Col Christopher Sage recently wrote an article (oddly, published at the commercial Air Force Times rather than through the Air Force) calling on the Air Force to explicitly add “courage” to its list of core values that currently include integrity, service, and excellence.

The trait of courage was absorbed under integrity in the 1997 construct, and only briefly described as “doing what is right…”

Courage should be explicit, not implicit, in our core values. It is time to elevate courage to its proper place.

In an interesting bit of history, Col Sage notes that the 1997 Air Force pamphlet on the core values focused on the institution, rather than the individual:

“Our first task is to fix organizations; individual character development is possible, but it is not a goal.” It goes on to say: “If a culture of compromise exists in the Air Force, then it is more likely to be the result of bad policies and programs than it is to be symptomatic of any character flaws in our people.”

He accurately concludes that personal character development has become a military focus over the past few years, and moral courage — or the lack thereof — has recently been a focus point of many senior leaders. In just recent memory, senior leaders have responded to many “institutional” issues by calling for strength of personal character, including cheating scandals, the “epidemic” of sexual assault, and misbehavior in combat.

As has been noted here before, the military would substantially benefit from advocating and supporting strong, moral character in its troops. The problem comes in figuring out precisely how to do so, when society currently eschews defining moral character.

Still, adding courage to the core values would be a step in the right direction, and it might start the long-needed conversation on what defines moral character in the US military.

Col Sage is right. Courage already needs to be an Air Force core value. Recognizing it as such, as an institution, might go far.

For the record, “personal courage” is already one of the US Army values.

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