Posted on 08/04/2004 6:59:41 PM PDT by neverdem
WASHINGTON, Aug. 3 - The United States Army is pressing into place sweeping changes in its basic training program, introducing rigorous new drills and intensive work on combat skills to prepare recruits for immediate missions to Iraq and Afghanistan.
In what officers describe as the most striking changes to basic training since the Vietnam era, soldiers whose specialties traditionally kept them far from the front - clerks, cooks, truck drivers and communications technicians - will undergo far more stressful training. The new training regimen includes additional time dodging real bullets, more opportunities to fire weapons, including heavy machine guns, and increasing the time spent practicing urban combat and hiking and sleeping in the field during the nine-week courses.
Before Iraq, freshly minted soldiers could expect months, if not years, of additional training in their assigned units before seeing combat.
But with the Army stretched today by long-term deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, a growing percentage of new soldiers are in combat zones within 30 days of being assigned to a unit, Army officials say. Even those whose specialties are not combat arms often face situations where the traditional distinction between hazardous front lines and secure rear areas has vanished.
"Historically, combat support specialists had been in the rear of the battlefield, far from direct contact with the enemy," said Col. Bill Gallagher, commander of the basic combat training brigade at Fort Benning, Ga. "The emphasis in their training was more on the technical side of their specialties, not on the combat side."
But in the missions soldiers face today, "there is no front, there is no rear," he said. "Soldiers of all specialties will face direct contact with an adversary. They all have to have a common set of combat skills. A sense of urgency dictated that we analyze what skills are required of them in Iraq, or in Afghanistan, and how to update the nine-week program back in the States."
The changes were endorsed at a meeting of the Army's training brigade commanders in June, and were promptly put into effect on an official, if still interim, basis at all five installations where the Army conducts its basic training.
The Army's senior leadership must approve the plan for it to become a formal part of the service's training, and additional financing must be secured for the changes to become permanent, as more realistic live-fire training and longer field maneuvers are more expensive. The changes grew out of various studies dating to last summer of lessons learned in both Afghanistan and Iraq, when senior officials realized it was time to update the tasks and drills in basic training, with an emphasis on combat skills for all those in uniform.
"This is the new mentality that says, 'Everybody is going to be a warrior first,' everybody is going to have the ability to defend themselves and survive in combat," said William F. Briscoe, director of the directorate for training plans and capabilities review at the Army's Training and Doctrine Command at Fort Monroe, Va.
In discussing the changes to basic training, Army officers do not specifically acknowledge how deeply the military was stung by some high-profile combat failings, including the attack on an Army support convoy near Nasiriya, Iraq, early in the war. During that firefight, troops of the 507th Maintenance Company were outmaneuvered and then outgunned by Iraqi irregulars.
Previous Army training programs for these noncombat specialties required less than one week of field training. Under the interim training program, they will spend up to 16 days in the field. And that time out in the woods has been consciously designed to be more stressful, requiring soldiers in training to carry heavier loads of water and ammunition, and allowing less time for them to sleep and eat.
Support soldiers are also receiving added training for military operations in urban areas, which includes drills in how to enter a building held by hostile forces and to run convoys through contested territory. They will receive additional practice in how to manage prisoners of war and how to maneuver and fight when civilians are in the line of fire.
"We are teaching quick-fire techniques, moving in an urban environment - things that have not been done in basic training for combat support and combat service support before," said Lt. Col. Fred W. Johnson, commander of a basic training battalion at Fort Jackson, S.C., where the Army conducts its mixed-sex training.
"And we are introducing an emerging leadership program," Colonel Johnson said. "We don't expect to create junior officers, but we are teaching basic leadership techniques: accountability, precombat inspections, how to motivate a small element to accomplish a mission."
The changes in basic training will be seen mostly in the initial nine-week course given recruits whose tasks will be combat support or combat service support - two categories of Army duty that include engineering, personnel, transportation, maintenance and logistics - rather than for those in the combat arms specialties of infantry, armor, artillery and aviation. After basic training, the support troops receive focused training in their specialties before assignments to units.
While previous generations may recall basic training being the same for all recruits, the modern Army allows many new soldiers to choose their specialties when they sign up, and basic training is divided between those who go into combat arms and those who go into support jobs.
I can immediate think of two reasons why basic training should not be divided based on MOS. 1.) By mixing those who fight and those who support there might be a more urgent understanding of the needs of those who fight by those who support. 2.) You never know when you might have to fight, even when you support. Afterall, the Pentagon was attacked on 9/11. While there wasn't an opportunity to fight back on 9/11, I would certainly hope that if the opportunity presented itself to kill Muslim bastards on the streets of America that our soliders would be prepared to do so.
"She had a "Mom" tattoo on her little bicep and one of those long tiny braids called "fools' tails" on the back of her head."
I'm not going down this road. :)
yw
Excellent. Some of things I remember hearing about the war was the constant jamming of weapons. I did not hear this complaint from my Marine cousins or from my other cousin in the 82nd. The marines have it right...every man a rifleman.
Youngster, "be all you can be" came into effect during the Reagan years.
My daughter just got through basic training and was top gun in her company. She only missed one target of being high score in the battalion. She also ran most of the men in the ground. She did this at the old age of 27.
Ft. Wood does Engineers, MP's and some other specialty that I forget. That's AIT (Advanced Individual Training) and beyond after basic. My son was through there for basic 8 months ago. It was mixed sex and included multiple MOS's (specialties). He's in military intelligence.
I remember the infiltration course at Ft Campbell in 1970. You "ran" it (low-crawled it) once in daylight, with a Drill Sergeant on your ass all the way. I felt like I scooped up half the gravel on that course.
It was a lot easier at night. There was live ammo (they wanted you to see all those tracers), but the M60's were locked in elevation, and could only traverse between two wooden posts that kept the fire away from most of the lanes of trainees.
I knew the rounds could not come down below four feet, and there were no Drill Sergeants standing next to you. So I just went into a low crouch, and scooted to almost the end of the course, where I then flopped down on the ground and finished puffing and panting for their benefit.
If the Army ever gets really serious about combat training, they'd adopt the Marines' "every man a rifleman" program.
Fort Leonardwood does OSUT andd they will be reintroducing OSUT to Bliss soon.
It will help save their lives.
14 weeks though is just required school time, you receive much more active and hands on training once you reach your regular unit.
When I was part of TRADOC we kicked the idea around alot and this was in 1992. Of course I was a young soldier and didnt have much input but it was a hot topic amongst the brass and they asked me often if it would have made a difference in my training I told them know because my PMOS was a combat arms mos that covered all the basis I needed.
Looks like they are trying to hold down the head to tail ratio by making the tail a bit more like the head.
I have had the pleasure of manning the gun turrets at low crawl assault courses and its very much a mental thing. First of all the hill is sloped and the gun turrets are already 6-7 feet off the ground, at a fixed aiming position while crawling and watching the tracers fly overhead the illusion is given that the tracers are but a few inches overhead, even having the bullets 15 feet overhead the buzzing noise is very distinct and loud. Not to mention the quarter sticks blowing up occasionally.
Truckdrivers do OSUT at Leonardwood too.
Thats no lie, Clinton Army idea was the introduction of the stress card. Stop drill sergeant I feel stressed what a load of Bull that was.
I went to Leonard Wood for basic back in 1987. At that time it was the OSUT site for combat engineers. I'm not aware that it has changed since then.
Funny, that. Maybe I should have been a mud duck. I gots to go to the "range" once in my "active duty" naval career. That was to shoot the .45 with two clips or so. Over four years, not a whole lot of true training. The true joy was when I was in the reserves doing two weeks at JAG. Qualified sharpshooter. 'course it was with a dinky .38, but hey!
It was probably because everybody on the boat was potentally tagged as a boarding party member. If you didn't qualify at the range or didn't pass the "shoot, no shoot" test then you didn't get to go on boardings. Simple as that.
I can tell from personal experience. The 1st time I joined the Army I went to the old basic training of 8 weeks in 1969, and then 11B Infantry Advanced Individual Training for another 8 weeks. A lot of the training just repeated what was already taught in Basic. It was good for about 3 - 4 weeks of extra PT.
I rejoined the Army in 1980. I had to do OSUT for 11C, but all the 11B, 11C and 11H folks in the company finished training in 13 weeks.
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