idiggory wrote:
I don't want to reignite this argument (and I ignored alma anyway), so I'm not going to address that post. But I have a question:
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Now please stop hating on Chaplin's, their not really soldiers their priests / preachers / clerics / druids. They can do all the rights and ceremonies of their respective faith's and are recognized as full fledged clergy by their religions.
Isn't this misleading? I mean, yeah, chaplains don't necessarily fight the wars, but is it right to say they aren't soldiers? I know they don't go through basic training, but they do go through field training, right?
To be fair, I'm finding three, loose definitions of "soldier." But one group covered by all of those definitions are those non-officers who are members of the military. If we are going to accept that officers aren't soldiers (which seems seriously odd to me), then sure, they aren't soldiers. But in the more realistic definitions, that being "anyone who is a member of the military" seems appropriate. To me at least.
Also, if they are sent into the field, do they just not carry firearms with them? Do they have to go through firearms training?
"Soldier" is anyone serving in the US Army, this includes Enlisted (E1-E9), Commissioned Officer (O1-O10) and Warrant Officer (WO1-CW5). Other service branch's have their own terms, Airman, Sailor/Seaman, Marine respectively. As a former Soldier I tend to use the term "Soldier" to refer to anyone serving in the Armed Services, but that's just by habit. Chaplains are soldiers insomuch as they are Officers commissioned by the President of the United States, but their special status as religious figures affords them special rules, namely anything having to do with their religion. All Soldiers are required to adhere to AR 670-1, the Wear and Appearance of the Army Uniform, this is the regulation that states exactly how your uniform will look, what you can wear on it and exactly how each device will be placed. Chaplains are allowed to bend 670-1 to accommodate their religion. They can wear non-authorized religious devices on their uniform. Muslim Chaplains can wear their headdress for example, and there is currently discussion about Muslim Clerics being allowed to maintain their beards / facial hair (both prohibited in 670-1). All soldiers are required to qualify with their assigned weapon, this qualification is good for only six months at a time, deployment / extended field training / medical profile is the only excuse to not have this up to date. For most officers this is the M9 9mm handgun, for most enlisted this is the M16 riffle. Also members of a squad can be assigned alternate primary weapons, including the M249, M240B, M203, and M2 (50 cal). As a squad leader and later a platoon sergeant I was required to qualify on each weapons platform that was assigned to the soldiers under me.
Chaplain's don't have to qualify on nor do they have a personally assigned weapon. If they want they can go out to the range on range day and qualify, but that is purely at their discretion. Many religions preach peace and not to harm others, and thus many Chaplain's can not in good faith be expected to kill an enemy combatant. And ultimately EVERY soldier is expected to defend their positions and kill any enemy attempting to take that position.
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I mean, anyone who is a member of the military is subject to the chain of command. There are quirks with the definition, I suppose, like with the secretaries of generals (assuming they aren't given military training for the role). But seems more appropriate than the others.
All members of the Armed Forces are subject to the orders of the President of the United States and those officers appointed by him. So yes every service member is subject to the "chain of command", but there are some quirks. Namely not every officer is a commander, all must pull staff time, and as staff officers they have general military authority but not command authority. It gets into legal territory and I'm not a military lawyer, but there is a difference. A commander not only has the authority of command they also have the responsibility of command, authority can be delegated but responsibility never can. Should anything "bad" happen in a unit, the commander holds ultimate responsibility and will be the one blamed by the officer corps. There is also a second form of officer known as the Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO). This is an enlisted member of the rank of Corporal or higher. NCO's have general military authority, they can give orders to subordinated and those subordinated are bound to follow them, provided they are lawful orders. NCO's tend to be the enforcers of the policy's, regulations and standards. Then you have a special kind of Officer known as a Warrant Officer. WO1's are commissioned by the secretary of the Army not by the president and thus can not old command authority. Their usually enlisted who ascended to the warrant ranks, although civilians are also allowed to apply. Warrant's are technicians, they are expected to know everything in their field and are used as section chiefs, or advisers to the commander. Upon being promoted to Chief Warrant Officer 2 (CW2) they are recommissioned by the President and thus can hold command authority, although they rarely do. To accommodate the chain of command the NCO support channel is also created. The NCO support channel is the line of authority from the Branch Command Sergent Major, to the Squad Leader, its often used as a back door to get things done. If a soldier is having a problem, a Squad Leader can go speak to the First Sergent or Command Sergent Major about resolving that problem through non-command channels. Nearly everything in the US Army is done through the NCO support channel.
"Secretaries" of generals are officers themselves. Their known as Aide De Camp, or just "Aides", their usually personal officers. They take care of the scheduling and paperwork processing of their assigned general officer, they may or may not PCS when their GO PCS's, it all depends. Most Aide's I've seen are junior officers of the ranks O1 through O3, although I've known as few O4/O5 to be Aides to four stars. There is nothing special about an Aide, they don't speak for the GO, their just staff officers.
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In any case, I'm not seeing any official definition of soldier that demands you serve in a combat capacity.
I'll post the oath all service members must take upon enlisting, there is a similiar oath the Officers take upon accepting their commission.
http://usmilitary.about.com/od/joiningthemilitary/a/oathofenlist.htm Quote:
I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.
That whole part part supporting and defending, that means you might need to shoot someone tying to kill you or your fellow service members. All soldiers are expected to fight for and give their life for their country. Although we prefer to first give the enemy the chance to die for theirs. This non-negotiable, you can't be a
Conscientious objector or a pacifist and be in the US Military. Their are two exceptions, one is for medical doctors, as their doctor's oath required them to save lives, the other is for Chaplains as their religious oaths may prevent them from killing.
I don't want to sound like a broken record, but this is the reason non-military types should be careful when tossing around opinions of the Military. There are so many things you guys don't know that it turns your uninformed words into insults. It takes years of service to learn all these things, it can't be learned playing CoD or reading a bunch of news articles on the internet.