Military suicide prevention leaders frustrated

Military Core Values: They Don't Exist
Huffington Post
Rabbi Arnold E. Resnicoff
Former Special Assistant for Values and Vision to the Secretary and Chief-of-Staff of the U.S. Air Force
Posted: 02/03/2014

At a military DUI-prevention lecture, the speaker announced that if we wanted to commit suicide, that was our right -- but we shouldn't do it by driving drunk, where we could kill others.

Those of us involved in suicide prevention programs were frustrated by the instructor's blinders, even angry -- but not surprised.

Military initiatives aimed at preventing a host of problems -- DUIs, suicide, sexual assault, substance abuse, ethics violations, and religious insensitivity, to name a few -- make up a patchwork quilt, with no coherent strategy to ensure programs reinforce each other.

Secretary of Defense Hagel responded to recent revelations of misconduct among senior leaders by ordering a review of "how the military teaches core values and ethical leadership" -- but the truth is that "the military" (the military as a whole) has no core values.

Instead there are three separate programs for service-specific values: different lists for Departments of the Army, Navy, and Air Force -- and outside DOD, another for the Coast Guard -- as if military personnel should live by different values depending on their uniform... and despite the fact that joint operations are more the rule than the exception.
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