The Importance of Informing your Chain of Command

It is important to inform you chain of command immediately of any issues that may affect your person and your whereabouts. The chain of command has important information to get out sometimes and they must know where and what situation you are in at all times. The chain of command will more than likely be able to help you out with your situation, if you need them. This is why it is important to get to know your squad and chain of command as well. One day you will fight with them overseas and need to know that you can trust your brothers. The clarity of your situation is important and without trust nothing is clear. In a sense your chain of command is like your parents. They both have to have accountability of every soldier or child. No matter what your situation is, help is there for you at all times. These are people that have true concern for you. As mentioned previously, one day we will be sent overseas, called in for another mission, drug tested, or for simple accountability. This is why it is imperative to inform your chain of command immediately of any changes in daily routine of life.

The United States Army is a well oiled machine and when even one soldier is not accounted for the machine starts to break down. A command process refers to an information process. Your physical whereabouts or location is an important component in that process. A major principle of military success is a well operating communication network. The general idea is that all of the points or people in the network are links as in a chain, and for the stability or integrity of the chain to hold up there must be no broken or missing links. Failure to let your chain of command know your whereabouts causes a break or blockage in its communication network and this is a problem not an asset. Military operations have enough problems already and are designed to plan , organize and act to solve problems, not cause them. There are many lessons for history, not just military history that show the adverse effects of poor communication or no communication at all.

Some people have been injured or even killed on construction sites and many other jobs due to lack of communication. In a military battle when a unit cannot be located and therefore cannot be commanded it is a lost resource and therefore may not only be at a disadvantage but may cause a loss of many lives on the battlefield. I am a Soldier of the United States Army twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. It is a major principle and duty of every soldier to keep his unit informed of contact and location details. Withholding such information is in effect being AWOL. I have evaluated the causes of my past incidences with my squad and have developed a plan to eliminate any future problems that may arise, to the best of my ability. Though I cannot control everything life throws at me and cannot eradicate all of life’s problems, I will respond as expected to from now on should such a problem arise.