Orders in the Army

he importance of obeying a direct order from a NCO.

Before I begin, what is an NCO? A non-commissioned officer is an enlisted member of the Army who has been given authority by a commissioned officer. NCOs are the primary military leaders responsible for executing the military organization's mission and for training military personnel so they are prepared to execute their missions. To sum it up, a NCO is a leader in the Army. NCOs deserve and demand respect from subordinates, namely junior enlisted. Junior listed are required to obey any and all direct orders from non-commissioned officers. The main reason for this is authority which is bestowed upon NCOs by commissioned officers to act in their stead. In order to respect the commands and authority of a NCO, one must understand the responsibilities inherent to their role. A noncommissioned officer’s duties are numerous and must be taken seriously.

An NCOs duty includes taking care of soldiers, which is your priority. Corporals and sergeants do this by developing a genuine concern for their soldiers’ well-being. Leaders must know and understand their soldiers well enough to train them as individuals and teams to operate proficiently. This will give them confidence in their ability to perform well under the difficult and demanding conditions of battle. Individual training is the principle duty and responsibility of NCOs. No one in the Army has more to do with training soldiers than NCOs. Well trained soldiers will likely succeed and survive on the battlefield. Well trained soldiers properly do the tasks their NCOs give them.

If you were to understand that no matter how unfair or upsetting an order or task might be, it is never acceptable to disobey a direct order, or any order or task. NCOs have only the units mission as a motivator to give such orders. I will now give two examples of direct orders from an NCO and how it affects troops.