Those of us in the profession or arms say and write a lot about our honor, integrity, and ethical standing. Are we really in a position to claim such high ground?
To their great credit, the US Army has for over a half-decade put forth Wong and Gerras’s 2015 US Army War College Strategic Studies Institute Monograph, Lying to Ourselves: Dishonesty in the Army Profession for reading and comment.
In the intro, the author’s state,
…many Army officers, after repeated exposure to the overwhelming demands and the associated need to put their honor on the line to verify compliance, have become ethically numb. As a result, an officer’s signature and word have become tools to maneuver through the Army bureaucracy rather than being symbols of integrity and honesty.
Sadly, much of the deception that occurs in the profession of arms is encouraged and sanctioned by the military institution as subordinates are forced to prioritize which requirements will actually be done to standard and which will only be reported as done to standard. As a result, untruthfulness is surprisingly common in the U.S. military even though members of the profession are loath to admit it.
That came to mind when I was reading through the Command Investigation Into the Fire Aboard USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6).
Did the BHR CO gave people NAMs for gundecking?
369. , who was also recorded in SKED as having performed the Q-2 check, did not recall completing either the AFFF Q-1 or Q-2 checks. He further stated that he was trained to sign-off on maintenance checks even if a check could not be completed as written. If there was a problem with the AFFF system, he would verbally report discrepancies to his WCS, the ER04 LPO, and the Repair Division LPO. He did not recall whether he reported any discrepancies concerning AFFF Stations 3 and 4 to his WCS, but noted that if there had been a discrepancy, he still would have signed the check as complete and verbally informed his WCS. [Encl 554]
370. When asked about the AFFF system checks, 3MC stated that no discrepancies were reported to him when the system was brought out of IEM. After reviewing SKED exported check details, he acknowledged the start-up maintenance was not properly conducted. [Encl 425]
371. The Repair Division LPO and ER04 WCS were each awarded Navy Achievement medals by the BONHOMME RICHARD CO for working through the weekend to restore AFFF stations prior to refueling on 7 April 2020. Repair Division LPO and ER04 WCS were each awarded Navy Achievement medals by the BONHOMME RICHARD CO for working through the weekend to restore AFFF stations prior to refueling on 7 April 2020.
Looks like he/we did.
This isn’t a BHR specific or an Army specific issue. We’ve seen another manifestation of this in the last month in this rather bizarre exchange between CENTCOM’s General McKenzie, USMC and Congressman Mike Gallagher (R-WI) where McKenzie insists that all that happened in Kabul in August 2021 was a Noncombatant Evacuation Operation … not a retreat (though we were departing with our last military forces after two decades of conflict) … not a negotiated surrender (though we left under the guns and with the permission of the Taliban while in constant communication with them).
I’m sorry – that is no more truthful than saying the Confederates were not defeated at Vicksburg, they simply conducted a NEO from the besieged city.
Where does this start? Are our FITREPs and EVALs honest documents clearly understood – or exercises in clever and esoteric use of words? Are things that should be CASREP’d …. CASREP’d? If your readiness is just at the top of C3 … do things suddenly happen to make it just at the bottom of C2? Did we really need to use all that fuel in 4QFY21, or did we just happen to use that much incidentally in SEP21?
Did we tell the truth about the qualifications of the personnel on duty those horrible days in the summer of 2017 on the MCCAIN and FITZGERALD?
Do we have a culture of honor and truth when we have to publish and teach from a half-decade old publication that is about a “lying to ourselves?”
What is the system of incentives and disincentives that creates such a culture … if one exists … or is to ask the question, to answer it?
