Many people do not understand the founding of Army’s leadership or why it exists. First, to know where the foundation of the Army leadership began, you need to understand what foundation means. Foundation as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary : (2) An underlying basis or principle. (3) the action of establishing an institution or an organization. Now that you understand what foundation means your ready to find out where it began. The true foundation of Army leadership was wrote in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was ratified on July 4th, 1776. Yes, the true foundation of army leadership goes all the way back to the Declaration of Independence that was signed by 56 delegates of the second continental congress. For in the Declaration of Independence it is stated that: “It is their duty to throw off such government and to provide new guards for their future security.” Followed by the the articles of confederation that came before the U.S Constitution. That allowed the nation to raise troops for the defense of the United States. This was later carried over to the U.S Constitution. That allows for the creation of army with the training and discipline as stated by congress.
There is one man that stands out in the creation of the foundations of army leadership, that is Baron Fredriche Von Stuebeun. It was him, who wrote the “Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States.” That was wrote in 1779 during the Revolutionary War. This writing would eventually become what the Army calls the blue book. Baron Von Stuebeun used his knowledge and writing to train a select group of soldiers to be the first non-commissioned officers. He used the basics of troop leading discipline that the newly trained NCO’s could use to train future soldiers. This small group of NCO’s would go on to train a whole army using these basic ideas and structure. Just to prove how well they worked you can still find these basic ideas in FM 6-22 and FM 7-22.7. Even though the army leadership ways have changed the basic fundamentals are still there and being used to this day.
The basic fundamentals of army leadership actually comes down to a couple key things , leader attributes and leader competencies. Leader attributes are Character ,Presence, and Intellect. Character is what makes up the army leaders so to break it down the army values are a big part of character. The army values almost spell out leadership by what fundamental ideas leaders possess. Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity,and Personal Courage. (LDRSHIP) Presence can be shown as confidence resiliency, and military bearing which shows how the army leadership presents themselves in a professional manner and good discipline. Intellect is the mental agility that leaders demonstrate with their knowledge and the judgment in making tough decisions. Leader competencies are also part of the foundation that makes good army leadership. Leader competencies are Leads, Develop, and Achieves. You want leaders that lead by example and communicate clearly. They will use those competencies to develop their soldiers during training and create a positive training environment. These leaders do this to achieve their goals and train the force using the basic principles of army leadership.
Without using the foundations of army leadership the Army would not be as strong or as well trained as it is now. The future will always change the way that the Army chooses to lead, and the style they lead may change, but the foundation of army leadership has not changed since the army began.
