By Over at the Command and General Staff College blog there is a pretty good debate going on with an issue all of you reading this that serve in the Army should find of interest:
In 2003, then-Army Chief of Staff General Peter Schoomaker decreed that the word “Soldier” be capitalized in Army correspondence, and later asked that dictionaries and media organizations follow suit—a request which they apparently rejected. The asserted reason for this change was to show greater respect for soldiers. The problem with GEN Schoomaker’s decision is that it flies in the face of accepted grammatical conventions, and regardless of the power wielded by an Army Chief of Staff, changing the English language is not among his authorities. [CGSC Blog]
Read the rest of the posting by Major Nelson to read his rationale for leaving soldier spelled without capitalizing it. I agree with the view that trying to get media organizations to capitalize the word soldier like they do with Marines is a losing proposition. The media doesn’t capitalize the word “airman” to refer to people in the Air Force either, but I don’t see the Army changing this rule for internal correspondence anytime soon.
4:34 am on April 29th, 2009 1
One synapse wasted for 1 second is too much on a silly issue like that. Just off the top of my head, there are Soldiers in Area I who are getting screwed by their crooked landlords – left and right. They turn to the housing office staffed by Koreans and guess what happens? Nothing. No help there. How freaking sad.
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6:59 am on April 29th, 2009 2
Better yet, I love how the Army capitalized “Families” to show support so that they wouldn’t have to actually commit to anything of substance.
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7:43 am on April 29th, 2009 3
I keep seeing banners advertising “The Army Family covenant”. What the hell is that? The banners would be unnecessary if the Army were actually taking care of families. Everyone would know it.
Once again, I refer to the Camp Casey housing office fiasco. Why do I have Soldiers Wives asking my wife for help with landlords. Because the housing office here cannot and will not help the soldier. They are on the landlords side. Go there and ask to see the “off-limits” list…
Somehow I bet there are some tee times involved here, if not outright white envelope transfers. Want to make a covenant? Want to show respect for the Soldiers? Clean crap like THAT up.
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9:54 am on April 29th, 2009 4
I am usually the first one to salute the flag and move out. What really ticks me off, however, is the power some people in the military think they have, based on their rank. Granted, there are times I cop that attitude, but I’d like to think it’s only in the context of my military authority INSIDE the military community. Assuming I ever become a GO (which basically assumes the end of civilization as we know it), I will issue a ball-pean hammer to my driver. If I say something he doesn’t understand or thinks is really stupid, I am going to order him to hit me in the forehead with the hammer. That way I will have a common sense check on my ego. Napoleon (another short, nasty artillery officer) would have a corporal follow him around. If he issued an order that the corporal didn’t understand, he would re-write the order until the corporal understood it.
The capitalization of “Families” and “Soldiers” is the triumph of form over substance. But in an Amerika that elects a vacuous demagogue for President, what else would you expect?
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10:06 am on April 29th, 2009 5
we’ve always been at war with Eastasia
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5:18 pm on April 29th, 2009 6
I think the capitalization of Soldier is a typical half-job by military leadership.
I say we show even more respect and capitalize all of the letters.
SOLDIER.
Even better, it should be a requirement that SOLDIER is written in a larger font than other words.
With today’s advanced PowerPoint Technology Partnership ™, that is not an impossible task.
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