Enhancing Warrior Ethos in Initial Entry Soldiers

Warrior Ethos is an important concept particularly for the Armed Forces. Senior leaders within the Armed Forces are seeking ways to inculcate the Warrior Ethos into each soldier, sailor, marine and airman. The Warrior Ethos SBIR project is targeted to initial entry soldiers but does have applicability across all Armed Forces. As the Objective Force exploits advances in information technology, the battlefield will grow more dispersed and the attributes of Warrior Ethos will become even more important for leaders and soldiers. General Richard B. Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, defines the baseline attributes of Warrior Ethos as cohesion, commitment, self sacrifice, courage and leadership (Myers, 2002). As research provides a better understanding of these attributes, it will become possible to examine the feasibility of developing programs to train and sustain Warrior Ethos by providing an environment in which to foster its development.] Our Phase I objectives are as described: Objective 1: Review and analysis of warrior ethos. Perform a literature review and discussions with soldiers. Perform analysis of several types of soldiers including combat arms, combat support and combat service support across several type units. Objective 2: Identify training techniques, systems, vignettes and metrics. Explore available training techniques and systems including simulations and distance training to determine if and how warrior ethos attributes can be imparted on soldiers through self-study and pre-commission. Develop training vignettes that are exemplars of the attributes of warrior ethos to use in various training programs tailored to the target audiences of soldiers in initial entry training, soldiers in units, non-commissioned officers and officers. Propose metrics by which progress can be measured. Objective 3: Feasible plan for development of product in Phase II. A plan will be produced for development of a warrior ethos training package which is technically feasible and commercially viable. Objective 4 (option): Concept Demonstration. The concept demonstration will show the art of the possible in a way that is as tangible and operationally relevant as possible. It will increase the quality of our collaboration and increase confidence about our Phase II plan.