Ethics and the Army Officer: An Assessment and Recommendations for the Future.

Abstract : For the last fifteen years the Army officer corps has been criticized extensively for deficiencies in its ethical conduct and conscience. The indictment charges that the corps has progressively degenerated in its ethical deportment to the point where national security is being jeopardized, and critics are calling for a total catharsis. This article examines these charges and proposes several recommendations for improvement. Data used in the preparation of this essay were gathered from relevent literature, personal interviews, and the author's experiences and observations. After a brief introduction showing the role of Army officers in national and world affairs, this presentation supports the need for Army officers' maintaining high ethical deportment. The essay also concludes that aspersions against Army officers for their lack of ethics are inflated and are magnified by the media and other critics. Nor does the Army's ethical conduct jeopardize readiness. The article then concludes by recommending that education, communications, and other institutional utensils be employed to improve and sustain high ethical conduct on the part of the Army officers. (Author)