Physical Security in the Army

The Army regulation regarding Physical Security is which states: That part of security concerned with physical measures designed to safeguard personnel, to prevent unauthorized access to equipment, installations, material and documents, and to safeguard them against espionage, sabotage, damage, and theft. The importance of maintaining accountability of your equipment as a U. S. Army As a Soldier is that I’m responsible for maintaining accountability for everything I am signed for.

Meaning that I am to know where everything is that i’m signed for, and to ensuring that it is also secure. I should also be more cautious with Sensitive items such as my weapon, raido, body armor, kevlar, NBC Mask and so on. These are not just items for my personal use, they are a part of my combat uniform and necessary to complete my mission should it go down the shitter. Accountability of your sensitive items is important. To lose a sensitive item can be detrimental to the readiness of your unit in times of war or training.

The consequences of losing sensitive items varies from item to item according to its value and importance. There are many other punishments such as life in prison. To lose a sensitive item can also be a violation of the army values. It violates the values of Duty and Integrity. It violates duty because without the proper equipment you cannot perform your duties. You also let down your platoon and/ or squad by not knowing where your items are.

It violates the integrity of yourself by letting your platoon down. Your platoon counts on you to make sure you know where all your items are. If the enemy get a hold of them it makes for a very bad day. The enemy would like nothing more than to get a hold of or weapon systems and our radios. The enemy wants to know everything about how the militaryworks and about our operations. In times of war the more sensitive an item is the more the enemy craves the item. You should never leave equipment lyingaround.

If you see that your battle buddy has leftany equipment lying around no matter what it is from patrol cap to an SKL Secure it and make sure you let them know off line the mistake they have made. It does not matter what rank they are. So, it is very important to secure all your sensitive equipment and items, and maintain accountability. The reason simply is to keep very important high costvalued items and equipment 700 accounted for so people all around you do not have to deal with the consequences of the lost item or equipment.

Also every sensitve item or equipment is high dollar valued so if you lose it you will be hurting money wise by losing a grand or more easily right on the spot. And after that you can possibly do jail time from six months to a year and sure their will be rank taken away or something along those lines. You might even get an article fifteen after all that or maybe when you have to pay for the lost sensitive equipment or item so these should be a main priority to maintainand know where they are at all times and are accounted for either battle buddy.

According to FM 7-21. 13 Chapter 3 on Duties and Responsibilities of the Individual Soldier: “Duties are general requirements to be performed. Duty begins with everything required of you by law, regulation, and orders“, but it includes much more than that, a duty is a legal or moral obligation. Each soldier has a obligation to his/her team, to his or her section, and to the rest of his or her unit to keep constant accountability of their individually issued items.

If these obligations were to be thwarted in any way, this would cost his or her unit time the length of time used in obtaining new equipment, personnel resources and manpower that could be utilized otherwise in accomplishing mission critical tasks, and financial resources at any costs incurred to the unit itself. FM 7-21. 13 also states that “responsibility is the legally established and moral obligation a soldier assumes for his or her own actions, accomplishments and failures.

Every soldier is responsible for performing his or her duty to the very best of his or her ability and for trying to improve his or her performance. For example, soldiers are also responsible for their personal conduct and appearance. Also, every soldier is responsible for his or her own physical fitness. And just as personal fitness and appearance is the responsibility of every soldier, so should accountability of personal equipment. Every soldier in the Army assumed this personal responsibility when they took their enlistment oath.