The army of a country can be defined as the military unit charged with the responsibility of safeguarding the country’s land and air borders. The army is the unit used by a state to safeguard its sovereignty. It includes land based operatives who carry out field and combat operations and air based operatives through its air force branch.
The unit conducts regular training to recruit new personnel to help build and sustain its capacity base. The trainings are carried in extreme conditions that characterise the harsh circumstances that successful soldiers will face on ground and thus prepare them for field operations. Reporting is the bringing to light or forefront of an issue or information. It helps in the exchange of useful information from one person or unit to another.
Just like any other successful functioning organisation, there needs to be exchange of information between all individuals in the army. Army officials are better suited to understand soldiers within their platoons based on the information they get from or reported to them by their respective platoon members. A number of issues can arise if accurate and adequate information is not shared between soldiers and their officials. The main concern of not reporting is the deployment of soldiers who are not 100% fit to field operations. In any combat that a platoon faces, the fitness of all its members determines how effective the platoon will be. If there exists a soldier who is not fit prior to deployment and this condition is not reported to the officials, he or she will not only be a weak point of the platoon but will also make the platoon members have diverted attention from the combat at hand. He/she will have to be given care meaning that the platoon will fall short of one or two of its members who will be responsible for availing the care.
Such unfit soldiers will lower the mobility of the platoon. The army’s priority is to ensure national security of a nation. If an army official or any other person within the country has knowledge of information that could compromise national security and he or she fails to report this matter to the defence department, detrimental consequences might result there after. If the country’s security apparatus could have had access to this information, these consequences can be avoided. Terrorism is best fought by exchange of vital information between various international security agencies in collaboration with the defence departments of respective states. Army officials need to have access to information on how the department administers its duties. Programmes need to be initiated for community participation in information gathering by the defence department. This information can be used to evaluate how the department performs its duties and develop new strategies of performance in instances where service provision by the department is poor.
If such useful information cannot be availed, the manner in which the defence department carries out its duties cannot be determined. As a result, corrective measures cannot be initiated if the department performs poorly. For the formulation of effective policies and reforms in the department of defence, policy makers need to have access to accurate information from soldiers to whom these reforms are to benefit. Combat and other ranks of soldiers have vital information that can be used to develop reforms within the defence department. They have first hand access to information concerning the challenges they face while on duty.
This information can be used to formulate reforms and develop policies that take care of and address the soldiers’ concerns. Current policies that impact negatively on soldiers cannot be reformed if this vital information is reported.
