The United States Air Force

The Air Force includes a detailed description of their three core values on their public website. The core values are explained and expanded into 16 subcategories. Four of the subcategories are expanded into 9 third-level categories.  

 

Integrity:

·         Courage

·         Honesty

·         Responsibility

·         Accountability

·         Justice

·         Openness

·         Self-respect

·     Humility  

 

Service before self:

·         Rule following

·         Respect for others

·         Discipline and self-control

o   Anger

o   Appetites

o   Religious toleration

 

Excellence in all we do:

·         Product/service excellence

·         Personal excellence

·         Community excellence

o   Mutual respect

o   Benefit of Doubt

·         Resources excellence

o   Material resources excellence

o   Human resources excellence

·         Operations excellence

o   Excellence of internal operations

o   Excellence of external operations ("Our Values," 2013.)

 

The Air Force core values cover the same basic ethics areas as the five General Principles of the APA code. However, the APA Principles divide integrity, justice, and responsibility into three separate principles while the Air Force classifies justice and responsibility as components of integrity (Fisher, 2013).  

 

The Air Force’s ethical training program is not listed on the Air Education and Training Command (AETC) website. Numerous searches for an Air Force ethics training program located several articles describing a 2011 complaint regarding religious content in Air Force ethical training materials. Ricks (August, 2011) quotes the AETC as stating,    

 

“The Air Education and Training Command is conducting a comprehensive review of training materials that address morals, ethics, core values and related character development issues to ensure appropriate and balanced use of all religious and secular source material.”  

 

Ethics Guidance Resources were located on the Air Force General Counsel website. The resources were 12 brochures that covered fundraising, political activities, gifts, conflicts of interest, travel, conduct, and employment. The site advised individuals with ethical questions to contact their Staff Judge Advocate.  

 

The Air Force has identified and defined their core values. The branch has the responsibility to develop and use ethics training programs that will teach ethical behavior without bias to one religion or philosophy.

 

References 

 

Fisher, C.B. (2013). Decoding the ethics code: A practical guide for psychologists (3rd ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.  

 

Ricks, M. (2011, August 14). Air Force reviewing all ethics training. Air Force Times.  Retrieved from: http://www.airforcetimes.com/article/20110814/NEWS/108140321/Air-Force-reviewing-all-ethics-training

 

U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Air Force. (2013). Our values. Retrieved from: http://www.airforce.com/learn-about/our-values/

 

U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Air Force, Air Education and Training Command Force.  (n.d.). Inside AETC. Retrieved from: http://www.aetc.af.mil/

 

U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Air Force, The Department of Air Force General Counsel. (n.d.) Ethics. Retrieved from: http://www.safgc.hq.af.mil/organizations/gca1/ethics/index.asp

 

Wilson, N. (2013). Training tomorrow’s defenders [Image]. Downloaded from: http://www.dvidshub.net/image/914095/training-tomorrows-defenders#.Uk17itLD-1s