Posted on 02/05/2010 9:18:30 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
Basic Combat Training is getting ready for some major changes to reflect the modern battlefield, said Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, deputy commanding general for Initial Military Training.
Hertling, who is responsible for managing the training of Soldiers from the day they enter the Army until they report to their first duty assignments, made his remarks last week during a visit to Fort Jackson, the largest of the Army's five basic training centers.
"We really took a look at the relevancy of what we're doing," Hertling said. "We're teaching Soldiers too much stuff."
One of the changes Hertling wants to implement is the elimination of bayonet drills, a longtime staple of BCT.
Hertling also wants Soldiers to focus less on traditional combatives moves such as grappling and, focus instead on fighting with their hands and knives or other objects.
He said Soldiers need to learn how to fight with their hands to make their combat skills more suited to existing battlefield conditions.
"The great majority of our Soldiers come into training having never had a fistfight," Hertling said.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have made it necessary to revamp how many Soldier tasks, such as first aid and marksmanship, are taught, Hertling said.
Hertling said there will be a renewed interest in Army values and wrapping Soldier training around those values. Also, BCT will focus on producing Soldiers at a consistent quality level with the same standards throughout the Army. The key to a consistent product is drill sergeant execution and warrior tasks/battle drills, he said.
Changes to physical training and fitness are already in progress, he said.
"I'm a believer that we need something relevant to the conditions on the battlefield," Hertling said.
(Excerpt) Read more at defpro.com ...
Ft Jackson ping. That’s where I took Basic.
“The great majority of our Soldiers come into training having never had a fistfight,” Hertling said.
small wonder!
http://www.minthegap.com/2006/09/05/the-feminization-of-boys/
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I was engaged to a teacher( yes, I was almost married) at her school they are not even allowed to play dodgeball.
Whew. I thought it was going to be another “dont ask, dont tell” kind of change’.
The next day, we were given our helmets and gloves and instead of starting chest to chest, pugil stick to pugil stick, we were put across the pit from each other. When the Drill Sergeant blew the whistle my opponent charged at me. I slid one step to the left, slid my hands as far as I could toward the end of the pugil stick then swang it like a baseball bat.
I caught my opponent right square in the facemask. He fell to his knees and I put him down with with a backswing using the other end. The drill sergeant then jumped in and took the stick out of my hands saying, “Damn, Private! What the hell was that?””
“Butt stroke to the head, Drill Sergeant!” I had broken off the end I hit him with first.
Bayonet training serves a purpose. It breaks down certain barriers that society has built up that are incompatible with being an infantry soldier. The likeliehood of a bayonet charge is pretty slim but the lessons learned while executing the training is still valuable. At the same time, teaching knife fighting, grappling, and hand to hand combat seems equally valuable to me. Marksmanship training, MOUT training, and convoy ops training seems like the most important training a soldier could receive these days however, especially for grunts.
IMHO, there still remains value in pugil stick fighting, if nothing else, than to remember that charging one’s opponent and knocking him off his feet, may have more value than the most sophisticated martial arts dojo.
Most fatal hand to hand combat lasts less than 15 seconds.
Even amongst law enforcement officers, only about 10% of the rounds fired in violent confrontation ever strike an enemy’s vital organs and most are fired from the holster.
IMHO, we’ve become too far removed from a military defending a line of authority and become a relative police force. Assuming all other militaries in the world don’t seek to dominate national boundaries, it isn’t an issue, but then again that assumes there really isn’t a need for national defense unless one is prepared to defend the nation.
There are fewer motivating and less countered comments than having to give the order, Fix Bayonets! (Of course, when it is given, everybody in the trenches knows what is next.)
When they form the Gay Brigades they will have classes in Foxhole Interior Decorating.
I went to Fort Jackson (then to Fort Leonard Wood) and the most demanding (cardio wise) was the bayonet course. I think they need to do a few things to BCT:
1. They need to clean up the act of Drill Sergeants. It’s become a hazing exercise into a frat club instead of true training. Drill Sergeanting has become a vile, filthy-mouthed, non mentoring job that provides a horrible, non-Army-valued example of what a soldier aspires to be.
2. They need to concentrate heavy on urban warfare and, like the General says, get away from bayonet training (never in my career have I been assigned a bayonet).
3. They need to continue battle field drills and three to five second rushes, as well as the mock urban drills in place. However, they need to incorporate paint-ball guns as Fort Leonard Wood has done with their Battle Focus Training.
4. Women need to be segregated from males in BCT and they need to be trained for their roles in the Army.
5. ALL Basic Training Schools need to be made one-stop-training-schools (like the Combat Engineers and Infantry soldiers have). ALL MOS’s should have their AIT and BCT incorporated into one stop that focuses on their jobs from the start in order to focus upon their MOS’s.
“Whew. I thought it was going to be another “dont ask, dont tell” kind of change’.”
Teach them how to slap flight? Perhaps pillow fight?
As an example if I am on my back and somebody is straddling me I used to try and bridge or punch my way out. After some nice training I pull the person's arm, loop my legs and go for an arm bar. Then bridge, then crab out .... but after doing drills dozens of times, 2-3 times a week it is just reflex....
That's what I think the problem is if you put in all the pet skills that commanders want. Some things you can pick up in a 2-3 month period... some you can't.
I think growing up hunting deer, hogs and bird.... boxing and mma training as hobbies... well then I think that will help if your MOS is basic infantry.... warrant officers flying choppers would be best done by kids that like electronic games and are a little crazy...
The thing is that commanders in the field need to be able to freely tell command "lessons learned" and update training. Unfortunately the PC thing is the overriding limiting factor in the Obama/PC/JAG Armed Forces model that we have.
We have gotten to the point that we are like the old German and Russian army units that need "political" officers present in order to conduct operations without fear of imprisonment after a successful operation.
I went through BCT in 72. In one course we used BB guns to train for quick fire. It was very good training and I wonder if they still use it or a more modern version of it?
I went through in 1988. We used MILES gear and blanks.
In 1972, in the 9th Infantry Division, they started sending us men directly from basic training for us to train them into our units, bypassing AIT.
I remember that at Fort Polk, it was excellent for learning quick fire from the hip.
I used to run a mobile jammer and that MILES crap was always going off whenever I fired it up. We finally managed to, er, reappropriate a key and carried it with us whenever we needed it.
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