Military Review English Edition March-April 2016 | Page 116

civilians play in the conduct of national security,
specifically in the land domain, and recognize those
aspects that certify Army civilians for professional
membership. The fundamental question remains: Are
Army civilians members of the Army Profession? Once
certified, the answer is yes, and here is why.

Understanding Professionalism
It is important to examine those aspects that define
professions and the qualifications outlined as characteristics of the Army Profession in order to understand
what it means to be a professional and what are the
rights of passage for full-fledged membership. Under
current definitions, professions have aspects (elements
that frame professions) and characteristics (elements
that describe a specific profession) articulated in ways
that generate formal societal recognition and socially
acceptable behaviors in performance of professional
tasks.4 These acceptable professional behaviors are
defined in terms of broad social necessities that require
specialized knowledge to perform a unique service society cannot provide itself.5 Examples of professions usually include medicine, law, engineering, education, and
the clergy. Each of these are examples of callings vice
jobs, which society requires to provide a unique service.
The unique service outcomes are realized through the
behaviors of a profession’s members whom society
willingly accepts and trusts. In order to garner society’s
trust, professional competence is necessary. To achieve
this level of competence requires mastery of specialized
knowledge specific to the profession’s unique service.
Mastery is demonstrated in the behaviors that are the
result of utilizing the specialized knowledge required to
perform the unique service.
In the case of the Army Profession, the first defined
concept referenced by Hynes, “technical expertise of
warfare,” is a description of one aspect of professional
qualification, a component of specialized knowledge
required to be a member of the Army Profession.6 It
is also embedded in one of the five essential characteristics of the Army Profession, that being military
expertise.7 The second and third concepts of the article,
“trust between itself and the American public” and
“awareness of the professional responsibilities pursuant to that trust” are foundational concepts that nest
with Army doctrine.8 Trust is an essential characteristic of the Army Profession. It is the essence of the
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relationship between society and the profession. This
trust results in empowerment of the profession to
self-govern, regulate, and certify its members. ADRP 1
outlines the criteria for evaluating whether the Army
Civilian Corps is in or out: five aspects of a profession, and the five essential characteristics of the Army
Pr