The profession of arms calls upon the skill and sacrifice of its members in ways that no other profession will. Reflecting upon nine years of combat, the Army is exploring the strengths that have sustained Soldiers and the challenges that they are facing as a profession. The Army has also made a commitment to education, efforts to sustain the bond of trust between the Army and the American public, and the impact of decentralized operations. What it means to be a profession and the unique challenges that the Army faces? I feel you’re not a profession because you say you are. Profession is society’s way of organizing expert work, the kind of work it takes years to learn. Professionals act and practice their knowledge, which is expert knowledge. The professionals’ work is absolutely critical to the survival of the society, going back to the gravity of a Soldier’s expert knowledge. True professionals are servants. They lead a life of servitude for the satisfaction of a job well-done. I feel that the tension in the Army between an occupation-based culture and a profession-based culture. The campaign is seeking to leverage the successes of the Army to maintain it as a profession and avoid becoming an occupation-based culture. I have never seen the Army so focused and as resilient as I see now. What is it about the profession that has helped achieve results in Iraq and increasingly in Afghanistan. In my opinion I recommended that Soldiers recommit themselves to the culture of service, the topic of profession of arms would influence how they would feel about this discussion. We must keep the past, present and future in mind and be certain to rediscover the profession of arms and how it interacts with other professions. In the Army profession, these are necessary to the accomplishment of the mission. The responsibilities of Soldiers had changed over the years and what that means for the Army profession and ethic. Soldiers are solving complex problems with creative and agile solution. A specialist is now doing the kind of work a sergeant may have done, and a lieutenant is doing what a captain used to do. The importance of personal values are shaping an individual Soldier’s moral standards and conduct. We approach our targets with our moral compass every day and we saw so many positive of junior enlisted Soldiers. We have to think about how we can capitalize from our moral and value base … Every time I come back from a deployment, I feel like we’re starting over. We need to build from this base and I think that’s what we need to learn. We need to take all of these adaptations and evolve and be more decisive. Here is a scenario that can give you a better idea of what I’m trying to explain. A grenade was thrown in the direction of a Soldier and when the Soldier had found the source, he decided not to fire because there were too many children around. The grenade was thrown by a young boy, about 9 years old. He found the child’s parents, their tribe and their village are forever grateful because this Soldier knew right from wrong, and it’s hard to train Soldiers to do that. Along with maintaining training standards, the Army needs to close the gap between operations in the field and operations and life at home to include discipline concerns among Soldiers. We are one of most razor-sharp Army’s that has ever been produced, and the challenge is to keep it that way. We have to make sure that we do not dull and there are challenges that we need to address or we risk losing that sharpness; higher suicide rates, higher sexual assault incidents, higher drug and alcohol abuse. All of these issues can be traced back to the high operational tempo of the last nine years and we have to overcome these issues with research, education and resources. Leadership and mentoring is key, we have to keep in mind that we have a combat-seasoned force, but as a profession, we have to coach and mentor and affect at the lowest levels. This has to be translated down to us the NCO’s, sergeant and staff sergeant; the most junior leaders. I am a professional and I will do everything in my power to instill the same upon my Soldiers.