“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice.”

Whether you’re black or white, woman or man, your first language learned was Spanish or English, if you enlist in the United States Military you swear this oath. National Guard enlistees swear a similar oath but with an addition that they “swear to obey the orders of the Governor of their state.” Officers have a different oath that they must swear when
The shocks were fake. The actor would scream in pain but the person running the experiment would assure the volunteer that everything was okay, 65% (26 of 40) of the volunteers would continue to the point where the actor acted dead. The point of this is simple, when obeying orders sometimes they can take a terrible, destructive turn. Some people rather submit to authority than rebel against it. That is why our military puts a giant emphasis on LAWFUL orders. It is your moral obligation to realize if the order given to you is lawful or not, because you could end up in the courts attempting to use the “I was only following orders” excuse and be ruined for the rest of your life. There are cases in our military where innocent civilians were murdered just because the individual was following orders. All the way back starting in 1799 during the war with France (first recorded case in US) up to the most recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. When faced with an order that doesn’t seem right, you must always remember our core values and handle the situation accordingly. Even then, if you believe the order to be unlawful or illegal, it will ultimately be up to your military superiors and the courts to believe it as well. What if an order to be a part of a highly dangerous mission? A task considered by most as a “suicide mission”. Can the military ask that of you? You bet your ass they