American Mercenary is over at his house discussing the "art of war". Its worth a read and you can check it out here. Something he said however irked me a bit. Check this out...
At the boots on the ground level, the Army is very much a vocation. Privates, Sergeants, through Captains are vocational workers. Sometimes at the doctrinal level you'll find Captains who are doctrine writers, so that is the "transition rank" where you expect to see Officers start to work as "theoretical professionals" and not "vocational workers."Hmm.
To illustrate this point, in the medical field you have obvious vocational workers such as nurses aides, biomedical technicians, lab workers, and dental assistants. You also have obvious professional workers such as R.N.s, P.A., D.O., and M.D.s who have a much higher educational requirement, professional review boards, and all the other trappings of a "profession" instead of a "vocation."
I AM POSITIVE that AM did not mean to denigrate the service of those that are serving there country. But to list their work as a vocation and not a profession rubs me the wrong way.
What follows are the characteristics of a profession by Bob Kizlik via Adprima.com
I. Professions are occupationally related social institutions established and maintained as a means of providing essential services to the individual and the society.A LCpl in the Marine Corps has met all the hallmarks of a professional. The same applies to all the services. Standards must be met, hopefully exceeded and if they are not then those individuals are expelled from the profession. Different from civilian professions, personal conduct is also factored into the equation and even seemingly minor infractions like Marijuana use can result in being expelled.
2. Each profession is concerned with an identified area of need or function (for example, maintenance of physical and emotional health, preservation of rights and freedom, enhancing the opportunity to learn).
3. The profession collectively, and the professional individually, possesses a body of knowledge and a repertoire of behaviors and skills (professional culture) needed in the practice of the profession; such knowledge, behavior, and skills normally are not possessed by the nonprofessional.
4. Members of the profession are involved in decision making in the service of the client. These decisions are made in accordance with the most valid knowledge available, against a background of principles and theories, and within the context of possible impact on other related conditions or decisions.
5. The profession is based on one or more undergirding disciplines from which it builds its own applied knowledge and skills.
6. The profession is organized into one or more professional associations, which, within broad limits of social accountability, are granted autonomy in control of the actual work of the profession and the conditions that surround it (admissions, educational standards, examination and licensing, career line, ethical and performance standards, professional discipline).
7. The profession has agreed-upon performance standards for admission to the profession and for continuance within it.
8. Preparation for and induction into the profession is provided through a protracted preparation program, usually in a professional school on a college or university campus.
9. There is a high level of public trust and confidence in the profession and in individual practitioners, based upon the profession's demonstrated capacity to provide service markedly beyond that which would otherwise be available.
10. Individual practitioners are characterized by a strong service motivation and lifetime commitment to competence.
11. Authority to practice in any individual case derives from the client or the employing organization; accountability for the competence of professional practice within the particular case is to the profession itself.
12. There is relative freedom from direct on-the-job supervision and from direct public evaluation of the individual practitioner. The professional accepts responsibility in the name of his or her profession and is accountable through his or her profession to the society.
Service in the military (especially the Marine Corps) is a profession of arms. We should not forget that.
My point was that the military service is both a profession and a vocation and that rank and responsibility level have quite a bit to do with where you fall on that spectrum. And I do not believe that vocational is any less prestigious than professional, especially since the word "professionalism" can be applied to both equally. When you need a plumber, a hydraulic engineer isn't the guy you call. A plumber is a vocation, a engineer is a professional. You need the engineer to design the civil water distribution system, but when something is flooding and it's a real emergency you call a pipehitter. You expect both engineers and plumbers to act with professionalism.
ReplyDeleteAsk yourself this, is Blackwater a vocation or a profession? If contractors can be contracted to perform services that were previously held to be in the realm of the "profession of arms" then why can it be contracted out? Why were FOBs in Iraq and Afghanistan guarded by Ugandans? Was that a vocation? Or was that a profession? If we could contract out protection, why did we not contract out offensive operations?
I think the answer lies that defense can obviously be vocational, like a security guard, but the application of combat power must be professional. But the professional part of our jobs comes not from the fire and maneuver, (a Lance Corporal in the USMC fails point 4 on your list of a profession, as does a contractor pulling security, even PSD work), but from the people who know where to apply that fire and maneuver to achieve a political endstate needed to advance national objectives. We could do fire and maneuver with mercenary forces, but there is not the trust of professionalism in their leadership or even individual conduct. That is where the professionalism of individual servicemembers comes into play, even if it is what we consider at the "vocational" level.
The Lance Corporal today is not a professional in the sense of being able to choose when and where to apply lethal firepower to advance national objectives, but is expected to maintain a standard of conduct in doing so. The Lance Corporal is on his way to becoming a professional, the way a medical student is not a doctor but instead serves as slave labor for a hospital. In the Navy, "seaman's apprentice" is a good way point out that there is a necessary learning curve for people coming in. Or a paralegal working in a law firm may know everything about everything about law and an upcoming case, but only the attorneys will get to speak in court.
In the Soldier's Manual of Common Tasks there is nothing about when and where to apply firepower, nothing about information dominance, economic warfare, non-kinetic options for conflict resolution, or anything else that comes with the experience, theory, and education. So no matter how much we tell ourselves that we are professionals down to the lowest E1, it simply isn't so as we cannot rely on E1s to plan an invasion, decide campaign priorities, or plan future procurement anticipating future threats. It isn't that a Private doesn't look professional, or act professional, but that what we are referring to a "profession" doesn't qualify.
To put it bluntly, a lot of what we ask professionals to do is read doctrine, understand it, and deviate from it applying wisdom and understanding of history, experience, and then translate that deviation into campaign plans, operations orders, and objectives that can be handed off to subordinate units to execute.
So to sum up my long winded answer, I expect everyone to behave with professionalism, but I do not expect a Private or Lance Corporal to be a "professional" in the sense of theory that we expect from Lieutenant Colonels, or even doctrine writing Captains. I expect them to execute their duties with professionalism, even if those duties are best described as vocational (driving a truck, fixing a tank, enter and clear a building).
a well written reply ... i'll chew on this one a bit and get back to you over at your house.
DeleteHair Splitting At It's Lowest.
DeleteHow many merc 'contractors' are on the ground now, relative to uniformed shooters in the ranks? Five thousand? Seven thousand? Versus two hundred? Three hundred?
How many were on the ground at the height of U.S. occupation? Fifty percent of all forces?
What's the difference between a 'contractor' and serving 'professional'?
If you can't do your 'professional' job because politics or force structure prohibit a complete mission capability as theater operational plan from even being formulated (Shinseki: "More men please." U.S. Army: No One Stood Behind Him.) then however 'professionally' you act, you are not a /professional/, you are a placeholder for those who issue the in-with-you-anyway ops orders.
Conversely, given the execrable quality of officers in our ranks (headed downhill), if a man with 15-20 years of experience gets out to Go Pro for twice the cash and at least a sense of doing something that makes sense, how much more qualified is he to plan and execute the mission which holds together a province? How much MORE likely is he to leave the FOB and do the pacification presence thing while the uniformed janitors stand around TUA?
And conversely, how much /less/ likely are they to stick around past their contract when it's clear this is a losing proposition and reupping means coming home horizontal or in plastic?
If you angels-on-pinheads really want to dither about these two terms you have already lost the argument as the understanding that says nationalism is about patriotism as the things you do because country and honor require it.
There is no 'professional training' that covers that. You feel it or you don't and if you don't, you shouldn't be serving.
sorry if you don't like the conversation but its one that has given me pause. whether or not its important is for individuals to take up but it matters to me. can i explain why? no i can't but i've always considered myself a professional regardless of rank and AM has me wondering about one of my personal touchstones.
Deletewhat do you mean by the "angels on pinhead" thing? expand on not only that phrase but also the last paragraph.