I thought - Wow, that's Old Corps.
Posted on 03/16/2010 4:12:45 AM PDT by decimon
FORT JACKSON, S.C. – At 5 a.m. on the Army's largest training base, soldiers grunt through the kinds of stretches, body twists and bent-leg raises that might be seen in an "ab blaster" class at a suburban gym.
Adapting to battlefield experience in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Army is revamping its basic training regimen for the first time in three decades by nixing five-mile runs and bayonet drills in favor of zigzag sprints and honing core muscles.
Trainers hope the switch will better prepare soldiers physically for the pace of combat, with its sudden dashes and rolling gun battles. They also want to toughen recruits who are often more familiar with Facebook than fistfights.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Question: How much did that affect the 'balance' of your rifle when you needed to bring it on target?
The idea of a bayonet is way beyond a pointy "thingie" on the end of a rifle. It is about "blood lust" and the mental state needed to close with the enemy and destroy him.
It is about the command "fix bayonets" and knowing what is coming next. Putting on your "war face", running forward, screaming at the top of your lungs, parrying your opponents thrust, delivering a vertical butt stroke and then stabbing and ripping the guts out of your enemy.
It is about a noncom standing in front of a training company on the bayonet course hollering out the question "What Is The Spirit Of the Bayonet", and a hundred plus voices answering back..."To Kill"!
From what I learned , Army training is reflecting what it's learning in the field. Drill and Ceremonies have taken a lesser role, and they are spending more time on the trigger and with other weapon systems.
There ‘s no KP and other BS. Just good “from the field” knowledge being passed on by drill sgts who have had three or more deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. They are using a lot of techniques that once were reserved for Rangers only.
I also learned that other MOS training is nothing like Infantry training.
At Benning there is now a combined training with armor and mechanized units. These soldiers are learning to deploy out of Bradly's and Strikers, and are Very ready when they reach their units. They don't need the months of tuneups that were done in the past.
No more morning jogs up Tank Hill?!
Excuse me but I believe the weight is more like 75 or 85 lbs. That is the weight that the military has deemed maximum for soldiers in combat to carry and still do their job. This has been a rule for as long as I remember.
BTW, when I did basic we didn't run much either, but we did do long hikes with the full 75 lbs of gear that was required at the time(lots of hills on the route also).
I guess he means like the 400 1960s era soldiers that stood off thousands of Vietcong troops in the Ia Drang valley in 1965 and whipped their a**.
Extended Periods is a variable. When your mess kit is empty "extended periods" = "days". When your clip is empty "extended periods" = "seconds". Are modern day supply lines "seconds" away?
Also the present day soldier is mostly fighting against enemies who have no large organized force like a conventional army. So yeah supplies are easier to get. But someday they will be fighting against an enemy with the capability to disrupt supply lines.
You train for situations you hope the hell never happen!
Mess kit? Clip? You may be showing your age. lol
lol
No, I was in the 12th Bat. Co. D, 4/69 - 6/69. Ironically enough, they put us up in the barracks which hadn't been used in a long long time. They also forgot to call "Molly Maid" to come in and tidy them up for us before we moved in.......LOL!
In basic training, it was just that, cover all the military basics. I like shooting and was disappointed at the limited use we got on the range. I think we only had one day of range time with the M-14 after we were taught how to field strip and clean and even less with the then new M-16.
I wasn't an infantry MOS so I never saw a weapon again until I was assigned to my company in Panama. One day we were assigned M-16s from our own small armory and told to clean them for the CO's inspection. Then that was it, I never saw it again.........
You mean the Soldiers who then promptly got their asses whipped at LZ Albany?
Some of this stuff is kind of funny due to the dated experience. Nothing wrong with it, it’s just outdated.
No one in my entire BDE even issued their bayonets. They stayed in the arms room connexes. We all had knives, of course, ready to grab and use if we needed them, but real estate on your kit is at a premium, and a bayonet is just superfluous, and walking around looking like RoboCop with our body armor, M4s with optics and IR lasers, Oakley sunglasses, gloves, knee pads, etc, makes you plenty intimidating enough as it is. You’re the baddest dude on the block, and all the hajis know it.
And in response to the 200-lbs of gear claim...yeah, that’s BS. SF guys may carry that when they’re on an initial infil mission to make contact with a warlord of some sort, but the average Soldier’s weight is closer to 80-90 pounds. If you’re on a long range patrol (3-4 days), you’ll pack VERY carefully not to exceed that.
I have mixed feelings about the long runs. True, you NEVER do that in combat—it really is a lot of short sprints. However, long-distance runs lend themselves to general physical conditioning which is important in rapid acclimation to a brutal climate. The overall Warrior Ethos bent of this new training is VERY important. Too many of the soft skills branches especially suffer from a mentality of “well that’s an infantry kind of thing.” Not anymore.
Anyway, I’ve rambled on long enough. I do find this whole thing pretty interesting, though. We’ll see.
Our soldiers never lost a battle in Vietnam. You are an idiot. I guess you think the 1940s & 50s soldiers were terrible also. What a clown. I would put your age at about 25, if not younger. If you are older then there is no excuse for the BS you are peddling.
At least I’m not an asshole. And you’re still wrong. Two strikes, that sucks.
But then, you weren’t in the Army.
You’re an officer in the United States Army and that’s the way you talk to other Army vets?
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