Warrior Culture – MAJGEN Chris Smith

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Mar 30, 2025

In this engaging conversation, MAJGEN Chris Smith, the Deputy Chief of the Australian Army, shares insights on warrior culture. He stresses the need for a culture that prioritizes team success over individual accolades, highlighting loyalty, discipline, and moral restraint. Smith critiques romanticized soldiering, emphasizing the importance of melding personal values with national expectations. He discusses historical examples and the ethical dilemmas faced in combat, advocating for a resilient and principled warrior ethos in modern military training.

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INSIGHT

Warrior Culture's Vital Importance

Warrior culture is vital yet under-discussed in senior leadership.
It embodies strength that aligns with societal expectations and military purpose.

INSIGHT

Discipline Over Individual Glory

The ideal warrior culture focuses on discipline, teamwork, and mission over individual status.
Historical contrast: disciplined Roman legions vs undisciplined Germanic tribes illustrates this.

INSIGHT

Selflessness Defines Warrior Culture

Success demands subjugating individual desires to the team and cause.
True warrior culture values selflessness and duty over personal recognition.

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‘Nations that win wars are those that subjugate the individual for the team or more importantly the cause for which you are fighting.’ In this week’s episode, we sit down with the Deputy Chief of Army, MAJGEN Chris Smith to discuss warrior culture. Join us as we try to define the warrior culture that we ought to aspire to in the Australian Army.

Warrior culture, MAJGEN Chris Smith argues, needs to be a culture that wins battles, and by extension wins wars. It must sustain morale and a fighting spirit. It needs to imbue soldiers with the ability to kill. It must be a noble culture with an element of restraint, mirroring the expectations of the society that sends us to protect it. It needs a strong sense of loyalty, loyalty to the government and the cause for which we fight for. It must include an obedience to the lawful orders of the chain of command complimented by a strong sense of discipline.

Many have experienced combat; few have experienced war. Particularly the war we are planning for. War looks more like what was fought in Europe during WW1 or our own experience in the pacific during WWII. When looking for ideals, we ought to question when an individual becomes more obsessed with how they appear, coming up with some sort of call or warrior appearance rather than why they fight. Vanity shows a disrespect for the business we are in.

MAJGEN Chris Smith uses stories from Gladiator, the 1st and 2nd AIF, the story of Achillies and Hector, and the Kibeho Massacre in Rwanda in 1995 to discuss or start to define the needs of a modern warrior culture for the Australian Army. In war, he argues, there exists Sheep, Sheep Dogs and Wolves citing Dave Grossman’s On Killing. In war, we ought to be the Sheep Dogs that protect the Sheep; however, ever present is the tendency to drift into becoming a Wolf.

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The Cove Podcast was given explicit permission to use the snippet of audio that contains the US Army Sergeant Major from The Jedburgh Podcast. To listen to the full episode, listen to The Jedburgh Podcast Episode #143: There’s No Do-overs In The Next Fight – Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Weimer