One of the values the United States Army most seeks in its soldiers is accountability. Accountability means that you can be relied upon to arrive to work and appointments on time, meet deadlines, be in the right place when the Army needs you to be, and do what needs to be done to get your job done. The most important formation of a soldier’s day is morning formation. The Army uses morning formation to account for everyone and announce any information that soldiers need to know. If not everyone is accountable for morning formation, the Army will not know where everyone is and will not be able to ensure that everyone knows what he or she needs to know to do his or her job.
I am currently pending U.S.M.J. action for a violation of Article 15. I showed up late to morning formation and did not call in, thereby failing to fulfill my duties as a soldier and showing myself to be unaccountable. I now realized how important it is to show up on time and be accountable. Formation is not the only thing for which I must be accountable. I must take account of all of my weapons and sensitive items to ensure that they operate properly and that no one is hurt by them.
A spontaneous action can create huge amounts of confusion and drama, especially when one is the field of deployment. Therefore, it is important be to be accountable beforehand so that one is prepared for anything and can react appropriately. Without accountability, chaos would result.
To show accountability, one should always be responsible, reliable, and complete whatever actions one promised others to do. Reliability is an essential characteristic for a soldier. Someone who is not reliable will not be trusted by his or her fellow soldiers, who will have to turn to others for support and for rewards. An unreliable person will never be promoted. Reliability also has intrinsic value from the knowledge that one is trusted by others.
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