The maintenance and accountability of the Army uniform is an important part of service. According to AR 670-1 “The Army is a profession. A Soldier’s appearance measures part of his or her professionalism. Proper wear of the Army uniform is a matter of personal pride for all Soldiers. It is indicative of esprit de corps and morale within a unit.” Therefore,  professionalism, morale, and esprit de corps are direct examples and results of the uniform. With these 3 major examples I will explain what I did wrong this Friday morning, and how these individual values are important, and can owe themselves to our uniforms.
A Professional according to the Oxford Languages is someone  “worthy of or appropriate to a professional person; competent, skillful, or assured” by this they mean that a title of a professional is earned by a person who is COMPETENT, SKILLFUL, or ASSURED. A competent person shows that he can show up to his job at the right time, and be able to do his job without having to be told or shown. When we see  a clean uniform, with no dirt or ink on it. We can assume that this person has his life put together, and doesn’t have anything keeping him from doing his job efficiently. The Skill of a person is shown in their uniform through attention to detail. The ability to get all measurements right shows that a soldier is very attentive in his tasks.  This attentiveness is essential for tasks that include maintaining weapons or vehicles. This shows that a soldier is more likely to recognize the difference between the sound a gun makes when it  jams or when it is out of ammo. When a soldier is assured. He is a confident individual. When a soldier shows up to work in a dirty messed up uniform he doesn’t appear to be a confident person. A confident person doesn’t overthink themselves, and gets in a jam because of it. A confident person makes a decision when the time comes. By having your uniform clean, and properly put together a soldier will appear as a confident imposing figure. These are all essential cores of professionalism. Which are all shown when you have your uniform in order.
Morale according to jstor.org is the “conditioned quality, in the individual soldier and in the unit of command, which holds the soldier, holds the unit, to the performance of duty despite every opposing force or influence. This means command and obedience, at every level down to or up. To the individual man.” Morale basically means the soldier's ability to do his job despite the unfortunate circumstances of his situation. The “conditioned quality, in the individual soldier and in the unit of command” is a reference towards the professionalism of a soldier. Without the professionalism of the soldier, that soldier can not have the  morale needed for his job. The “conditioned quality” is the individual soldier's built up morale after the constant task and trials they’ve had to go through to transform them from an individual civilian to a soldier and member of a team. This transformation is shown on the soldier’s uniform. The soldier starting from basic training, has the rank of private or specialist on his chest, and no unit insignia on his right shoulder. Through constantly pushing on and keeping the right attitude the soldier graduates basic training, and moves on to his unit. This earns him the patch of his individual army unit that  he will wear on his right shoulder. The uniform helps to show the individual soldier’s journey, and throughout his journey his morale during the tough times helps to keep him cleaning his uniform and making sure it’s in the right shape for his time on duty. If the individual soldier’s uniform is in shit shape (meaning he does not have a clean uniform, with correct measurements)  it shows he does not care, and has a low morale, and low morale can spread like a plague which leads to my last point.
Esprit de corps is according to Oxford Languages “a feeling of pride and mutual loyalty shared by the members of a group” for a military force stationed across seas this is a major deal of importance. The feeling of trust for your fellow comrade, and the belief that this military force can accomplish any task the United States of America’s government demands that it do is even more important for a group stationed amongst an alien culture. The understanding amongst men that when they are far from home that they can still count on each other is a necessity beyond any doubt. While many things can lead to a unit having crappy esprit de corps having a uniform in shit shape is most certainly a factor. If you show up to work in a crappy uniform with no care in the world this can lead to your teammates not trusting you. Leading them to constantly be worried because of the slack of one groupmate who can’t even put together a clean proper uniform. Another situation to consider is if this soldier showed up with a uniform in shit shape and his leadership didn’t care at all. What would this tell the other guys in the unit? Let’s say this soldier continued on to get awards and promotions. Even then he’s not put to the standard. Well it would tell the other guys that they shouldn’t care at all, and if they can’t care enough to take care of a uniform how can anyone trust them with deadly weapons and leading men into battle. 
Low morale spreads like a plague, and a way it can be stopped is by enforcing the uniform standard. If I come away from this Essay with a better outlook towards my uniform I will continue to improve as a soldier. If I take the time even in the field to work on the little things on my uniform like making my boots clean, and that my wings are properly aligned I will gain the focus and motivation to accomplish the harder task no matter the circumstance.