# Conflicting orders in military -- what's an MP to do? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 19, 2005, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conflicting-orders-in-military-whats-an-mp-to-do/304604 "2005-05-19T17:13:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conflicting-orders-in-military-whats-an-mp-to-do/304604/21 "2005-05-23T04:42:00Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Others have already said that a soldier is expected first and foremost to obey orders from within his own chain of command. But isn’t the Commander in Chief in everybody’s chain of command? If you take the guy you answer directly to, and the guy he answers to, and so on up the line, don’t you inevitably get to the C in C? So in this hypothetical situation (which strikes me as somewhat implausible, but then what do I know), the soldier is receiving conflicting orders from two people both in his chain of command, one of whom is higher than the other. If the CINC has his authority removed by court action (i.e. he’s stripped of his job), he’s not in your chain of command. He may be a Colonel, but he’s no longer _your_ Colonel. Tripler Make sense? ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conflicting-orders-in-military-whats-an-mp-to-do/304604/22 "2005-05-23T06:21:36Z")
Three words: Chain of command [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conflicting-orders-in-military-whats-an-mp-to-do/304604.md?page=1)