Military

The average civilian or recruit coming into the Army often misunderstands the meaning of the words military discipline. He thinks of them as being connected with punishments or reprimands which may result from the violation of some military law or regulation. Actually, discipline should not be something new to you for you have been disciplined all of your life. You were being disciplined at home and in school when you were taught obedience to your parents and teachers, and respect for the rights of others. On your baseball or other athletic team you were disciplining yourself when you turned down the chance to be a star performer in order that the team might win; you were acquiring discipline in the shop, or other business when your loyalty to your employer and your fellow employees was greater than your desire to secure your own advancement. All of this was merely the spirit of team play; that is, you were putting the interests of the “team” above your own in order that the “team” might win.
The word “company,” or “troop,” or “battery” is merely the name for a team, and military discipline is nothing more than this same spirit of team play. It is the most important thing in the Army. In civil life lack of discipline in a young man may result in his getting into trouble which will cause his parents and teachers regret or sorrow; it may cause a member of an athletic team to be “sent to the bench,” or cause an employee to lose his job. In the Army it is far more serious. Here lack of discipline in a soldier may not only cost him is life and the life of his comrades, but cause a military undertaking to fail and his team to be defeated. On the other hand a team of a few well-disciplined solders is worth many times a much larger number of undisciplined individuals who are nothing more than an armed mob. History repeatedly shows that without discipline, no body of troops can hold its own against a well-disciplined and well-directed enemy.
In your work in the Army you