Support and Defend: Why the Military Must Train Service Members in the Constitution

While Service members receive regular training in everything from basic military skills to safeguarding personally identifiable information, they receive no formal training in understanding the very document that the military exists to protect.7 This lack of knowledge about the Constitution's design and structure, coupled with the zeal instilled and training provided by military service, is a potentially dangerous combination. [...]training need not transform riflemen into constitutional law experts, but it should be enough to inoculate them against the efforts of those who would deceive them about what the Constitution actually says and requires of the few who have sworn an oath to defend it. A recent survey of American adults showed that 33 percent of respondents could not name a single branch of the U.S. Government, and 37 percent were unable to name a single right protected by the First Amendment.15 However, where the risks of constitutional illiteracy concern those who have been trained and entrusted with the security of our nation, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.16 TAL LtCol Douvas is the Vice Chair of the Criminal Law Department at The Judge Advocate General's Legal Center and School in Charlottesville, Virginia. Notably, federal law "requires Federal agencies to provide new employees with educational and training materials on the U.S. Constitution as part of the new employee orientation materials; and provide