Accountability

Accountability is very important not just in the military but in any type of work environment. To completely understand this concept first you need to know exactly what accountability means. Accountability is the act of taking responsibility for that which falls under your domain or simply doing what you say you’re going to do. Accountability is the foundation of integrity one of the seven army values that military personnel need to have. Having consistent honesty and responsibility in your actions shows your value of integrity. In the military, it is absolutely imperative that you do what you say you’re going to do and that you agree to be held accountable for those orders that are directed specifically to you or those in your command. A breakdown in leadership and responsibility can be bad anywhere, but it has the potential to be downright catastrophic in the military.

Militaries throughout history have never been made to work as a group of individuals. The brilliance and efficiency of a military is that it takes thousands of individuals and forms them into a machine. To call it a team would be to severely short-change what it is that the military achieves. Basic training in the United States is geared toward breaking through an individual’s sense of self and replacing it with a sense of being a part of a unit. Militaries have been designed as a massive machine. This means that every single person within that machine must be accountable for his or her actions or the entire unit may break down. None of it would be possible without accountability.

There is a well-defined and rigid hierarchical structure within the military, which is often referred to as the chain of command. An easy way to picture the chain of command is to think about a ladder, you can only get up or down by going to the very next rung. Never jump the chain of command. This chain of command wouldn’t work if you couldn’t rely on each person in the structure to be entirely accountable. Someone...