The past decade has posed formidable challenges to the professional military ethos, challenges that are likely to continue for years to come. ADM Mike Mullen, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said that these challenges require introspection and reflection on the part of the profession as a whole and by its individual members. He further believes that these issues should be given more, and more thoughtful, consideration across the spectrum of military education and training.
In his first letter to the Joint Force, on 1 October 2011, GEN Martin E. Dempsey, the 18th CJCS, identified as one of his four key themes: “We must renew our commitment to the Profession ofArms. We're not a profession simply because we say we're a profession. We must continue to learn, to understand, and to promote the knowledge, skills, attributes, and behaviors that define us as a profession.”
The first major event for the project was a
conference held on 10 January 2011. INSEL is committed to producing
resources on military professionalism and the profession of arms that can be used across the spectrum of military education and training, especially in Joint Professional Military Education (JPME).
As reported in an
article in the
Lawton Constitution, General Richard B. Myers, the Colin Powell Chair of Leadership, Ethics, and Character at INSEL, "focused on the military's professional ethos when he addressed a crowd of 900 Fort Sill soldiers and Marines as part of the Gen. Tommy Franks Leadership Lecture Series."
The Hon. Ike Skelton recently wrote about reducing the widening gap between the professional military and civilians in
Joint Force Quarterly.
