Patrick Dillon
Fysm-120
Chuck Powell
Discipline
I both agree and disagree with the discipline quote by Major General John M. Schofield. Knowing discipline is essential as a leader and knowing how to discipline is even more important. “The discipline which makes the soldiers of a free country reliable in battle is not to be gained by harsh or tyrannical treatment. On the contrary, such treatment is far more likely to destroy than to make an army.” I couldn’t agree more with this statement from General Schofield because he is saying that it is important to know your limits and in order to be a great leader you must have the respect of your followers or in this case your troops. A great example of this is in the movie Glory, when Private Trip disobeyed orders and then was beat as punishment. Obviously there must be a punishment if rules were broken, but in my opinion the way Trip was whipped was completely uncalled for and even brought tears to his eyes. Personally, I think that this was not a great example of leadership on Shaws’ behalf but, some might disagree. I feel that with this act Shaw lost the respect of many of the African American troops. Cournel Shaw quickly redeemed himself when he learned the reason Trip left base was to get himself a pair of shoes. He then went out of his way to get all of his soldiers shoes and socks. Knowing that continuously going out of his way for his African American troops could jeopardize his role, he continued to do so until he got what he wanted and that is being a great leader.