Section

INTRODUCTION TO
THE WARRIOR ETHOS
Values and Ethics Track

Key Points

1 The Warrior Ethos Defined

2 The Soldier’s Creed

3 The Four Tenets of the Warrior Ethos

e
Every organization has an internal culture and ethos. A
true Warrior Ethos must underpin the Army’s enduring
traditions and values. It must drive a personal commitment
to excellence and ethical mission accomplishment to
make our Soldiers different from all others in the world.
This ethos must be a fundamental characteristic of the
U.S. Army as Soldiers imbued with an ethically grounded
Warrior Ethos who clearly symbolize the Army’s
unwavering commitment to the nation we serve. The Army
has always embraced this ethos but the demands of
Transformation will require a renewed effort to ensure all
Soldiers truly understand and embody this Warrior Ethos.
GEN Eric K. Shinseki
 Introduction to the Warrior Ethos ■ 111

Introduction
Every Soldier must know the Soldier’s Creed and live the Warrior Ethos. As a Cadet and
future officer, you must embody high professional standards and reflect American
values. The Warrior Ethos demands a commitment on the part of all Soldiers to stand
prepared and confident to accomplish their assigned tasks and face all challenges,
including enemy resistance—anytime, anywhere.
This is not a simple or easy task. First, you must understand how the building
blocks of the Warrior Ethos (see Figure 1.1) form a set of professional beliefs and
attitudes that shape the American Soldier. Second, you must establish an unwavering
personal commitment to excellence and ethical mission accomplishment, a
commitment that cannot vary, no matter what the circumstances. Finally, as a leader,
you must be the example for your Soldiers of what it means to live the Warrior Ethos,
through your own conduct.
This section defines the Warrior Ethos, covers its four tenets as based on a
commitment to selfless service to the nation and the Army Values, and demonstrates
how the Soldier’s Creed ties its concepts together.
The following vignette epitomizes the power of the Warrior Ethos in the
Contemporary Operating Environment, a commitment to the welfare of others so

Values and Ethics Track

strong that it sets a timeless example of sacrifice for one’s fellow Soldiers.

MSG Gordon and SFC Shughart in Somalia

During a raid in Mogadishu in October 1993, MSG Gary Gordon and SFC Randall
Shughart, leader and member of a sniper team, respectively, with Task Force
Ranger in Somalia, were providing precision and suppressive fires from
helicopters above two helicopter crash sites. Learning that no ground forces were
available to rescue one of the downed aircrews and aware that a growing number

Figure 1.1 The Building Blocks of the Warrior Ethos

 112 ■ SECTION 1

of enemy were closing in on the site, MSG Gordon and SFC Shughart volunteered
to be inserted to protect their critically wounded comrades.
Their initial request was turned down because of the dangerous situation.
They asked a second time; permission was denied. Only after their third request
were they inserted.
MSG Gordon and SFC Shughart were inserted one hundred meters south of
the downed chopper. Armed only with their personal weapons, the two NCOs
fought their way to the downed fliers through intense small arms fire, a maze of
shanties and shacks, and the enemy converging on the site. After MSG Gordon
and SFC Shughart pulled the wounded from the wreckage, they established a
perimeter, put themselves in the most dangerous position, and fought off a series
of attacks. The two NCOs continued to protect their comrades until they had
depleted their ammunition and were themselves fatally wounded. Their actions
saved the life of an Army pilot.
No one will ever know what was running through the minds of MSG Gordon
and SFC Shughart as they left the comparative safety of their helicopter to go to
the aid of the downed aircrew. The two NCOs knew there was no ground rescue
force available, and they certainly knew there was no going back to their helicop-
ter. They may have suspected that things would turn out as they did; nonethe-
less, they did what they believed to be the right thing. They acted based on
Army Values, which they had clearly made their own: loyalty to their fellow
Soldiers; the duty to stand by them, regardless of the circumstances; the personal
courage to act, even in the face of great danger; selfless service, the willingness to
give their all. MSG Gary I. Gordon and SFC Randall D. Shughart lived Army
Values to the end; they were posthumously awarded Medals of Honor.

ethos The Warrior Ethos Defined

the disposition, Ethos is defined as the disposition, character, or fundamental values peculiar to a specific
character, or
fundamental values
person, people, culture, or movement. The Warrior Ethos, the professional attitudes and
peculiar to a specific beliefs that characterize the American Soldier, is a reflection of our nation’s enduring values
person, people, culture, by the profession charged with protecting those values. The Warrior Ethos is the foundation
or movement
for the American Soldier’s total commitment to victory in peace and war.
At the core of every Soldier is the willingness and desire to serve the nation—both its
people and its enduring values. Hence, the foundation for the pyramid representing the
Warrior Ethos Warrior Ethos is a commitment to serve the nation. Soldiers who live the Warrior Ethos
put the mission first, refuse to accept defeat, never quit, and never leave a fallen comrade.
the professional
attitudes and beliefs
They have absolute faith in themselves and their team because they have common beliefs
that characterize the and values.
American Soldier—the The seven Army Values of Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity,
Warrior Ethos is the
and Personal Courage (LDRSHIP) form the second level of this pyramid of the Warrior
foundation for the
American Soldier’s total Ethos. Army Values are universal; they enable you to see what is right or wrong in any
commitment to victory situation. When you encounter a situation that requires you to make a decision, you should
in peace and war apply the Army Values. If any one term is not applied, the decision will be flawed. As you
 Introduction to the Warrior Ethos ■ 113

can see, Army Values and the Warrior Ethos are integral parts of a unified system of beliefs—
creed
as with the Soldiers who follow them, they depend on each other. The Soldier’s Creed ties
this system together. a statement of beliefs,
or a statement of a
belief and a system of
The Soldier’s Creed principles or opinions

The Soldier’s Creed, first committed to memory and then increasingly applied to all your
tasks—whether routine and safe, or urgent and dangerous—puts the Warrior Ethos into
the practical context of the Basis of Army Leadership: Be, Know, and Do. The intent of
the Soldier’s Creed is to link your commitment to selfless service to the goal of every
other American Soldier—victory with honor.
The Soldier’s Creed unifies the Army’s culture by expressing fundamental human beliefs
from a warrior’s perspective. It helps Soldiers understand that, no matter what their personal
or professional backgrounds may be, all Soldiers are warriors and members of a team
with difficult and dangerous tasks to perform. To develop into an effective leader of Soldiers,
you must begin now to live by the seven Army Values, the Warrior Ethos and the Soldier’s
Creed.

The Soldier’s Creed

I am an American Soldier. I am a warrior and a member of a team. I serve the
people of the United States and live the Army Values. I will always place the mis-
sion first. I will never accept defeat. I will never quit. I will never leave a fallen
comrade. I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient
in my warrior tasks and drills. I always maintain my arms, my equipment, and
myself. I am an expert and I am a professional. I stand ready to deploy, engage,
and destroy the enemies of the United States of America in close combat. I am a
guardian of freedom and the American way of life. I am an American Soldier.

The Four Tenets of the Warrior Ethos

• Always place the mission first
• Never accept defeat
• Never quit
• Never leave a fallen comrade.

While all citizens hold beliefs and values that bring our nation together, Soldiers must take
action to protect the nation. The four tenets of the Warrior Ethos provide the motivation
for that action, motivation built on a comradeship that the Warrior Ethos creates. Because
of that comradeship, Soldiers fight for each other, as well as for their nation and for their
beliefs. Time and again you see that Soldiers would rather die than let their buddies down.
It will be your job as a leader to ensure that your unit has the final ingredients necessary
for victory. You must train and lead your Soldiers to become a competent, confident, flexible,
and adaptable team—a team imbued with the Warrior Ethos.
Just such a team rescued more than 500 American and Allied prisoners of war from
the Japanese at the end of World War II.
114 ■ SECTION 1

Great Raid on Cabanatuan Depicts Warrior Ethos

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Aug. 10, 2005)—It was one of the most
daring and successful Special Operations missions of World War II, full of drama,
suspense and heroism—just the sort of thing that would make an exciting movie.
The 1945 raid by the U.S. Army’s 6th Ranger Battalion to rescue Americans
held at the Japanese POW camp near Cabanatuan in the Philippines is the subject
of [the movie] “The Great Raid. . .”
The same raid was depicted in the opening scenes of an earlier movie, the
1945 “Back to Bataan,” starring John Wayne and Anthony Quinn.
Regardless of how accurately either movie depicts the raid and those who
lived through it, the real-life story is one worthy of study. It is noteworthy as an
example of a well-planned and expertly conducted small-unit mission.
It may be even more valuable, however, as a reminder that the Warrior Ethos
and Soldier’s Creed that American Soldiers live by today are neither new nor
exclusive to the men and women on the front lines in Iraq, Afghanistan, and
elsewhere around the world.
Great Soldiers of the past lived and fought by those values. There are few
better examples of this than what was done by the men of the 6th Ranger
Battalion answering the call to duty in late January 1945.
‘I will always place the mission first’
The more than 500 Americans inside the barbed wire of the Cabanatuan POW
camp in early 1945 were survivors from America’s darkest days, the fall of the
Philippines in 1942. They were the lucky ones—if “lucky” means staying alive to
be continually starved and mistreated by their captors.
Somehow these Soldiers, Marines, Sailors and Airmen, as well as American
civilians and some allies, had survived the valiant but doomed battles of Bataan
and Corregidor. Somehow many of them had survived the Bataan Death March,
which followed Bataan’s surrender on April 9, 1942 (Corregidor surrendered on
May 6).
‘I will never quit’
Somehow they had survived almost three years of starvation, mistreatment,
minimal medical care and executions for various offenses proscribed by their
guards. Somehow, they had missed the fate of thousands of their comrades who
had died when American planes and submarines attacked and sank Japanese ships
transporting them from the Philippines. The ships bore no indication of the
human cargo they were carrying, so they were routinely attacked by the U.S.
Navy and Army Air Force in the campaign to cut the enemy’s supply lines.
As U.S. forces returned to the Philippines on Oct. 20, 1944, with the landing at
Leyte, followed on Jan. 9, 1945, by landing on Luzon, the question became
whether the POWs would be liberated before time ran out for them. It wasn’t
 Introduction to the Warrior Ethos ■ 115

only a matter of malnutrition and disease catching up to the prisoners or their

being moved farther away from the advancing American forces; it was whether
they would be murdered before they could be freed.
This was a very real possibility. About 150 American prisoners at a POW camp on
the Philippine island of Palawan had been killed by their guards on Dec. 14, 1944. A
survivor of this massacre had reached friendly forces and what had happened was
known to U.S. Army intelligence by the time of the Luzon invasion. [The possibility
of] a similar fate for any captive Americans on Luzon could not be overlooked.
Rescuers: ‘I will never accept defeat’
The U.S. Army was determined those who had upheld America’s honor in the
opening days of the war would not suffer [such] a fate.
To that end, the commanding general of Sixth U.S. Army, Lt. Gen. Walter
Krueger, called on the commander of a unique unit under his command, the 6th
Ranger Battalion, the only Ranger battalion in the Pacific theater (During World
War II, the Army had six Ranger battalions. The 1st through the 5th fought in
either the Mediterranean or European theaters; the 6th fought in the Philippines.)
Lt. Col. Henry A. Mucci, a 1936 graduate of West Point, commanded the 6th
Ranger Battalion. He had taken command of it in April 1944 in New Guinea when
it was the 98th Field Artillery Battalion and led it through its re-designation and
transformation into the 6th Ranger Battalion, putting its members through a
demanding training program and weeding out those who couldn’t or wouldn’t
measure up to Ranger standards.
By January 1945, his men were all volunteers and ready for a mission. The 6th
Rangers landed on three islands in Leyte Gulf Oct. 17, and performed some
commando-type missions. Now they were called upon to raid the Cabanatuan
POW camp. Specifically, Mucci was to infiltrate about 30 miles behind enemy
lines, reach the camp, overcome the guard force, liberate the prisoners and return
them safely to friendly lines before the Japanese could react.
The ground to be covered was open and great care would have to be taken to
avoid being spotted enroute to the camp. In addition to overcoming the camp’s
guard force, there were numerous other enemy forces in the area. Because of its
proximity to major roadways, the camp often played host to Japanese units in
transit. Due to American aircraft, the Japanese made troop movements at night.
A Japanese battalion regularly bivouacked about a mile from the camp and a
division-sized unit was believed to be around Cabanatuan City, three to four miles
from the camp. These Japanese units had tanks and tanks were also known to be
included in the nocturnal movements around the camp.
To accomplish the mission, which he would personally lead, Mucci chose one
company of the 6th Rangers, Company C, commanded by Capt. Robert W. Prince.
Company C would be reinforced by the 2nd Platoon of Company F, led by 1st Lt.
John F. Murphy. The Ranger force would also include four combat photographers
116 ■ SECTION 1

from the 832nd Signal Service Battalion and two teams of Sixth Army’s elite recon
unit, the Alamo Scouts. Counting a few additions from elsewhere in the battalion,
the Ranger force consisted of about 120 men.
The Rangers would receive invaluable support from several hundred Filipino
guerrillas under the commands of Captains Eduardo Joson and Juan Pajota. The
guerrillas would provide intelligence, carry out security along the route to and
from the camp, and interface with the civilian population for needed support for
the Rangers and the liberated prisoners. The guerrillas would also play a critical
role during the assault on the camp.
‘I will never leave a fallen comrade’
When Mucci briefed them on the mission, the Rangers immediately knew just
how important it was and how difficult it was going to be to pull it off. Each was
given the opportunity to stay back. None took it.
It was clear to all of them that they were the only hope to bring out the
survivors of Bataan and Corregidor before the Japanese killed them. Mucci
ordered them to take an oath to die fighting before letting any harm come to
those they were to rescue.
The Raid
The Rangers moved out early on Jan. 28 and soon linked up with guerillas
commanded by Joson. By dark, the combined Ranger-guerilla force was inside
enemy territory.
At the village of Balincarin, the Rangers were provided the latest intelligence
from the Alamo Scouts, who had started their recon duties a day earlier. They
were also joined there by Pajota’s guerilla force. Working with Pajota, Prince
coordinated for the guerillas to provide security, collect enough carabao carts to
transport liberated POWs too weak to walk back and prepare enough food for
several hundred men.
Mucci delayed the raid for a day in order to gather additional intelligence and
to allow a large force of Japanese transiting the area to move away from the
camp. The delay also allowed the Rangers to gather detailed information on the
camp and its defenders.
The plan for the night-time assault on the compound gave the two guerilla
forces the vital mission of stopping any enemy reaction forces coming from
nearby Cabanatuan City and Cabu. A Ranger bazooka section would be attached
to the guerillas to deal with expected Japanese tanks. The other Rangers would
hit the camp from two sides, with Murphy’s 2nd Platoon of Company F assaulting
the rear entrance and Prince’s Company C storming through the front gate of the
camp. To distract the guards while the Rangers positioned themselves for the
assault, a P-61 night fighter would fly overhead just prior to the attack.
The Rangers and guerillas moved into position at twilight on Jan. 30. The force
attacking the front of the camp had to crawl a mile across open ground to reach
 Introduction to the Warrior Ethos ■ 117

their jump-off position. The overflight by the night flyer worked as planned,
drawing the attention of both guards and prisoners to the sky.
At 7:45 p.m., Murphy on the rear side of the compound fired the first shot, the
signal for the attack to commence. The Rangers hit the Japanese soldiers with
overwhelming ferocity, using every weapon they had. They concentrated initially
on the guard towers, pillboxes and all Japanese in the open. When all enemy
positions had been neutralized, the Rangers stormed into the compound and
continued to eliminate enemy soldiers and interior defensive positions.
Meanwhile the guerillas at the blocking positions had their own battle to fight.
Pajota’s men opened fire on the Japanese battalion in the bivouac next to Cabu
Creek. Guerilla machine gunners stopped the Japanese counterattacks at the Cabu
Creek bridge while the Ranger bazooka teams knocked out two tanks and a truck.
The other roadblock under Joson was not attacked, thanks to attacks by P-61
night fighters on a Japanese convoy headed toward Joson’s position.
In less than 15 minutes, all serious resistance inside the POW compound had
been eliminated, though a final trio of mortar rounds wounded six men and
mortally wounded the battalion surgeon, one of only two Rangers to die in the
attack. A total of seven were injured.
Within half an hour from the opening shot by Murphy, Prince had completed
two searches of the camp and had determined all the prisoners had been found
and removed from the camp. Although no prisoners were killed during the
fighting, one weakened man suffered a fatal heart attack while leaving the camp.
One British POW who hid in the latrines during the raid wasn’t found by the
Rangers, but he was picked up the next day by Filipino guerrillas.
The Rangers and liberated prisoners made their withdrawal while Pajota
continued to stop all Japanese attempts to pursue. By the time Pajota’s men
disengaged, they had essentially destroyed an enemy battalion while suffering no
fatalities or serious wounds themselves.
Filipino citizens provided food and water to the liberated prisoners on the
route back. Additional carabao carts arrived to transport former prisoners too
weak to walk. The guerillas continued to provide all-around security.
About 12 hours after the assault on the camp, radio contact was made with
Sixth Army. Trucks were requested to meet the force. A couple of hours later, the
Rangers and prisoners returned to friendly lines and shortly thereafter, the heroes
of Bataan and Corregidor were undergoing medical examination at the 92nd
Evacuation Hospital.
The mission, which rescued 511 American and Allied POWs and killed or
wounded some 520 Japanese at the cost of two Rangers killed, was completed.
The Cabanatuan raid rescuers and rescued may not have been able to recite
the Warrior Ethos of today’s Army, but they lived it.
Randy Pullen
118 ■ SECTION 1

e
Critical Thinking
How can you, as a Cadet, begin to live the Warrior Ethos in your ROTC activities
and your daily life on campus?
 Introduction to the Warrior Ethos ■ 119

e
CONCLUSION
The Warrior Ethos is your commitment to overcome all obstacles. It reflects a
selfless dedication to the nation, mission, unit, and your fellow Soldiers. You will
develop and maintain this attitude through discipline, rigorous training, learning
and embodying Army Values, and recognizing that as a Cadet you represent the
future of the Army’s proud heritage.

Learning Assessment
1. Recite the Soldier’s Creed from memory.
2. List the four building blocks of the Warrior Ethos.
3. Identify the four tenets of the Warrior Ethos.
4. List the seven Army Values.

Key Words
ethos
Warrior Ethos
creed

References
Field Manual 6-22, Army Leadership: Competent, Confident, and Agile. 12 October 2006.
Pullen, R. (10 August 2005). Great Raid on Cabanatuan Depicts Warrior Ethos. Army
News Service. Retrieved 17 August 2005 from
http://www4.army.mil/ocpa/read.php?story_id_key=7723
Shinseki, E. K. (n.d.). Warrior Ethos. Leaders’ Perspective. TRADOC News Service.
Retrieved 14 August 2005 from
http://www.tradoc.army.mil/pao/Web_specials/WarriorEthos/leaderpersp.htm