The Army Wanted Virtuous Soldiers
How the Warrior Ethos program evolved and framed the force during the War on Terror
George Patton, in a 1931 article written for The Cavalry Journal, attempted to identify the key to victory in military engagements. Rejecting the contemporary tendency to reduce war to wholly scientific explanations, Patton nevertheless looked for the elements of success in war: inspiration, knowledge, and force (Patton, 2002). The first, for him, was the most elusive, but potentially the most decisive. While tactical and technical knowledge combined with superior numbers could often decide a battle, the charismatic leader could just as often motivate his (or her, as in Patton’s preferred case, Joan of Arc) troops to victory. Inspiration, properly applied in war, resulted in confidence, enthusiasm, endurance, abnegation of self, and loyalty. Together, these martial values constituted the “warrior soul” (Patton, 2002, p. 307).
In his 36 years in Army service, Patton rose to the rank of general and became one of the most mythologized soldiers in American history. In many ways, he epitomized the warrior soul, yet he could never describe it more than indirectly: “It lurks invisible in that vitalizing spark, intangible, yet as evident as the lightning” (Patton, 2002, p. 303).
