Going the Distance

 There are many I see going the distance as Soldiers in their careers, training, and professional life. However, many of these are not going the distance in their personal lives. The Soldier’s creed speaks about what it means to be an American Soldier.

“I am a Warrior and a member of a team. I serve the people of the United States and live the Army Values. I will always place the mission first. I will never accept defeat. I will never quit. I will never leave a fallen comrade. I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient in my warrior tasks and drills. I always maintain my arms, my equipment and myself. I am an expert and I am a professional. I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy the enemies of the United States of America in close combat. I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life. I am an American Soldier.”

The one line that is missing in this creed is I will always be faithful to my God, family, country, and command. This statement should replace “I serve the people of the United States.” The reason I say this, is that when a service member is successful in their spiritual and home life they will be successful in their professional life. The new statement also put into perspective that spiritual and family life should always be considered first before making any decisions. We have many Soldiers who hold up the needs of the Army to their spouse’s as an excuse to get out of being a valuable participate of the family. They use the command as an excuse to not be at home when they could. I believe that this is the responsibility of the leadership to set the president to the Jr. leaders that family being a spiritual leader in their family should always come first in your life. You ask any successful leader if they are successful in their career because they blew off a family milestone to support the Army and I will show you a leader that has not applied the whole creed to their leadership style.

As leaders it is our job to show Joe how to go the distance on the battle field and in marriage. When we allow Joe to give up on marriage because it does not fit his plan any longer; then we have allowed Joe to not place the real mission first, and to accept defeat, to quit, and to create emotional collateral damage and wounded children on the battle field of life. I know that there are reasons that marriages will end, but I am tired of seeing marriages end because we did not set our priorities correctly in the beginning. Going the distance in life means going the distance in our marriage (till death do us part) then we can say, we are going the distance in our professional careers, spiritual journey, and physical discipline in order to make it possible to go the distance on the real battlefield of life.