U.S. troops attitudes towards firing on U.S. citizens. Threats to unit cohesion. The Combat Arms Survey was designed by Lt. Cdr. Guy Cunningham, USN as part of the requirements for his Masters Degree program at the Naval Postgraduate School, Montery, California. The survey contained 46 questions.
Several factors can degrade unit cohesion and subsequently, combat effectiveness.
A survey was conducted on 300 U.S. Marine Corps soldiers. The results revealed that non-traditional missions were acceptable to a majority of the soldiers if these missions were conducted in the United States and under U.S. operational control. When the question shifted to missions conducted outside the U.S., however, a notable shift towards negative responses occurred. The most significant responses were to missions conducted under United Nations operational control. Fully 64.0 percent of the soldiers disagreed with participation in any of the missions listed when under United Nations operational control.