The "New Army", bad or good?

A popular topic on here to be sure, to awnser your questions in my opinion;

Are the changes over the past few years hurting or helping our Army?

Depends, overall i don't feel that the Army is really lacking when it comes to fighting and winning the nations wars. Sure, disclipline has waned in recent years but you have to try and understand why. Most of us "young" guys came into service when standards were "relaxed" so increase the overall force size to meet the needs of the operation environment. So when it comes to disclipline being synonymus with looking good in uniforms most of us dont believe that at all. My thoughts about disclipline come from pride in ones mission, unit, and love of service to the country. If someone were to tell me that im not discliplined because i dont particularly care about shiny boots or starched creases in uniforms i would be inclined to dissagree and inform them that if they were to see me on the war front they would have no doubts about what i am capable of.

What can we do to maintain a high level of discipline and professionalism within our ranks given the limitations?

Another good question with two answers;

From what i've seen in my service is the the pre 9/11 Army was an incredibly rigid and not particulary forward thinking fighting force. Not to say that was a bad thing but, when i fist came in e-5 and below were, for lack of a better word, drones. they were told was to do and would do it without really thinking about the process. One change, hold on im getting to my point, ive noticed in the army is the prominence of "critical thinking" being promoted throughout the lower ranks. What that means to me is now you have lower enlisted thinking out side of the box and INDEPENDANTLY. When you nurture that train of thought, it tends to become an abrasive ideal to those that were used to soldiers just jumping at their beck and call.

What can we do to maintain disclipline? Well, the leadership dynamic has to change to be honest. the "Toxic" leaders that you always read about in the army times are producss, in my opinion, of the way the army used to be. The philosophy of im higher ranking and im always right mentality doesnt work well when those beneath you have learned to think for themselves. Going back to my first paragraph, to really increase the level of disclipline in the Army, one really needs to think about how to create pride in their soldiers. It's not about uniforms any more, it's about envoking pride and ownership in our young soldiers.

High level of professionalism? I think this train of though needs to be reworded. I often ask myself, what is the primary goal of the Armed Forces? Well, to put it in its most basic terms; I would have to say, to kill our nations enemies. We protect our nation and its values by killing those that would otherwise take those ideas away. To call us professionals, i feel, is somwhat innacurate. when you think of professionals, you would typically think of someone that works at IBM, Microsoft, or some Banking institution. I believe that we should change that wording to, to steal my last commanders mantra, A culture of excellence. With that, a mind set could be put forth to achieve excellence in everything you do. then we wouldnt fit the suit and tie drone stereotype of the professional but the army that strives for excellence in everything it accomplishes.

What changes should be made or revoked to better our Army?

I wish i could awnser that. But there is such a divide in our armed forces from that i can see. You have on one hand, that rigid army of the past. On the other you have the indepentantly thinking army of today. I really feel that there has to be some kind of middle ground that we can achieve. The army is an evolutionary organization, to which i would hate to see revert back to old ways. I feel that the army will continue to evolve and it should be let to do that so we can continue to meet the changing battlefront and tumultous political environment that is affecting the world as a whole.

Sorry if that was long winded and has poor grammar, i could'nt really copy and paste into word so i could proof read what i am writing. Thanks for the question and i hope i dont get blasted too much!