the Laws of Land Warfare, for example, the individual who already has a basic respect for persons will much more readily understand the principles.

Character has to do with an ethic of "being." Questions of this type of ethics center around the question, "what kind of person should I be?" Moral reasoning is a special kind of ethical examination that centers around the question, "what should I do?" Character focuses primarily on the question, "what ought I to be?" and moral reasoning focuses primarily on the question, "what ought I to do?" An understanding of critical reasoning, which is based on logic, greatly enhances moral reasoning. The critical reasoning skill allows the leader to use good reasoning, an essential element in good moral reasoning.

b. Ethical Decision Making. Leaders should do the right thing for the right reason, every day. They should always do what is legal and moral. All Army leaders make decisions. Some of these decisions may seem more important than others, but all should be preceded by a consideration of ethical ramifications. In some cases, the ethical element of decision making will go no further than to consciously acknowledge that there are no significant ethical ramifications to consider. In other cases, in-depth ethical analysis is called for in addition to application of ethics rules. The following method for decision making ensures careful review of ethical consequences when there are several options that seem proper under existing laws and regulations. Army leaders should consider incorporating the following method in official decision making. Many times, there will be no time to go through this deliberate process. If not, the method serves as a good tool to analyze ethical problems when time permits. Leaders have time to use this method in the classroom, sometimes before they make decisions, and certainly during reflective times after they make decision.

c. Ethical Decision Making Method. Use the following steps to aid in solving ethical problems.

(1) Clearly Define the Ethical Problem. Proceed from a general statement of the problem to specific statements of the decisions to be made. As you take the following steps, new problems or needed decisions may become apparent. Be willing to add these to your problem list as you go.

(2) Employ Applicable Laws or Regulations. Laws, regulations, codes, and other professional obligations are basic constraints within which official decisions are made. Until all relevant obligations are considered, ethical decision making is impossible. Although it is conceivable that an ethical decision could violate a law or regulation, such circumstances are rare.

(3) Reflect on the Ethical Values and their Ramifications. Listing the ethical values at stake can awaken you to problems and goals that you may not have otherwise considered. It may alert you to stakeholders you may not have recognized. Listing the values reminds you of your commitment to them at a time when the stress of the problem may cause you to forget.

(4) Consider Other Applicable Moral Principles. Considering other ethical principles, besides those contained in the values, can be very helpful in understanding the relevant moral factors at stake. Some of these principles are especially illuminating when the Army is applying deadly force. Principles such as the prevention of unnecessary harm and the non-combatant distinction help leaders to think about the reasons behind many of the laws they have to follow.

(5) Commit To and Implement the Best Ethical Solution. Commitment and implementation are vital to the ethical decision making process. Determining which solution is the best ethical one is a meaningless exercise unless implementation of the ethical solution follows. Eliminate unethical solutions.

505. INTEGRITY AS AN ELEMENT OF LEADERSHIP.

Soldier leaders are bestowed with a great moral responsibility: the lives of their soldiers. The soldier relies on the leader to be technically and tactically competent, fixed on the delicate balance between mission accomplishment and sustaining the lives of his soldiers. The leader's position is, therefore, one of esteem, but more importantly, one of trust.

Although leaders have the authority to give orders to those they lead, "leaders of character" develop a desire in their troops to follow. This desire is born of trust.

Loyalty is born of trust. When those who are being led sense that their commander's interest is their own, they will give him their allegiance and execute his commands without hesitation. This special trust is not placed in a leader whose honor is questioned.

Honor is the hallmark of the professional officer's conduct. The professional does not lie, cheat, or steal; moreover, such an officer adheres to a Code of ethics that can be respected by others. Thus, the professional officer never stoops to petty chicaneries or questionable acts of any sort, even though they may not be specifically prohibited by regulations. The honest, forthright officer is expected to rise and live above the frailties of others who are less exacting. He or she will rely on the standard they know as right, not what is accepted by others. Each must realize what his or her personal standard of honor is and not fall victim to lowering that standard because some dishonorable acts are perceived to be acceptable.

Most officers attain these standards as a matter of course. Those who do not live by these standards earn the scorn of their associates and ultimately will be alienated from them and separated from the profession.