“The young man who does not have what it takes to perform military service is not likely to have what it takes to make a living. Today’s military rejects include tomorrow’s hard-core unemployed.”

- President John Fitzgerald Kennedy

“In cases of necessity, however, they are sometimes obliged to make levies in the cities. And these men, as soon as enlisted, should be taught to work on entrenchments, to march in ranks, to carry heavy burdens, and to bear the sun and dust. Their meals should be coarse and moderate, they should be accustomed to lie sometimes in the open air and sometimes in tents. After this, they should be instructed in the use of their arms. And if any long expedition is planned, they should encamped as far as possible from the temptations of the city. By these precautions their minds, as well as their bodies, will be properly prepared for the service.”

– Flavius Vegetius Renatus, Book I: The Selection and Training of New Levies, “De Re Militari” (On the Military), 378 A.D.

“All a soldier needs to know is how to shoot and salute.”

- General John J. Pershing

“An army of deer led by a lion is more to be feared than an army of lions led by a deer."

-Chabrias, Athenian General, 4th century B.C.

Kent Durgan8 hours ago

“Imagine that, the 21st century hand held trophy getting pat on the back for everything millennial doesn't fit in with the disciplined professional military? Never saw that coming...☺”

LOL! Yeah, America's youth are all pampered weaklings who throw like girls. So what else is new, eh? As troubling as this might sound to many, this is mostly alarmist talk. Fake news in other words. The country is falling part without a doubt, but this isn’t indicative of it. America won’t lose its next war because its young men are soft, it will lose because it’s political leaders lack the will to win.

Actually the real problem the U.S. Army faces now with its initial entry training is that ten weeks of basic training isn’t nearly enough time to teach all the skills that would be useful for a soldier to know on the 21st Century battlefield The list of necessary skills has grown considerably since Pershing’s day, so the modern Army is forever forced to cram ten pounds of shit into a five bag when it comes to basic training time. Thus the Army leadership has to set priorities on what skills should take precedence in the training schedule. This assessment is based on available time and money as well as what’s needed on the battlefield right now. Contrary to popular belief, the U.S. Army isn’t a hive mind like the ‘Borg’, so there isn’t uniform agreement on what training should take precedence. There can be much vociferous discussion on the matter before the final decision is made. Keep in mind that only 15% of soldiers will become Infantry these days. Basic is very likely to be the one and only time in the enlistment of non-Infantry and non-SF Military Occupation Specialty (MOS) soldiers that they will get to throw a grenade. War or no war. For that reason much infantry focused training that was heretofore conducted during basic training (like for example the bayonet assault course where you get to traverse an obstacle course while you stab and slash the tire dummies) is now conducted in Infantry Advanced Individual Training (AIT). The boot camp bag just wasn’t big enough to hold it all the crap anymore.

Anyway, now the Army has decided to spend less time having soldiers practice throwing dummy hand grenades in boot camp and more time on hand to hand combat. And the Army is spending a LOT more time on hand to hand combat training than it did back in the late 20th Century. That is the real news here. Way back when, the joke was that Army hand to hand combat training taught you enough to get the livin’ shit beat out of you in a real street fight. That was unfortunately way too close to the truth. Back in the day you were given about four to six hours of instruction in which you were taught a dozen or so judo throws and trips and various other desultory moves. Of course that was nowhere near enough practice time to develop any real proficiency in those techniques to where you could hope to use them effectively in actual combat. Plus there was no venue through which one could seek further instruction following basic. Now however the Army intends to spend 33 hours in basic teaching each new recruit a fighting system based on Brazilian Jiu Jitsu: ‘Army Combatives’. Consequently the recruit will come away from the training actually knowing and understanding techniques he will be able to use in a fight. If nothing else BJJ positional theory will equip the new soldier with a workable battle plan for H2H combat: close the distance, gain a dominant position, finish the fight. The new Combatives system provides for further instruction throughout a soldier’s career and established a competitive tournament system as well to encourage further study of Army Combatives. Likewise the first aid training that soldiers are receiving before they head into the war zone is ages ahead of what it was years ago. If you get hit your buddy is able to do a lot more for you now than just yell for the medic. Army medics themselves now become certified to be civilian EMTs upon separation from the service.

AIT to qualify the soldier for his MOS is even more intense these days. For the more technical specialties it can be like attending a two year associate’s degree course at a technical college crammed into just four to six months. The student spends eight hours a day in class five days a week you understand, so an entire sub-course might be presented inside a week, with a test at the end of it. Some of this specialty training has high washout rates because of the compressed and accelerated pace at which the advanced material is presented. The Army doesn’t have time to waste and neither does the trainee. Foreign language training is one of the most demanding under this regimen, as one might except, but the upside is that the student comes out at the end of the course fluent in the new tongue, having been coached in all the nuances of the language by instructors who are native speakers.

Low Recruit Discipline Prompts Army to Redesign Basic Training

US Army general says new recruits are not strong enough to throw grenades

Military training and historical blindness

I don’t get it? Is there something wrong with our service members being drunk and naked? Our ancient Celtic and Scandinavian forbearers used to fight drunk and naked, didn’t they? Maybe the Seabees should adopt that as their new moto: “Pugna Nudus!” (Fight Naked!) I mean this is 2018. All those puritanical and excessively modest and restrained codes of conduct promoted by the Abrahamic monotheistic religions are supposed have been discarded by all enlightened people by now. Allowed to fall by the wayside, consigned to the dustbin of history and all that. And why fire the battalion commander and the command master chief over the battalion XO’s inebriated exhibitionistic indiscretion? Are they somehow complicit in something that nobody is even supposed to care about anymore anyway?

Three Navy Unit Leaders Fired After XO Reportedly Found Naked in Woods

Commanding Officer Cmdr. James Cho (left), Executive Officer Lt. Cmdr. Jason Gabbard (center) , and Command Master Chief Jason Holden (right) have all been removed from their posts. (U.S. Navy Photos)

World War Update.

From the things are tough all over department. The British Army has become so diverse and inclusive it won’t let anybody join anymore.

read:

Would-be soldiers dropping out of army recruitment process because it 'takes too long'

It reportedly takes as long as 300 days to complete an application.

Fighting Smart: Boxing, Agonistics & Survival