The most basic task of the profession of arms is the armed defense of the society, its territory, population, and vital interests. With rare exceptions, a society’s government identifies the problems to be resolved with force, and it then turns to and relies on the professionals to handle the always difficult, usually dangerous, often bloody details in a manner acceptable to the citizens and supportive of th eir goals. In his classic study The Profession of Arms, General Hackett stated, “The function of the profession of arms is the ordered application of force in the resolution of a social or political problem.” 3 The essential task of its members is to fight, individually and collectively of its officers, to direct and lead those who apply the instruments of destruction to achieve assigned ends. As Samuel Huntington put it in The Soldier and the State: “The justification for the maintenance and employment of military force is in the political ends of the state.” 2 In wartime or in peacetime, at home or abroad, the Armed Forces serve the larger society and perform the tasks their government as signs them. The profession of arms exists to serve the larger community, to help accomplish its purposes and objectives, and to protect its way of life. It is a basic premise of civilized societies, especially democratic ones, that the military serves the state (and by extension, the people), not the other way around. Whatever the formal name or title given to these groups, theirs is the profess ion of arms. recorded history physical force, or the threat of it, has always been freely applied to the resolution of social problems.” 1 Human societies-from tribes and city-states to empires, organized religions, and nation-states-have regularly established and relied on groups of specialists who, willingly or unwillingly, assumed the burden of fighting, killing, and dying for the larger group. As noted by General Sir John Hackett, “From the beginning of. Others fight for love of country and civic duty. Some fight primarily for money, some for love of fighting, and some for lack of alternative opportunities.

Humans fight as individuals and as groups.

Combat arms classic maintenance