Authority in the Military

Stanley Milgrams obedience experiments had several implications for the military. The findings seem to suggest that an individual who blindly obeys an authority figure might not be at fault. To truly understand who might be at fault in a case where a soldier follows unlawful orders, we must first understand the words “authority” and “obedience,” in the context of the military.

Milgrams experiments involved the testing of a vast number of individuals. In his experiments, subjects were brought into a lab, at the Yale University campus in the summer of 1961. Two volunteers were assigned specific roles. One was to be a “learner” and the other a “teacher.”

The teacher would give the learner word groupings, and the learner was instructed to respond appropriately. When the learner gave an incorrect answer, the teacher was instructed to administer an electric shock to the learner, in increasing increments of fifteen volts. In reality, the learner was actually part of the experiment, and gave predetermined answers to the teachers. The learner was never actually shocked, or harmed in any way.

In 65% of cases, the teacher would go on to administer the greatest level of voltage, even with visual reminders of the danger of the shocks, such as “Danger: Severe Shock” or “XXX”. Even when Milgram changed certain controlled aspects of the experiment, the results remained relatively the same. The implications of these findings created quite a stir for society at large. More important, though, are the implications within the military community. Obedience to authority had not been previously thought to be dangerous.

Webster’s dictionary defines authority in several ways. One is “An expert whose views are taken as definitive” (http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org). Anyone serving in the military knows however, that many people who are in positions of authority are not experts in a given field. In many circumstances, an officer will be assigned to a division without having any knowledge of what their subordinates do. They are responsible for the work that they do, without understanding the actual labor involved; many times, the one held ultimately responsible has to lean on the knowledge and expertise of the people who work beneath them. As Lt. Colonel Kenneth Wenker says, “the authority is not necessarily an expert and does not necessarily have better judgment, knowledge, or experience.”