What is there to gain by following orders?

Understanding the orders at a personal level is not relevant to following them. You may not know why an order has been given - it may seem counterintuitive to you, or it may seem incomplete or misguided. Your orders have been distilled from a complex series of decisions and interactions between your superiors and the situation at hand, and they represent the combined training, knowledge and intuition of those above you.

By understanding and following your orders, you gain clarity of purpose, removal of uncertainty in your actions, and the confidence and ease that training brings.

How does following orders affect the battlefield?

There are many principles of war, each of which are affected directly at the most basic level by the ground-level soldier following their orders. Among many others, these principles include: Concentration of Mass, Unity of Command, and Economy of Force.

Unity of Command - That which ensures that all units deployed on the battlefield are under a single commander - requires that all units under that commander follow the intent of his or her orders and do not inject their own agendas.

Concentration of Mass - Brings the overwhelming effects of massed combat power at the decisive time and place. A broken order within the chain can destroy the advantage of combined arms and ruin a massive strike.

Economy of Force - Dictates that minimum essential power is given to secondary objectives, and this ensures that adequate and ample combat power is available for decisive encounters.

These are but three of ten principles of war by which your officers abide. Even in this small sample, the importance of following orders can be readily seen.