Importance of Formation in Army

In the military accountability is very important. Your NCOs need to keep accountability at all times, the need to know where you are going to be so they find you in case you have formations, or something else important comes up. If you are not accounted for and your NCO does not know where you are a lot of things could happen as far as being listed as AWOL. You could get in so much trouble over being in a AWOL status like an article 15 or worse, prison time.

Accountability is also very important during deployments. Being deployed is a serious situation. Anything could happen out there. Your NCO must know where you are at all times. It's a serious issue when someone is not accounted for while deployed. If you come up unaccounted for the company will need all personnel for one hundred percent accountability. If that missing person still doesn't show. He or she is listed as AWOL and a search occurs. Now, most cases the soldier just didn't let their NCO know where he or she was. In other cases the soldier was having life issues and couldn't handle it anymore. When you are found consequences will occur such as an article 15 which includes extra duty, loss of pay and loss of rank. Some people like myself can't afford for this to happen as most of us have families.

Formations are one way to keep accountability. You may have three formations a day. One for the rising of the flag, one before starting your work day and one at the end of the day and lowering of the flag. If you are not there this could happen lited above, or a negative counseling statement. It is also important because it tells the unit commanders how many personnel are available to perform certain tasks. If a leader does not know how many troops are available then he/she will not know who is available to do what.

Being accountable means being dependable, arriving to work, and appointments on time, meeting deadlines, being in the right place at the right time, and doing the right things at all times even when no one is looking. Being accountable also includes being in the right uniform, and having all necessary equipment, gear, and documents that you might need for that day in order to accomplish that days mission.