The Army’s Discourse Problem

Kareem P. Montague 

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Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Picture it—the commander and staff are assembled in the conference room. At some point during the meeting, the commander expresses an idea to the group of twenty-odd staff and noncommissioned officers. It’s not a particularly good idea, but it isn’t exactly terrible either. Think of all the times you’ve been in this exact situation. What happens next? In my experience two things normally happen. First, there is an awkwardly long silence before anyone says anything. Then, when someone finally speaks up, the comments often begin with something to the effect of “Sir, you’re exactly right” or “Ma’am, that’s a great idea,” which is then followed by further glowingly supportive remarks. Be honest: How often have you seen this before?

The level of the command doesn’t matter—it could be battalion, brigade, division—nor does the relative experience of the rest of the participants. There is something about the culture of the US Army that elicits this sort of interaction too often. I think back to when I was a young officer, and this exact scenario played out during a discussion of the relatively mundane subject of the party favor at the upcoming unit ball. We decided on a beer glass as a table gift for everyone who attended. The commander assessed that at least two thirds of the unit would attend and at least half of them would bring dates. Both of those assumptions were shockingly inaccurate, and if there were people in the meeting who thought they might be, they didn’t voice that opinion. The unit ended up buying twice as many glasses as we needed, offering the leftovers for sale at the staff duty desk for the next three years. I think four of them were sold before the boxes were moved into a storage closet. They might still be there.

The Deference Pause and Well-Meaning Sycophancy

Let’s address both initial responses. But to do that, we must talk about the elephant in the room. The Army is a rigidly hierarchical organization. The reason is simple: a foundational truth about combat is that there will come a time when a superior gives an order to a subordinate that will put that individual in harm’s way. Self-preservation is fundamental to human nature, so countering this potent survival urge and replacing it with compliance without question requires conditioning and training. This starts at initial entry training for all soldiers and continues in their units. We are taught to recognize the importance of rank and the necessities of obedience.