The responsibility of being a role model must be taken very seriously. Compassion in leadership is necessary to reinforce strong values in soldiers. Through a strong value system, soldiers will be able to accept their role as humanitarians as well as the role of war-fighters. Webster's II New Riverside University Dictionary , The Riverside Publishing Company, Boston, 1984. The Army leadership values include the gift of compassion.
Compassion describes a way of being and acting.
It speaks of empathy, being with, and feeling with the other person in their sorrows of life, the pain and heart brokenness that comes into each life. This pain can either embitter or mellow a person on the journey of life. Somehow, we experience the pain as we relate to the other person. A leader in the Army should possess understanding as a form of compassion. Understanding the other person, as they relate to us with a compassionate heart can be a form of compassion as deep within, we somehow understand what they are experiencing and through this understanding, we can help to alleviate the pain and sorrow.