The NCO Creed v2.0

[goon175]

Ever since I first read the NCO Creed, I thought it had a good message but was poorly written and redundant in some areas. It also is not easy to recite; the Army is obsessed with memorization and recitation so the material should be conducive to those activities. As an exercise, I re-wrote the NCO Creed as a simplified and what I believe more effective version, which I title 'The NCO Standard". This would obviously never be adopted, but I figured it would make for possible good discussion here:

The NCO Standard

1. I am a professional warrior and a leader of soldiers.

2. I will conduct myself so as to bring credit to the military and my country, regardless of the situation.

3. I set the standard with my physical fitness and my weapon, as well as my assigned duties.

4. I will not use my position to obtain pleasure, profit, or personal safety.

5. I will always put the welfare of my soldiers before myself.

6. I am competent; technically and tactically proficient in all that I do.

7. I accomplish all assigned missions on time and to standard.

8. I will never stop improving my self and those around me.

9. I provide outstanding leadership at all times.

10. I communicate consistently with my Soldiers and will never leave them uninformed.

11. I will be fair and impartial when recommending both rewards and punishment.

12. I will make sure my soldiers are trained and prepared for war at all times.

13. I will earn the respect, confidence, and loyalty of subordinates, peers, and superiors in all that I do.

14. I will take appropriate action in the absence of orders.

15.I will not compromise the Army Values.

Thoughts?

 

[racing_kitty]

It does sum things up rather neatly, while leaving out none of what I consider the cogent points of the original Creed. The lack of verbosity serves it well. It doesn't feel truncated.

Sadly, for as many times as the Soldier's Creed has been rewritten just in the years that I was in (I memorized three different versions between Feb 2001 and 2011, when I ETS'd), the NCO Creed is enshrined in tradition. It's not going anywhere. As far as a recitation of Creed 2.0 goes, while it covers everything that the original does, the "I will..." will become a litany, and even the pagans/Wiccans will feel just a tad bit Catholic after getting halfway through. Sentence structure would need to be rearranged, not necessarily with half a dictionary added, to make it flow a little bit better.

Also, there's not really a lot of room for jokes and satire with 2.0. Full disclosure: I did serve with the kid who wrote the Specialist's Creed ("No one gets away with more than I. I am a non-Noncommisioned Officer, a beast of burden...") in a concerted effort to get kicked out of a promotion board that he didn't want to sit for.

 

[reed11b]

But....But....But....That DOESN'T SPELL NCO!
Reed

 

[goon175]

But....But....But....That DOESN'T SPELL NCO!
Reed

hahaha yeah… it's kind of sad that would be a legitimate complaint by some...