10 MANUAL FOR NONCOMMISSIONED OFFICERS. 



Obedience is tlie first and iast duty of a soldier. It is the 

 foundation upon wliich all military etiiciency is built. Without 

 il an army becomes a mob, while with it a mob ceases to be a 

 mob and becomes possessed of much of the power of an organ- 

 ized force. It is a quality that is demanded of every person in 

 the Army from the highest to the lowest. Each enlisted man 

 binds himself, by his enlistment oath, to obedience. Each 

 officer, in accepting his commission, must take upon himself the 

 same solemn obligation. 



Obey strictly and execute promptly the lawful orders of your 

 superiors. It is enough to know that the person giving the 

 order, whether he be an officer, a noncommissioned officer, or a 

 private acting as such, is your lawful superior. You may not 

 like him, yen may not respect him, but you must respect his 

 position and authority, and reflect honor and credit upon your- 

 self and your profession by yielding to all superiors that com- 

 plete and unhesitating obedience which is the pleasure as well 

 as the duty of every true soldier. 



Orders must be strictly carried out. It is not sufficient to 

 comply with only that part which suits you or which involves 

 no work or danger or hardship. Nor is it proper or permissible, 

 when you are ordered to do a thing in a certain way or to 

 accomplish a work in a definitely prescribed manner, for you 

 to obtain the same results by other methods. 



Obedience must be prompt and unquestioning. When any 

 soldier (and this word includes officers as well as enlisted men) 

 receives an order, it is not for him to consider whether the 

 order is a good one or not, Miiether it would have been better 

 had such an order never been given, or whether the duty might 

 be better performed by some one else, or at some other time, or 

 in some other manner. His duty is, first, to understand just 

 what the order requires, and. second, to proceed at once to carry 

 out the order to the best of his ability. 



"Officers and men of all ranks and grades are given a certain 

 independence in the execution of the tasks to which they are 

 assigned and are expected to show initiative in meeting the 

 different situations as they arise. Every individual, from the 

 highest commander to the lowest private, must always remem- 

 ber that inaction and neglect of opportunities will warrant more 

 severe censure than an error in the choice of the means." 

 {Preface, Field Service Regulations.) 



