[Reverend Wright]

There is a larger issue with the NATO NCO strategy: in a multi-year peer war, most of the troops you started with end up as casualties by the end of year one - especially junior officers and NCOs.

The survivors end up as trainers for the people on the battlefield in years two and three.

If NCOs take years to train, and most of them end up as casualties after year one, where are the experienced NCOs going to come from in years two and beyond ?

[MuttTheHoople]

In the US military, nobody becomes an NCO without training to be an NCO. The US military puts a lot of responsibility on even its junior enlisted men.

This starts even in Basic training, where we were trained by our Drill Sergeants on how to establish a base perimeter and command what troops were left.

We were also trained to realize that even as a junior enlisted man, the lives of hundreds of fellow troops relied on how well you performed. My ARMY Drill Sergeant told us the story of Doug Hegdahl, a teenaged NAVY sailor blown off the deck of a ship and captured by the North Vietnamese. Because of his resourcefulness, he possibly saved the lives of hundreds of his fellow POW's.

This reminded us to take our training very seriously.