Changes to Lethality Training In Basic

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The Army has shifted from emphasizing lethality in Basic Combat Training and back multiple times in the last 100 years. This pattern of wartime and peacetime training has significant implications for how unit leaders must train their Soldiers.

#militarylife #armylife #basictraining

Note: The views expressed in this video are the presenter's and do not represent the policy or guidance of the Department of Defense or its subordinate elements.

[SadDadBadHad]

As a warrant officer with three years left, desperately crawling to retirement, this current period of garrison life has been the most difficult. I tell my Soldiers that deploying is so much better than garrison life, and they look at me as if I’m telling a fairy tale.

[jonathanenglish]

I joined the Army in 1988, at the end of the Cold War and separated in 2006 after injuries. During the draw down after the Gulf War, I ran into soldiers who joined up that honestly never expected to go to war in their career and during the Clinton years it was re-enforced by relatively quiet "peacekeeping" deployments. As such emphasis on "Combat" skills dwindled in favor of college degrees, EO training, and Powerpoint presentation skills. After 9/11, there was more service members than I care to think about who suddenly had medical, family, or "moral" reasons to get out of deploying during GWOT who had joined prior to 9/11.

[santamanone]

That cycle caught the Army and Air Force in a bind when the Korean War started. The Army had cycled into an army of occupation in Japan and the Air Force had leaned so far into the nuclear age we ran out of conventional ordinance. When McArther was given the assignment he said, “I must have the Marines.” They were just as ill equipped but had at least kept their training standards.

[Project_]

Infantry OSUT Grad 1992. Back in my day it was all about lethality. Glad that is back. Our enemies are watching.

[charlesharrington]

As a former Army Senior Drill Sergeant, all I am going to say is the Army needs to talk to the Marine Corps.

[Doc_Egan]

Great video. This is so true. I feel like there are still enough of us old salts around thar we are trying to not make this mistake again, or at least as bad as the past. I guess this is why I spend so much of my time focusing on the training of my junior Corpmen to ensure they know how to save lives. I am that grumpy old E-8 you talked about. It's good to know I'm not alone.

[oldtop]

You hit the nail on the head - money. Quality training costs quite a bit more, and it's always a scramble to get the dollars you need to provide that training. Schools will get cut down in length, the equipment used may not reflect the stuff that is fielded etc. Worse, it can take multiple years to ramp up the training to meet the new (or old) requirements. The course development process takes about a year even if you are chomping zyn packs all day. Lessor changes in one block are faster, but we are still talking months. The acquisition side is a whole other bag of worms.

I'm all for more lethality in IET. Not saying that some of the garrison training doesn't have value, but the absolute core mission requires lethality - regardless of specialty.

[weirdo]

Basic training always included topics of lethality and it will continue. EO, SHARP and other training is usually only one or two days out of two whole months. The issue is that other non-combat support skills also need emphasis. Land navigation, radio communications and medical tasks are also necessary for soldiers.

Basic training has actually improved because it was six weeks in Vietnam era, eight weeks in 90s, and ten weeks today. Hand-to-hand went from a half day of judo to multiple sessions of striking and jiu jitsu. Furthermore, medical training was updated (tourniquet use over pressure dressing, etc.) due to more casualties from bleeding.

[justinfreeman]

The peacetime shift is real. I'm Air Force and I did basic 12 years ago and did combatives every other day and was taught to clear a room, cross a road, tactical road match, and convoy ops. Honestly it's not relevant to my role - but shit happens sometimes and it was good at making you feel and think like a warrior.

Then, during a meeting with my whole team, i asked for ideas of what the troops thought we should cover on training days. I was new to the team so they kept pretty quiet. I suggested we review convoy operations and a well-intended E4 involuntarily burst out laughing. It was absurd to her. The junior enlisted the proceeded to teach me that they had not learned convoy ops, combatives or how to clear a room in basic. Some of them hadn't even fired a weapon.

That's not disrespect toward any newer military members, but I think even the less hardcore services need a little more MILITARY training in their basic training.

[ycplum]

Modern simulators can potentially reduce training costs. Take rifle marksmanship for example. Nothing replaces a life fire exercise, but teaching the basics can be done with simulators that can give instant feedback on sight pictures, trigger pulls, etc. That makes the expensive range time so much more efficient. The problem is the upfront cost.

[SeanMurphy-du]

Only one point I disagree with: the grumblers about "back in my day" are not usually retirees. They are usually one-time enlistees (who were probably not as hardcore as they think they were). If you retire from the Army - meaning 20+ years - you will have seen this cycle through once. The one-enlistment/one-deployment guy who couldn't wait to get out is usually the one complaining that Basic isn't as tough as it once was.

[oksurfer]

Supported some SEAL training in 1985. When I mentioned how thrilled they must be to go to war, one guy looked at me like I was crazy, “Why would I want to go to war when I can get paid to dive, hike, camp, parachute?” Good point. In peacetime it sounds like a lot of fun.

[seankim]

Thanks for the insight. Always enlightening.

[alancranford]

One cost of realistic lethality training (collective and individual) is training casualties. The more closely training resembles actual battle, the greater the potential for injuries. Some skills such as parachuting are unavoidably dangerous. Recruits drop dead during physical training--despite medical screening, hidden cardiac conditions slip through. One month at an Army basic training site, three trainees dropped dead in basic combat training--it didn't help that two were women and all three were Black soldiers. The danger to careers is enough to throttle back on training.

All that and more--I entered Marine Corps basic training in 1975 when they were still training to wartime standards and retired from the Army National Guard in 2010 when wartime training had been reintroduced--even the old soldiers in the National Guard were given a 90-day mobilization training to get them ready for deployment to combat zones.

[PhinAI]

This training shall be dubbed "Sergeants' Time." Concern for the well-being of each troop, whether that be morale or skill-set, is ministered by NCOs. Officers are often praised, but the very best make way for NCOs to prioritize this foundational mission essential.

[KenNeumeister]

The response to budget constraints could be to reduce the size of military but maintain same level of readiness of the individuals.

[txdino]

Another factor in the ebb and flow of lethal training besides money is tolerance for risk of injury to service members and damage to equipment that realistic training entails. That risk tolerance goes way down in peace as “unnecessary” and up in wartime as suddenly “necessary”.

[robertrobert]

Perhaps during peacetime the Army saves tons of money on ammunition if range time is shortened ? When I was at Ft. Bragg, NC Basic training in 1968 we went to the range everyday except Sunday because of the high point of the Vietnam War and because we were shooting M14 Rifles with billions of surplus rounds of .308 ammunition. We also had bayonet training.

[waymit]

My 21 year career started with a 3 year tour in the 1st Ranger Battalion, after re-enlisting, I was then promoted and assigned to a mech infantry unit, it was so bad, I begged to return to the Rangers, I had to suffer 4 years before I could re-up to the 82nd Airborne Div. another re-up took me to the 101st Airborne and I was able to slip my way onto a LRRP team with a Spec Ops element TF- 160th at Campbell, peace time service really sucked if you were stuck in a regular type unit combat, admin, or anything other than the Spec Ops units !!!

[twostep]

Yep, after Vietnam we officers were taught to "manage assets" rather than lead men in combat.