Authority cannot exist without obedience. Society is built on this small but important concept. Without authority and its required obedience, there would be only anarchy and chaos. But how much is too much or too little? There is a fine line between blindly following and irrational refusal to obey those in a position of significant authority. Obedience to authority is a real and powerful force that must be understood and respected to best manage every situation. To better understand how much pressure and stress can be caused by those in authority, allow me to share a personal experience. Sweating, I stood at attention before the flight captain and my training instructor, Sergeant Garr. I wasn't entirely sure how I got here, and now I was being asked to lie to the highest ranking officer I'd ever met. I had two choices: lie and take responsibility for the mistake, or stick to my principles and suffer the consequences. Let's start a little further back in history. I had joined the Air Force in May of 2004 and was sent to the Military Entry Processing Station in Minneapolis, Minnesota that same month. This is where you are subjected to a series of tests, ranging from tests that measure your physical abilities to your ability to read aloud. It takes place over 2 days, and upon successful completion, you will be flown to San Antonio, Texas to enter basic military training. Here, at BMT, I found myself, weeks later, being questioned by my training instructor about a discrepancy in my medical record. . There is a test that is done before you leave for BMT, a simple test that measures your ability to lift dead weights from the ground above your head, known as the X-Factor. Sergeant Garr h...... center of paper ......xander and Stephen Reicher. “Beyond Stanford: Questioning a Role-Based Explanation of Tyranny.” Bulletin of the Society of Personality and Social Psychology. 18 (2003): 22-25. Milgram, Stanley. “The dangers of obedience”. Writing and reading across the curriculum.” 9th ed. Ed. Laurence Behrens and Leonard Rose. New York: Longman, 2005. 313-324. Szegedy-Maszak, Marianne. “The Abu Ghraib Prison Scandal: Sources of Sadism.” Writing and reading across the curriculum.” 9th ed. Ed. Laurence Behrens and Leonard Rose. New York:Longman, 2005. 302-304.Zimbardo, Philip G. “The Stanford Prison Experiment.” Writing and reading across the curriculum.” 9th ed. Ed. Laurence Behrens and Leonard Rose. New York: Longmann, 2005. 344-355.