Training Never Stops
This is Steven Petrick Posting.
One of the things that is difficult to get across to people is that you do not train a soldier once, and that is it. Much like a football team (or any other sports team) the soldier has to constantly practice his/her skills so that when the time for "the big game" comes he can perform at an optimum level.
And this never stops.
Any soldier who enters the military can expect to be trained continuously simply because, as in sports, new items will enter the inventory and new "plays" will be developed. In the combat arms the new plays are tactics to overcome changes in the enemy's tactics that are themselves adjustments to the changes made in our tactics.
The only constant when it comes to tactics is change. While some things remain constant (i.e., the high ground is an advantage), others change (the interval between moving men must be reduced under conditions of lowered visibility).
Every Private is trying to learn the job of his Sergeant, and every Sergeant is trying to learn the job of the next ranking Sergeant (just as every officer is trying to learn the job of the next ranking officer).
What can really seem odd is that if a unit is going to be in a fixed position for a prolonged time, training will continue. You have to make sure that your junior enlisted men know how to use the range card on the machinegun. Because even if the machinegun's crew is not injured by enemy action, it could happen that the enemy might attack while the primary crew of the machinegun is away having dental treatment, and someone has to man that gun. New men coming into the unit (perhaps as replacements for men who have finished their tours and are being rotated home, or men who have been promoted to new jobs) have to taught local Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) as part of integrating them into the unit.
No one should go into the military with the idea that once he completes his basic he will have no more training.
And no politician should think of soldiers or other members of the military as simply a bunch of people sitting around (during times of peace) getting "paid to do nothing" or "part of the welfare system". Effective soldiers (and airmen, Marines, and Sailors) are constantly being trained so that when the time comes (and even they hope that it never will) they can be as effective as possible in the defense of those who disparage them for having made the choice to defend their country.
One of the things that is difficult to get across to people is that you do not train a soldier once, and that is it. Much like a football team (or any other sports team) the soldier has to constantly practice his/her skills so that when the time for "the big game" comes he can perform at an optimum level.
And this never stops.
Any soldier who enters the military can expect to be trained continuously simply because, as in sports, new items will enter the inventory and new "plays" will be developed. In the combat arms the new plays are tactics to overcome changes in the enemy's tactics that are themselves adjustments to the changes made in our tactics.
The only constant when it comes to tactics is change. While some things remain constant (i.e., the high ground is an advantage), others change (the interval between moving men must be reduced under conditions of lowered visibility).
Every Private is trying to learn the job of his Sergeant, and every Sergeant is trying to learn the job of the next ranking Sergeant (just as every officer is trying to learn the job of the next ranking officer).
What can really seem odd is that if a unit is going to be in a fixed position for a prolonged time, training will continue. You have to make sure that your junior enlisted men know how to use the range card on the machinegun. Because even if the machinegun's crew is not injured by enemy action, it could happen that the enemy might attack while the primary crew of the machinegun is away having dental treatment, and someone has to man that gun. New men coming into the unit (perhaps as replacements for men who have finished their tours and are being rotated home, or men who have been promoted to new jobs) have to taught local Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) as part of integrating them into the unit.
No one should go into the military with the idea that once he completes his basic he will have no more training.
And no politician should think of soldiers or other members of the military as simply a bunch of people sitting around (during times of peace) getting "paid to do nothing" or "part of the welfare system". Effective soldiers (and airmen, Marines, and Sailors) are constantly being trained so that when the time comes (and even they hope that it never will) they can be as effective as possible in the defense of those who disparage them for having made the choice to defend their country.
posted by Federation Commander at 9:42 AM
<< Home