The United States Army

The Army core values form the acronym Leadership: Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, and Personal Courage ("The Army Values," n.d.). These principles guide the ethical standards of the Army. Every Army trainee is taught the seven core values. Soldiers are given a basic description of what those values mean. The ADRP1 – The Army Profession (2013) lists several creeds and codes that apply to different segments of the Army population. The Army’s CAPE program builds on the Army’s core values and teaches those principles to the Army population.   

The CAPE program addresses ethics and professionalism in the Army’s civilian, enlisted, and leadership populations.  The CAPE website contains training and supplemental material resources.  The Education and Training portion of the site contains online training support packages, seven virtual simulators, case studies, and other training materials. The Library and Resources segments of the site contain policies, reports, studies, reading lists, videos, images, brochures, other related materials, and links ("Center," 2013).

I went through the virtual simulator Backbone of the Army.  Live actors portrayed all the individuals in the simulation program. The simulator introduced my character through a brief history of my personal and professional status. I was a married promotable sergeant with an assignment at a new stateside duty station. My character interacted with his military and civilian roles. I was presented with multiple real-life situations. After the presentation of the dilemma, a decision screen would interrupt the video to present four options. Choosing an option would restart the video and play through the choice and subsequent consequences of that choice ("Backbone," 2013).

My character faced several ethical challenges during the half-hour session which covered several weeks of his virtual life. The first decision involved rumors about a fellow sergeant who was wearing a Ranger tab without the appropriate orders. My response to this situation was guided by Ethical Standards 3.04 Avoiding Harm and 1.04 Informal Resolution of Ethical Violations. I chose to discuss the situation with the sergeant and reminded him of the regulations about wearing the tab without the accompanying orders.  

I also faced a choice between family obligations and a social interaction with other platoon leaders. Ethical Standards 3.04 Avoiding Harm and 3.09 Cooperation with Other Professionals guided my decision in this choice. A third dilemma involved the discovery of confidential papers behind a shredder that were logged as destroyed. Ethical Standard 1.05 guided my response to this discovery although I was unaware of the Army policies regarding this type of situation. I was guided by Ethical Standards 1.07 Improper Complaints and 7.06 Assessing Student and Supervisee Performance when I addressed the rumors and the misplaced confidential documents with a soldier under my authority. Additional choices involved issues of privacy and confidentiality and human relations. My virtual life concluded with my character’s promotion ceremony ("Backbone," 2013).

At the conclusion of the virtual simulator, a four-page review document detailed my dilemmas and my decisions. Under each dilemma, there were comments, questions, and additional information regarding my choices. I thought the simulator was outstanding and an excellent way to teach the ethical standards. The ethical dilemmas were appropriate, the options were applicable, and the discussion and information during the simulation review addressed many additional questions and situations ("Backbone," 2013).

The Army’s CAPE program utilizes many innovative forms of training and provides extensive military ethics references. However, I was disappointed that I was not able to locate a single core document that contains the ethics material. Perhaps the diverse vocations represented in the Army preclude the ability the creation of a single concise standard of principles and standards similar to the APA Ethics Code.  

References

 

U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Army. (2013). ADRP 1 - The Army profession. Retrieved from: http://armypubs.army.mil/doctrine/DR_pubs/dr_a/pdf/adrp1.pdf 

U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Army. (2013). Backbone of the Army [Virtual Simulator]. Retrieved from: http://cape.army.mil/Virtual%20Simulators/backbone.php

 

U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Army. (2013). Center for the Army Profession and Ethic. Retrieved from: http://cape.army.mil

U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Army. (2013). Moral combat [Poster]. Downloaded from: http://cape.army.mil/posters.php 

U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Army. (n.d.). The Army values. Retrieved from: http://www.army.mil/values/