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Lying in the military is common, Army War College study says – The Washington Post

A new study by Army War College professors found that not only is lying common in the military, the armed forces themselves may be inadvertently encouraging it. The study, released Tuesday, was conducted by retired Army officers and current War College professors Leonard Wong and Stephen J. Gerras. They found that untruthfulness is “surprisingly common…

A new study by Army War College professors found that not only is lying common in the military, the armed forces themselves may be inadvertently encouraging it.

The study, released Tuesday, was conducted by retired Army officers and current War College professors Leonard Wong and Stephen J. Gerras. They found that untruthfulness is “surprisingly common in the U.S. military even though members of the profession are loath to admit it.”

via Lying in the military is common, Army War College study says – The Washington Post.

Contra the lede from the Post, the study isn’t so much an indictment of integrity in the service (though it is that to some degree) but rather a condemnation of the demands placed upon members to complete far more tasks than they have time for.

Every large organization needs some considerable degree of reporting from its lower echelons to inform its decision making.

But today, especially in the renewed “zero defect” environment of the services, there is such a demand from administrivia from subordinates that, again, we see the process becoming the product.

From the comments, an accurate assessment:

It’s a shame the article didn’t bother to mention what the study recognized as a primary cause of less-than-absolute-truthfulness (quote taken directly from the report’s summary):

>Sadly, much of the deception that occurs in the profession of arms is encouraged and sanctioned by the military institution as subordinates are forced to prioritize which requirements will actually be done to standard and which will only be reported as done to standard. 

Any of us – military or not – forced to verify a zillion actions — including many which, in all honesty, just don’t matter — would do the same: prioritize our time and efforts on verifying the actions that matter and making sure that the rest are “close enough.”

Fairly read, I don’t think the report (unlike this article) identifies “untruthfulness” as the primary culprit, so much as an environment that requires the impossible of our men and women in uniform.

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  1. timactual

    Old news. I believe the Navy calls it “gundecking”. I don’t know what the Army calls it, but it happens. I remember the time I qualified ‘expert’ with the M-14. In a snowstorm with visibility of about 30 yards, max. The training schedule said our company was going to shoot for qualification that day, and by Godfrey we did.

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  2. ultimaratioregis

    With this current group of PC invertebrates at the helm in the Pentagon, the only product we produce IS process.

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  3. Buck Buchanan

    I learned a valuable lesson regarding this practice not long after taking company command. Our battalion commander told the S-3 to stop asking for sign in rosters for mandatory traiing attendance. He said these men are comamnders, they put the training on the schedule and they signed the schedule to verify the training occurred…period.

    When the IG tried to gig us the following spring on not maintaining rosters he told them to, collective, Go Fuck Themselves.

    The CG backed him.

    I’ve taken that same approach going on 30 years now. that is what this article says.

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  4. Esli

    I’ve learned to be very judicious in what I ask questions about, because sometimes I just don’t want to know the answer.

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  5. Casey Tompkins

    Haven’t been in the service, but every (large) company I’ve worked for has generated BS documentation, which we have to fill out. The Navy calls it “gundecking,” we call it “pencil whipping.” 🙂

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