The Profession of Arms

As Defined, Dissected and Debunked

Along with any healthy debate comes, the original textbook definition of the subject being discussed. Since this is a report and not an oral debate, I have the privilege of expressing my opinions without the consequence of being challenged by an adversary. We will get to my perception of “The Profession of Arms” shortly. For now, let’s get the official, Uncle Sam approved, campaign winning definition out of the way.
The complete definition of the profession of arms provides all members of the Armed Forces with a common understanding of what it means to be a military professional. Understanding the nature of military professionalism, its relation to the military ethos and …show more content…

First, and most important in my eyes, is the actual word in the title. When I see the word “profession”, I relate it to the word “career.” When I think of the word “career,” I associate it with a full term of honorable service, consisting of twenty or more years of my life putting the needs and protection of our nation’s freedom and democracy first. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, why is it then that Congress is toying with our current retirement plan? Their feeble attempt to cut spending by prorating military service member’s retirement pay by completed years of service also cuts the drive or determination to give twenty plus years of work to the military. This has the potential to have service members only serve until a better offer comes along. Since we are on the topic of pay, why is it that the last two fiscal years have netted the lowest pay raise percentages since President Carter years? To me, it seems as though there is a contradiction between bloviating to service members how important they are but not compensating this importance with adequate pay. There is even talk about cutting the current Tuition Allowance (TA) up to 90 percent!
Being the well trained NCO that I am, I’m not going to just gripe about the problems I see with The Profession of Arms concept. I do have a few suggestions that will hopefully improve upon program. First, stop taking away from our pay. Cutting costs can be easily achieved with less reliance