International and budgetary pressures are causing some military members to diminish their fealty to civilian control. At the same time, today’s officers inherit decades of relative public trust within a form of government inherently wary of standing militaries. They will best maintain that position when their words and deeds follow the Constitution with its stipulation of civilian control. The military’s moral authority will not withstand its senior leaders succumbing to the temptation to determine policy rather than carry it out. Yet the civil-military underpinning of officership has not been sufficiently resourced. Far greater attention is needed to educating the officer corps to the requirements as well as the potential of adherence to Constitutional principles