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The Army exists for one purpose-- to serve the Nation. For over 225 years, American Soldiers have answered the Nation's call to duty, faithfully and selflessly performing any mission that the American people have asked of them.
-The Honorable Thomas E. White and General Eric K. Shinseki1
MEN AND WOMEN who become officers in the U.S. Army take an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. After this shared beginning, however, officers' views on what it means to serve as commissioned leaders diverge. Researchers Gayle L. Watkins and Randi C. Cohen, who looked at how officers view themselves, discovered that Army officers do not have a shared conception of the nature of their special expertise or their roles.2 Two such roles are the officer as a servant of the Nation and the officer as a member of a profession.
A Servant of the Nation
In January 2000, while serving on the faculty at West Point, I had the opportunity to teach to second-year cadets a military science class called "Perspectives on Officership." The course was organized around four perspectives on officership: the officer as warfighter, the officer as leader of character, the officer as servant of the Nation, and the officer as a member of a time-honored profession. During the readings and discussions on the officer as servant, several cadets surprised me with their negative reactions. One cadet in particular did not want to see himself in this role. To him, being a servant was uninspiring and even demeaning; it took us a while to get past the term "servant" to be sure we were talking about the same thing.
What does it mean for an Army officer to be a servant of the Nation? Fundamentally, this perspective is tied to the manner of appointment of officers and the oath they take upon commissioning. With the advice and the consent of the Senate, the President appoints commissioned officers. Therefore, officers' authority derives from the executive authority of the President. However, as with many powers of the Government, the President and Congress share authority over military affairs. While the U.S. Constitution says that the President shall serve as the Commander in Chief, it also gives Congress the authority to declare war;...