With our country's freedom depending on us as Marines, we must ensure that we are always capable of protecting our country. A military unit is effective only when its leaders are. There are three reasons why military leadership is essential:
a. The first reason is the coordination of people and activities within a unit; that is, getting the right people to do the right job. Without such coordination, capable people will not be assigned the right tasks, and the unit will be in a state of confusion.
b. A second reason for military leadership is to hold a military unit together. A military unit is made up of people organized to accomplish a mission that requires the successful completion of a series of tasks. When a unit is deployed, a set number of tasks must be assigned and completed. The unit must be inspected to ensure readiness, training schedules must be prepared, and logistics plans must be made up. Because it would be difficult for one leader to do all of these things alone, unit leaders are needed. In the Marine Corps, these unit leaders form a chain of command from the Commandant down to the smallest unit.
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c. A third reason for military leadership is to ensure a unit's success. The unit achieves success by accomplishing the assigned mission. Through demonstration, motivation, and hard work, leaders ensure that all missions are accomplished. A leader's failure to ensure that subordinates accomplish their task leads to the failure of the unit to accomplish its mission and thus the failure of the military service in carrying out the larger mission. And if the military service fails, our country and way of life are in danger.