“In peacetime, we practice tactics, strategy, and weapons firing.
We must do the same with our values”. General Donn A. Starry. ” Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, and Personal Courage; The 7 army value soldiers past, present, and future are taught to live by. None of these takes precedence over another. All are of equal importance in application to life. My favorite by far is integrity. It is Do what is right, legally and morally.
Be willing to do what is right even when no one is looking.It is our “moral compass” an inner voice. It is seen every day, whether it’s a soldier encompassing the value or dishonoring it. This is by far the hardest it seems for soldiers to embody. Every day one is challenged to keep their integrity, wither it derives from doing what you’re asked to do to the full extent, or from a simple question.
No one has mastered this value. Integrity is not solely for application to work, but applies in all aspects of life. Army doctrine is based off many rules, new rules, old rules, all of which have placed for a purpose.Without soldiers having integrity to follow these rules life would be almost impossible. We need integrity to form a system of trust, we as soldiers have been interested to keep the country we all love and work hard for safe. Without integrity that would not be applicable. In my job alone Integrity is a daily responsibility. Integrity to me means waking up at 0400 hours to go running because I know as a solider and as a medic I have a responsibility to keep up my physical training; though my duty hours are different from others doesn’t mean I should not be up to the same standard.
It means making sure all patients medical records are kept up well and not shared throughout the facility and unit. It means being trusted with access to personal records, medical records that are to be kept to highest confidentiality; as well as pharmaceuticals be distributed in the appropriate manor. Its making sure a soldier gets the help they need though they may not want it. It is fighting for your patient to be able to seek medical attention even if you have to stand up to someone of higher ranking in the patients’ chain of command.
