The central question of this study is whether the U.S. Army provides adequate training for Special Forces soldiers to make ethical decisions on the battlefield. The value of this study is that it may have an impact on future Special Forces training. This thesis provides observations outlining the particular needs of Special Forces soldiers with traditional ethical decision-making training conducted by the U.S. Army. The conclusion of this research suggests that the level of ethical decision-making skills for Special Forces soldiers is adequate. Yet, this study offers two recommendations. The most important is the need for continued study in the field of ethical decision making. The second is to examine ethical decision making for the command and control elements, the unit leaders, of Special Forces organizations. The goal of battlefield ethics is unsupervised predictability of soldier conduct. An interesting observation from the research is that ethical decision training must include dilemma resolution. The SF soldier must be prepared to resolve the emotional responses of ethical decision making. In this way Special Forces soldiers are better prepared to operate on the battlefield.

ADA 255150 Approved for public release; Distribution is unlimited. The opinions and conclusions expressed herein are those of the student-authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College or any other governmental agency. (References to these studies should include the foregoing statement.)