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Decisions at the ballot box influence policies that support engineering standards and public safety.December 2013
ON ETHICS
Engineers’ Creed Inspires Army Engineers
Since 1954, the Engineers’ Creed has compelled engineers to not only advance their professional knowledge and skills, but to pledge to serve ethically and for the betterment of humanity. NSPE recently gave the U.S. Army Engineers permission to use the creed to foster professionalism at its engineer school at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and across the regiment.
When Regimental Command Sergeant Major Kendrick Butler first read the Engineers’ Creed earlier this year, it changed his outlook on the Army Engineers and the engineering profession. “The more I read the Engineers’ Creed, it increased the amount of pride I have to be affiliated with the engineers,” recalls Butler, a noncommissioned officer who has served 28 years in the military. He advocated for the creed to become a more prominent part of the regiment’s vision and the leadership training within the school.
The rise of the Army Engineers dates back to the American Revolution. The engineer school maintains a vision of training a “regiment of engineer warriors leading to serve maneuver forces and inspired to overcome all challenges to enable victory now and in the future.” The creed will now be linked with that vision. It will be displayed at the U.S. Army Engineer Museum and posted on the school’s knowledge network. The creed will also be used in ceremonies to convey the importance of what it means to be an engineer.
Butler has memorized the creed and he takes each opportunity to recite it when he addresses audiences at the school. Currently, students in a leadership course are being challenged to study the creed and write an essay on what it means to them. The best essay will be published in Army Engineer magazine. “We, as engineers, call ourselves problem solvers and this creed fits exactly what we do,” says Butler.
Engineers’ Creed
As a Professional Engineer, I dedicate my professional knowledge and skill to the advancement and better of human welfare.
I pledge:
To give the utmost of performance;
To participate in none but honest enterprise;
To live and work according to the laws of man and the highest standards of professional conduct;
To place service before profit, the honor and standing of the profession before personal advantage, and the public welfare above all other considerations.
In humility and with need for Divine Guidance, I make this pledge.
(Adopted by the National Society of Professional Engineers in June 1954)
