Punishment and Discipline

I thought our job as instructors, our ultimate duty, is to create combat ready leaders. Apparently it isn’t anymore. It’s to hold up the dignity of our students. An article in the Baltimore Sun on July 28 described some of the new disciplinary actions being taken at the Naval Academy for plebes who make mistakes. These actions included writing essays and sending plebes to find information, apparently with no real negative consequences for missing the mark. This isn’t discipline, and it’s not good for the Navy.

First, there is a difference between discipline and punishment. Discipline works, punishment doesn’t. Discipline is related to a deficiency of some sort, and is designed to correct that deficiency. The action taken can be related to the problem, but doesn’t necessarily have to be as long as the problem is corrected through proper training afterward. This latter part is the idea behind push-ups or other exercise as discipline. I don’t know how many times when I was in boot camp that my Company Commander asked us if we knew why we were being disciplined. Sometimes we knew, sometimes we didn’t. If we didn’t, it was explained to us in no uncertain terms, but it was always explained. The idea was to keep us from making the same mistake again. Believe me, we didn’t. Then again, there were plenty of other mistakes to be made.

On the other hand, punishment is about retribution. It is no more than one person irresponsibly exercising authority over another, with no thought toward correcting the real problem. Of course, the problem won’t be solved, and more punishment will be needed. This is the image that most people have of military discipline, and it’s completely wrong in most cases.

The specific idea, besides the overall goal of creating combat leaders, is to tear down so that we can build up. We want our new inductees, whether they are enlisted men and women at boot camp (where they still use physical discipline as an instructional tool) or officer candidates at the Academy, to think like military members. I’m not talking about robots who complete only the tasks that they are assigned, who require constant micromanaging by their superiors. I mean people who can use their brains, but in an orderly manner, use their imagination and ingenuity to solve problems when presented and who can follow orders blindly when that’s needed. It’s truly a fine balance, but it’s the latter requirement that is actually more difficult to cultivate, especially in today’s permissive American culture. The new atmosphere at the Academy is going to make it nearly impossible in the long run.

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