Core Values of the United States Air Force
· Integrity First
· Service Before Self
· Excellence in All We Do
Core Values of the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps
· Honor
· Courage
· Commitment
Core Values of the United States Army
· Loyalty
· Duty
· Respect
· Selfless Service
· Honor
· Integrity
· Personal Courage
As you are no doubt already aware (and as listed above), each of the military Services has its own set of core values. According to the respective Service websites, these are “bedrock principles” that “are what you live by and learn to cherish”. They serve as the “the values that define a Marine”, “the common bond among all comrades in arms” and which “(we should live) every day in everything they do – whether they’re on the job or off.” Not surprisingly, these core values apply to everyone in the organization, whether uniformed military or civilian. Also not surprisingly, many of these values extend across Service lines. Shared themes, shared expectations, shared understanding, shared foundations. Integrity, service, honor, excellence, courage, commitment, loyalty, duty, respect.
As life cycle logisticians I personally believe it is vitally important that we each not only understand and embrace these core values, but that we make them foundational underpinnings of our daily activities, partciularly as we strive to meet the product support requirements of our Warfighter customers. What do you think? Do you agree?
Encourage you to take a moment and consider your own personal core values. Do these Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force core values reflect your own personal values? As life cycle logisticians, are there others you personally think we should also embrace? How about things like stewardship/wise use of government resources? Leadership? Technical excellence? No right answer, of course….'food for thought' as we consider our own contributions to our customers, colleagues, organizations, and our nation.