Profession of Arms

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The Army has been in existence since 1775 when Congress authorized the creation of 10 rifle companies (Army Birthdays 2011). The standing federal Army was created in 1803 followed by a series of reforms to the Army professional education system (Dempsy 2014). I will argue that the Army is a Profession of Arms by showing a system of continued learning, training, and growth; the code of ethics held by the Army; and the level of autonomy afforded Army leaders and their Soldiers.
Oxford defines a profession as "a paid occupation that involves prolonged training and a formal qualification” (Oxford Dictionaries 2014). Soldiers who join the Army undergo an admittedly short initial training program compared to other professions. A doctor or lawyer will undergo many years of training prior to being awarded the title of professional whereas a Soldier attends Basic Combat Training and AIT for a couple of months before he enters the operational force. I will concede that this Soldier, upon entering the operational force, is not a professional yet. It will take more time and training before he becomes a professional. With this training, Soldiers become "experts certified in the ethical application of land combat power" (Dempsy 2014). ADRP 7-0 states that Soldiers continue training and learning until the day they retire or separate (Army, Training Units and Developing Leaders 2012). This culture of continued training and education makes the Army a profession just as other professionals such as accountants stay current, so does the Army (Perks 1993).
A profession must have the trust of the people it serves. This is gained through the use of an Ethic that is generated and policed by the profession itself. The Center for Army Profes...

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...my Birthdays. October 7, 2011. http://www.history.army.mil/html/faq/branches.html (accessed March 17 , 2014).
2. Army, U.S. Department of the. "The Army Profession." ADRP 1. Washington D.C.: U.S. Department of the Army, June 2013.
3. —. "Training Units and Developing Leaders." APD 6-22. Washington D.C.: U.S. Department of the Army, August 2012.
4. Defense, U.S. Department of. "Joint Ethics Regulation." DoD 5500.7-R. Washington D.C.: U.S. Department of Defense, August 1993.
5. Dempsy, Martin E. "The Profession of Arms." Army White Paper, 2014: 1-24.
6. Lewis, Bronwen, and Charles K Warriner. "The Job-Profession Continuum." The Kansas Journal of Sociology, 1971: 34-44.
7. Oxford Dictionaries. 2014. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/profession (accessed March 16, 2014).
8. Perks, R. W. Accounting and Society. London: Chapman & Hall, 1993.

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