I am writing this essay on the importance of following order because I recently disobeyed a few General orders. Our commanders put out orders and make them very clear to us for multiple reasons. One of the main reasons is that these orders are there to protect us as Soldiers and not only our images but the images of our fellow Soldiers and the Army itself. The Army and our commanding officers have our best interests at hand and they put in place the orders they do for that particular reason. As junior enlisted Soldiers we follow orders on a daily basis from our NCO’s in command of us so in this sense following orders is a part of our daily lives and jobs.
We are reminded every day of our unit standard operating procedures, lawful orders, and standards. They are posted in our troop AO for all of us to clearly see and in our Mortar Section, we have a policy book containing every order as well. Not only do we have them there, but at the end of every work week our Squadron Commander gives us a safety brief. In every brief he gives, he clearly states all of the orders that we are to follow. The commander gives us this brief every week to make sure that we all clearly understand and acknowledge that we do understand. These orders are nothing new to any of us and we are all well aware of them, but due to the effects of alcohol and a few bad decisions, I broke some of these lawful orders.
One of the General Orders I broke was to not fraternize or socialize with NCO’s. It is important not to do this because it has many negative effects. We should not be socializing with our non-commissioned officers because it could cause trouble in the work place. For instance befriending an NCO could cause favoritism in the platoon and therefor a soldier would not pull his weight to say in the platoon during a work day. It also presents a bad image upon all parties involved. Most NCO’s are significantly older than the junior enlisted soldiers