Importance of being on time USMC

Being at the appropriate place of duty at the correct time is a very important part of being in the Marine Corps. Being at the right place at the right time for any member of the Armed forces is extremely essential to the defense of the entire United States. Also being at the right place at the right time ensures a steady workplace, and ultimately the reliablity that others have on us. A Marine can not move up in the ranks in the Marine Corps if he or she is constantly late and/or at the wrong place.

A Marine who truly wants to succeed in the military must go out of his or her way to get squared away and be on time to his or her place of duty or consequences will be bestowed upon them.

Why Being Punctual is Essential for the Military

This concept goes for any person in any career not just the military. Of course being on time in the Marine Corps is being at your appointed place of duty fifteen minutes prior to the actual time of that was ordered.

Dependability, accountability, consistency and discipline are all crucially related to being on time. Being early also shows that the individual aims high and has their priorities straight. It is directly related to a Marines appearance, combat readiness, mission effectiveness, and essentially every aspect of military life and responsibilities. Your appearance is the first thing that a leader sees, if you have a bad or no shave, no haircut (for males), tardiness, bad physical appearance, drunk or hungover to an extreme. Then automatically you have given off a bad appearance, they don’t want to go to you for big things, important things, because you can not even handle the simplest things.

How Being on Time Shows Reliability

If you are unable to complete simple things, then when the time comes how will you even be close to doing something truly challenging. You may work hard and complete tasks faster than any of your other peers, but if your appearance is bad, then your leader are not even looking they already have a mindset, a negative mind set. All you have in life is your credablity, once it is gone in one persons eyes, you have to put in way more effort restoring that, compared to the effort that it would have required to maintain your ablility to be relied on.

Failure to be on time not only hinders mission capability and readiness, but also can cost unnecessary life lives in or out of combat. For instance; a Marine is late or does not report at all to his place of duty as ordered. In an extreme case a Marine not being on time to relieve the current Marine on post would cause the combat effectiveness and readiness of this Marine to be greatly reduced. This would be caused by fatigue, or lack of supplies needed. As a result of this Marines combat effectiveness he could be compromised and the security of the area could be over run. This is why being where one needs to be at the correct time will always be one of the most important aspects of being in the military.

Why Being on Time is Important on Battlefield

These things do happen on the battle field, whether it be friendly of enemy. However, This can be avoided by, once again, being on time. This is also why being on time remains and always will be an extreme aspect of military bearing and discipline. If you can not be on time, it is said that you have no discipline. Without discipline there is no way for Marines to efficiently fight and win against the enemy. And if we cannot defeat our enemies then there will no longer be a need for Marines. There is nearly no excuse for being late, or not reporting to your rightful place of duty at the right time.

Accountability also goes hand in hand with being on time. Which ranges from being on time for the first formation of the day, being on time to relieve a fellow Marine from his post, or being on time to provide critical reinforcements for a unit that has been weakened and compromised in battle. The were about of a Marine is of extremely important at all times. As people say, how a Marine trains is how a Marine fights. If this term is true someone can only come to the conclusion that if a Marine isn’t on time how can he save and protect the lives of other Marines. He or she can’t be depended upon if they aren’t disciplined enough to be on time every time he is ordered to be. Dependability is the key to discipline and if you cant be on time then you wont be depended on, and you are then useless to others. In other words, in military life there is simply no margin for error regarding being late or tardiness.