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OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE WASHINGTON
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE WASHINGTON
November 1950 This manual on leadership has been prepared for use by the Department of Army, the Department of Navy, and the Department of Air Force, and is published for the information and guidance of all concerned. DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY Washington 25, D. C. , 20 June 1956 Department of the Army Pamphlet 600–2, The Armed Forces Officer, is issued for the use of all concerned. By Order of Wilber M. Brucker , Secretary of the Army: MAXWELL D. TAYLOR, General, United States Army, Chief of Staff.
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CHAPTER ONE THE MEANING OF YOUR COMMISSION
CHAPTER ONE THE MEANING OF YOUR COMMISSION
Upon being commissioned in the Armed Services of the United States, a man incurs a lasting obligation to cherish and protect his country and to develop within himself that capacity and reserve strength which will enable him to serve its arms and the welfare of his fellow Americans with increasing wisdom, diligence, and patriotic conviction. This is the meaning of his commission. It is not modified by any reason of assignment while in the service, nor is the obligation lessened on the day an offi
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CHAPTER TWO FORMING MILITARY IDEALS
CHAPTER TWO FORMING MILITARY IDEALS
Any stranger making a survey of what Americans are and how they get that way would probably see it as a paradox that within the armed establishment the inculcation of ideals is considered the most vital of all teaching, while in our gentler and less rigid institutions, there is steadily less emphasis on this subject. He would be entitled to the explanation that it is not so done because this has always been the way of Armies, Navies, and other fighting forces, or because it is universal in the m
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CHAPTER THREE RESPONSIBILITY AND PRIVILEGE
CHAPTER THREE RESPONSIBILITY AND PRIVILEGE
There is a common saying in the services, and elsewhere, that greater privileges grow out of larger responsibilities, and that the latter justifies the former. This is part truth and part fable. In military organization, as in industry, business, and political life, the more important a man's position, the more lavish he is likely to be in his office appointments and living arrangements, and the greater the care that is apt to be taken in freeing him of trifling annoyances. But that is only part
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CHAPTER FOUR PLANNING YOUR CAREER
CHAPTER FOUR PLANNING YOUR CAREER
The main purpose of this book is to stimulate thought and to encourage the average young officer to seek truth for, and in, himself. It is never a good idea to attempt a precise formula about matters which are by nature indefinite and subject to all number of variable factors. Thus with respect to career planning, despite all of the emphasis put upon that subject in modern America, it would be plain error to infer that any man can become all-wise, as to the direction which he should take with hi
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CHAPTER FIVE RANK AND PRECEDENCE
CHAPTER FIVE RANK AND PRECEDENCE
The regulations that govern precedence among officers of the same service and among the services in relation to each other have a very real utility not only in determining succession to command and as reminders of the authority to which all persons in the Armed Services are subject but in providing precedent for all official or ceremonial occasions in which officers or organizations of the several services may find themselves cooperating. It is easy to imagine the confusion that would result wit
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CHAPTER SIX CUSTOMS AND COURTESIES
CHAPTER SIX CUSTOMS AND COURTESIES
Mutual respect and courtesy are indispensable elements in military organization. The junior shows deference to the senior; the senior shows consideration for him. The salute is the ancient and universal privilege of fighting men. It is a recognition of a common fellowship in a proud profession. Saluting is an expression of courtesy, alertness, and discipline. The senior is as obliged to return it as the junior is to initiate it. In fact, in the Army particularly, it is not unusual to see the sen
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CHAPTER SEVEN KEEPING YOUR HOUSE IN ORDER
CHAPTER SEVEN KEEPING YOUR HOUSE IN ORDER
In one of Lord Chesterfield's letters to his son there is to be found this bit of wisdom: "Dispatch is the soul of business and nothing contributes more to dispatch than method. Fix one certain hour and day in the week for your accounts, keep them together in their proper order, and you can never be much cheated." Although that is good advice in any man's league, there is just a little more reason why the military officer should adopt a system of accounting whereby he can keep his record straigh
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CHAPTER EIGHT GETTING ALONG WITH PEOPLE
CHAPTER EIGHT GETTING ALONG WITH PEOPLE
The main answer can be stated almost as simply as doing right-face. Hear this: If you like people, if you seek contact with them rather than hiding yourself in a corner, if you study your fellow men sympathetically, if you try consistently to contribute something to their success and happiness, if you are reasonably generous with your thoughts and your time, if you have a partial reserve with everyone but a seeming reserve with no one, if you work to be interesting rather than spend to be a good
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CHAPTER NINE LEADERS AND LEADERSHIP
CHAPTER NINE LEADERS AND LEADERSHIP
In that gallery of Great Americans whose names are conspicuously identified with the prospering of the national arms in peace and war, there are almost as many types as there are men. There were a certain few qualities that they had to possess in common or their names would never have become known beyond the county line. But these were inner qualities, often deep buried, rather than outward marks of greatness which men recognized immediately upon beholding them. Some almost missed the roll call,
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CHAPTER TEN MAINSPRINGS OF LEADERSHIP
CHAPTER TEN MAINSPRINGS OF LEADERSHIP
To what has been said, just a few things should be added so that the problem of generating greater powers of leadership within the officer corps may be seen in its true light. The counselor says: "Be forthright! Be articulate! Be confident! Be positive! Possess a commanding appearance!" The young man replies: "All very good, so far as it goes. I will, if I can. But tell me, how do I get that way?" He sees rightly enough the main point, that these things are but derivatives of other inner qualiti
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CHAPTER ELEVEN HUMAN NATURE
CHAPTER ELEVEN HUMAN NATURE
In the history of American arms, the most revealing chapter as to the nature of the human animal does not come from any story of the battlefield but from the record of 23 white men and two Eskimos who, on August 26, 1881, set up in isolation a camp on the edge of Lady Franklin Bay to attempt a Farthest North record for the United States. The Expedition under command of First Lt. A. W. Greeley, USA, expected to be picked up by a relief ship after 1 year, or 2 years at most. Its supply could be st
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CHAPTER TWELVE GROUP NATURE
CHAPTER TWELVE GROUP NATURE
In the same way that knowledge of individual nature becomes the key to building strength within the group, an understanding of crowd nature is essential to the preservation of the unique power within the group, particularly under conditions of extreme pressure. Whereas the central object of a training discipline is to raise a safeguard against any military body reverting to crowd form under trial by fire, history shows that paralysis both of leadership and of the ranks, obliviousness to orders,
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CHAPTER THIRTEEN ENVIRONMENT
CHAPTER THIRTEEN ENVIRONMENT
The saying of the Old Sergeant that, "It takes a war to knock the hell out of the Regular Army," applies as broadly to war's effects upon the general peacetime establishment. In the rapid expansion of the armed service which comes of a national emergency, nothing seems to remain the same. Old units fill up, and change their character. By the time they have sent out three or four cadres of commissioned and enlisted leaders to form the base for entirely new organizations, little remains of the mor
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CHAPTER FOURTEEN THE MISSION
CHAPTER FOURTEEN THE MISSION
There is a main reason why the word "mission" has an especial appropriateness to the military services and implies something beyond the call of duty. The arms of the United States do not advance simply through the process of correct orders being given and then executed with promptness, vigor, and intelligence. That is the greater part of the task, but it is by no means all. Military systems reflect the limitations and imperfections of their human material. Whatever his station, and experience, n
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CHAPTER FIFTEEN DISCIPLINE
CHAPTER FIFTEEN DISCIPLINE
Though many of the aspects of discipline can be discussed more appropriately in other sections of this book, an officer must understand its particular nature within American military forces if he is to win from his men obedience coupled with activity at will. It frequently happens that the root meaning of a word more nearly explains the whole context of ideas with which it is legitimately associated than the public's mistaken use of the same word. Coming from the Latin, "to discipline" means "to
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CHAPTER SIXTEEN MORALE
CHAPTER SIXTEEN MORALE
To grow in knowledge of how to win a loyal and willing response from military forces, there must first be understanding of the springs of human action, what they are, and how they may be directed toward constructive ends. This done, the course which makes for the perfecting of forces during peacetime training need only be extended to harden them for the risk and stress of war. The mainspring is morale. The meaning of the word is already known in a general way to every man who has qualified for o
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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN ESPRIT
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN ESPRIT
To proceed toward a better understanding of esprit and its part in the building of military forces, it is necessary to look beyond the organization and consider the man. The life of any socially upright individual is organized around only a few basic loyalties and the degree of satisfaction which he derives from existence can usually be measured in terms of his service to them. He is loyal first to himself, for failing that, he fails in loyalty to all else. If he cannot acquit himself ably for h
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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN KNOWING YOUR JOB
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN KNOWING YOUR JOB
In one of his little-known passages, Robert Louis Stevenson did the perfect portrait of the man who finally failed at everything, because he just never learned how to take hold of his work. It goes like this: "His career was one of unbroken shame. He did not drink. He was exactly honest. He was never rude to his employers. Yet he was everywhere discharged. Bringing no interest to his duties, he brought no attention. His day was a tissue of things neglected and things done amiss. And from place t
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CHAPTER NINETEEN KNOWLEDGE OF YOUR MEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN KNOWLEDGE OF YOUR MEN
An admiring contemporary spoke of Paul G. Hoffman, the director of the European Recovery Program, as "the kind of man who if tossed through the air would always pick out the right trapeze." Within any military organization, there is always a number of such men, enlisted and commissioned. They know how and where to take hold, even in the face of a totally unexpected and unnerving situation, and they have what amounts to an instinct for doing the right thing in a decisive moment. If it were not so
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CHAPTER TWENTY WRITING AND SPEAKING
CHAPTER TWENTY WRITING AND SPEAKING
Other things being equal, a superior rating will invariably be given to the officer who has persevered in his studies of the art of self-expression, while his colleague, who attaches little importance to what may be achieved through working with the language, will be marked for mediocrity. A moment's reflection will show why this has to be the case and why mastery of the written and spoken word is indispensable to successful officership. As the British statesman, Disraeli, put it, "Men govern wi
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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE THE ART OF INSTRUCTION
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE THE ART OF INSTRUCTION
By abiding by these few simple rules you will keep cool, preserve continuity and hold your audience. Instruction is just about the begin-all and end-all of every military officer's job. He spends the greater part of his professional life either pitching it or catching it, and the game doesn't stop until he is at last retired. Should he become a Supreme Commander, even, this is one thing that does not change; it remains a give-and-take proposition. Part of his time is taken instructing his staff
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CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO YOUR RELATIONSHIPS WITH YOUR MEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO YOUR RELATIONSHIPS WITH YOUR MEN
Inasmuch as most of this book has been directed toward covering the various approaches to this subject, there is need to discuss here only a relatively few points which could not conveniently be treated elsewhere. This is the touchstone of success. To any officer starting on a life career, it is impossible to overstate its importance. For the moment, we can forget the words duty and responsibility. The question is: "How do I get ahead?" And for a junior there is one main road open—he will strive
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CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE YOUR MEN'S MORAL AND PHYSICAL WELFARE
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE YOUR MEN'S MORAL AND PHYSICAL WELFARE
To put it in a nutshell, the moral of this chapter is that when men are moral, the moral power which binds them together and fits them for high action is given its main chance for success. There should therefore be no confusion about how the word is being used. We are speaking both of training in morals for every day living, and of moral training which will harden the will of a fighting body. One moment's reflection will show why they need not be considered separately, and why we can leave it to
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CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR KEEPING YOUR MEN INFORMED
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR KEEPING YOUR MEN INFORMED
Nobody ever told the South Sea savage about the nature of air in motion. He had never heard of wind and therefore could not imagine its effects. Thus when he heard strange noises in the treetops and there was a howling around certain headlands, while other headlands were silent, he could believe only that the spirits were at work. He would strain his ear to hear what they had to say to him, and never being able to understand, he would become all the more fearful. It all sounds pretty silly. And
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CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE COUNSELING YOUR MEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE COUNSELING YOUR MEN
Among the ever-pressing problems of the commander, and equally of the young officer schooling himself to the ways of the service, is the seeking of means to break down the natural timidity and reticence of the great majority of men. This he can never do unless he is sufficient master of himself that he can come out of his own shell and give his men a chance to understand him as a human being rather than as an autocrat giving orders. Nothing more unfortunate can happen to an officer than to come
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CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX USING REWARD AND PUNISHMENT
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX USING REWARD AND PUNISHMENT
One of the illusions having greatest currency among our people is that any green member of the fighting establishment is merely an American civilian in a uniform, and that therefore, his spirit is nourished to the extent that accommodations and usages of the service most nearly duplicate what he has known elsewhere. This belief is especially prevalent during wartime when every mother's son puts on a new suit; it is natural to think that everything in the service will better suit the boy if it sm
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CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN FITTING MEN TO JOBS
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN FITTING MEN TO JOBS
In civilian society, what amounts to a cult has developed around the idea that the average person has a natural bent for some particular job or profession, which if thwarted will fill him with those frustrations which are conceded to be the cause of most of the mental and moral disorders of mankind. Therefore if all men could become rightly placed, we would have Utopia tomorrow. This theory of what humanity mainly cries for is perforce rejected by the military establishment, for several eminentl
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CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT AMERICANS IN COMBAT
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT AMERICANS IN COMBAT
The command and control of men in combat can be mastered by the junior leaders of American forces short of actual experience under enemy fire. It is altogether possible for a young officer his first time in battle to be in total possession of his faculties and moving by instinct to do the right thing, provided that he has made the most of his training opportunities. Exercise in the maneuvering of men is only an elementary introduction to this educational process. The basic requirement is a conti
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APPENDIX ONE RECOMMENDED READING
APPENDIX ONE RECOMMENDED READING
Army Historical Division— Okinawa: The Last Battle, 1949. Omaha Beachhead, 1946. H. H. Arnold— Global Mission, 1949. Basil Bartlett— My First War, 1941. William Liscum Borden— There Will Be No Time, 1946. David L. Brainard— The Outpost of the Lost, 1929. Bernard Brodie— A Guide to Navy Strategy, 1944. The Absolute Weapon, 1946. Vannevar Bush— Modern Arms and Free Men, 1949. Winston S. Churchill— The World Crisis, 1931. The Unknown War, 1931. The River War, 1933. Marlborough: His Life and Times,
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