Noncommissioned officer

“ I will earn their respect, obey their orders, and establish a high degree of integrity with them. I will exercise initiative in the absence of orders and will make decisive and accurate decisions.
I will not compromise my integrity nor my moral courage. I will not forget that I am a professional, I am a leader — I am a Noncommissioned Officer. ”

“ All officers and noncommissioned officers have power to part and quell all quarrels, frays, and disorders among persons subject to military law and to order officers who take part in the same into arrest, and other persons subject to military law who take part in the same into arrest or confinement, as circumstances may require, until their proper superior officer is acquainted therewith. And whosoever, being so ordered, refuses to obey such officer or noncommissioned officer or draws a weapon upon or otherwise threatens or does violence to him shall be punished as a court-martial may direct. ”

“ In all formations and movements a noncommissioned officer commanding a platoon or company carries his piece as the men do, if he is so armed, and takes the same post as an officer in like situation. When the command is formed in line for ceremonies a noncommissioned officer commanding a company takes post on the right of the right guide after the company has been aligned. ”

“ Neither the noncommissioned officer nor the members of the stable guard will absent themselves from the immediate vicinity of the stables except in case of urgent necessity, and then for no longer time than is absolutely necessary. No member of the guard will leave for any purpose without the authority of the noncommissioned officer of the guard. ”

“ Like the officers, noncommissioned officers have broken, in their minds, all the ties which bound them to civil life; like the former, they devote themselves permanently to the service, and perhaps make it even more exclusively the object of all their desires: but noncommissioned officers are men who have not yet reached a firm and lofty post at which they may pause and breathe more freely, ere they can attain further promotion. ”

“ Men are not allowed to leave camp without a pass signed by the company commander and countersigned by the regimental adjutant. The first sergeant is sometimes allowed to give men permission to leave camp from retreat to taps.
The noncommissioned officer in charge of quarters, detailed for 24 hours goes on duty each day at reveille. He is responsible that the grounds around the company are kept in proper police; that no loud noise, disturbance, or disorder occurs in the company street; that men confined to the company street do not leave the same without proper authority. ”

“ Not only does such treatment of noncommissioned officers make them appreciate the importance, responsibility and dignity of their position, but it also gives them more confidence in themselves and raises them in the eyes of the privates. ”

“ When practicable, the noncommissioned officers should have separate rooms or tents, and should mess together at tables separate from the privates; for, everything that conduces to familiarity with inferiors tends to lower the dignity of the noncommissioned officers' position.
Throw your noncommissioned officers upon their own responsibility—throw them into deep water, so to speak, where they will either have to swim or sink. You can never tell what a man can really do until you have given him a chance to show you—until you have put him on his mettle—until you have tried him out. ”

“ Let no man be enlisted who cannot in due course of time be made a non-commissioned officer. Let there be in no case transfers from other branches of the service. Let the whole strength of the officers of the company be applied to discipline and instruct the men, so that in time of need we shall have a band of splendid non-commissioned officers, the peers of Everett and Hastings and Starr,—men who have received commissions for their gallant services in Mexico, and each of whom, had Smith and McClellan and Foster fallen, could have gloriously led on the company to its duty. ”

“ In principle it is desirable that the duties of absent Officers should be performed by the Officer next in the order of appointment in their own respective departments, but as it may not be found practicable in all cases to act upon that rule, it is still to rest with the Governor, or Lieutenant Governor for the time being, to select the Officers, of Government to whom they shall think proper to entrust the duties of the absent officers. ”

“ The company commander should not attempt to do all the work—to look after all the details in person—he should not try to command directly every squad and every platoon. The successful company commander is the one who distributes work among his subordinates and organizes the help they are supposed to give him. By War Department orders, Army Regulations and customs of the service, the lieutenants and noncommissioned officers are charged with certain duties and responsibilities. Let every one of them carry the full load of their responsibility. ”

“ If the non-commissioned officers of a regiment are permitted to express their approbation of the conduct of the Adjutant, why may they not exercise the same right with respect to their commanding officer? ”

“ The opinion having prevailed that an officer may throw up his commission and abandon the service at his discretion, the general considers it his duty to correct a delusion so pregnant with mischief to the public interest, and so subversive of every principle of subordination and discipline; it is therefore to be clearly understood that no officer, bearing a commission in the United States, has the power to resign the same, or quit the service without the president’s permission, or that of some subordinate duly authorized, and all offences against this order are to be punished with rigor. ”

“ No temporary constable shall resign from the Police Force unless he has given not less than one month’s notice in writing to the Commissioner or the commanding officer under whom he is serving, as the case may be. ”

“ But this was to be accomplished consistently with the declaration of the act 'that no officer now in the service shall be reduced in rank or deprived of his commission by reason of any provision of this act reducing the number of officers in the several staff corps.' And to this end the whole scheme of reform embodied in the legislation was made prospective. ”

“ My impression therefore is, that in a mixed company of civilians, &c., no officer is entitled to take rank higher than the civil title incorporated in his commission would imply, apart from his grade in the service to which he belongs. ”

“ The question is, indeed, one of such high interest at the present juncture that I will quote verbatim from the Army Regulations:
"When an officer commits a fault, which—without being such as to entail the loss of his commission or his being sent before a court-martial—is still serious enough to require a heavier punishment than those above described, he can be suspended (placed in non-activité) or his commission can be cancelled (ils peuvent être mis en réforme) ." ”

“ All officers belonging to regiments on foreign stations, not actually employed on the recruiting service, are to report their arrival from abroad, and the cause of their absence, at the adjutant-general’s office, and are to leave their addresses with their respective agents, and in case of their changing their places of residence, are immediately to notice the same to their agent: any officer whose address is not with his agent, will be considered as absent without leave, and guilty of disobedience of orders. ”

“ It will depend on circumstances how I shall act in re my commission in Her Majesty’s service (which I do not hold too fast to, seeing any future employment would not be accepted, even if in the very improbable case of its being offered) ; but I consider that every officer has a right to resign, and if he resigns he is no longer subject to military orders, and is free to go when and where he likes. ”

“ Whenever the Commission finds, after due notice and opportunity for explanation, that any person has been appointed to or is holding any position, whether by original appointment, promotion, assignment, transfer, or reinstatement, in violation of the Civil Service Act or Rules, or of any Executive Order or any regulation of the Commission, or that any employee subject thereto has violated such Act, Rules, orders, or regulations, it shall certify the facts to the proper appointing officer with specific instructions as to discipline or dismissal of the person or employee affected. ”

“ Our major was my compatriot, and he, seeing my grief, called me one day to him and said, “Now, Gavriloff, I will introduce you as a candidate for becoming a non-commissioned officer: have you ever been in commissions?” ”

“ Obviously, the decision of the surveyor general, approving the act of his deputy, was not a finality, since the papers were forwarded by him to the commissioner of the land office, and by him to the secretary of the interior for final approval. So long as there was a superior officer, whose approval was contemplated by law or the regulations of the department, no approval by a subordinate officer would operate as a finality. ”

“ There is, of course, no doubt of the power of Congress to create such an office as is provided for in the above section. Under the provision that the officer might be removed from office at any time for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office, we are of opinion that if the removal is sought to be made for those causes, or either of them, the officer is entitled to notice and a hearing. ”

“ A few years in the army does no man any harm, if he is steady and well-con [Pg 69] ducted; and if well educated, as you are, he is certain to get his stripes in a couple of years. The life of a non-commissioned officer is by no means an unpleasant one; and there is always a chance of getting a commission, though this is not a very bright one, as so many young fellows who, having failed to pass, enter the ranks with the hope of getting one some day. ”

“ No non-commissioned officer or soldier shall inlist himself in any other regiment, troop, or company, without a regular discharge from the regiment, troop, or company, in which he last served, on the penalty of being reputed a deserter, and suffering accordingly. And in case any officer shall knowingly receive and entertain such non-commissioned officer or soldier, or shall not, after his being discovered to be a deserter, immediately confine him, and give notice thereof to the corps in which he last served, the said officer shall by a court-martial be cashiered. ”

“ If in any case the Commissioner considers that the public interest requires that any inspector, non-commissioned officer or constable should cease to exercise the powers and functions of his office instantly, he may interdict such officer from the exercise of such powers and functions provided that disciplinary or criminal proceedings are being instituted or are about to be instituted against such officer. ”

“ In addition, when members of more than one armed force are prisoners of war or otherwise detained by a hostile entity so that circumstances prevent resort to the normal chain of command, a commissioned officer of one armed force who is not a medical officer or chaplain is 'his superior commissioned officer' with respect to a member of another armed force who is his junior in rank. ”

“ The incumbent became an officer with a view to public benefits, and when these require his removal they are not to be sacrificed to private interests. It is the people, and they alone, who have a right to complain when a bad officer is substituted for a good one. He who is removed has the same means of obtaining a living that are enjoyed by the millions who never held office. ”

“ We agree with the latter interpretation that the availability of an officer as law member was intended by Congress to be a matter within the sound discretion of the appointing authority. Ordinarily the 'availability' of military personnel who are subject to assignment by an appointing authority is understood to depend upon a discretionary determination by the superior. ”

“ The object of the argument is to make independent § 1229 of § 1342, and to give a cadet the protection expressed by the former, on the ground that a cadet is an officer, but not a commissioned officer. That a cadet is an officer is deduced from the fact that he is appointed by the President, takes an oath to obey his 'superior officers,' and receives pay. But, as we have already intimated, it is not necessary to dispute that a cadet is an officer. ”

“ The law authorizes the refusal to promote officers who are found incompetent to fill vacancies, and the promotion of their juniors in their stead; but instances occur in which no officer remaining in a regiment is fit to be promoted to the grade of colonel, and no officer remaining in a company is competent to command it as captain. Legislation providing for the selection in such cases of competent officers from other regiments of the same State affords a ready remedy for this evil, as well as for the case when officers elected are found unfit for the positions to which they may be chosen. ”

“ Some idea of the unpleasant condition of affairs is shown by another extract from the same letter.
'Officers have been put under arrest by their commandant, and courts-martial have been demanded, and which have likewise been requested by the officers in defence of their conduct, but no inquiry into the conduct of any individual above the rank of a non-commissioned officer can take place, and the consequences will be obvious to your Lordship where so little harmony prevails between the commandant and his officers. ”

“ When a person is found thus openly in the occupation of a public office, and discharging its duties, third persons having occasion to deal with him in his capacity as such officer are not required to investigate his titled, but may safely act upon the assumption that he is a rightful officer. ”