My latest rantings on infantry combat are up on Breach-Bang-Clear. I was expecting some more hate, but so far the conversations on FB have all been pretty much in agreement. John Hurth posted the following:
“I have seen this happening for some time. In my opinion you hit the nail on top of the head. Body Armor and Risk Aversion are killing our warfighters in more ways than one. Body Armor weighs a lot and restricts maneuver. This is nothing new however; there are Viet Nam studies that said the same thing in 1968. We fail to learn from lessons already learned. Also I have seen soldiers put themselves unnecessarily at risk because they are either so tired from carrying so much weight or improperly trained, that they don’t seek proper cover when it’s just a few feet from them. Our enemies have always been lighter and more maneuverable than us yet we continue to overburden our warfighter with a lot of unnecessary crap. Field craft and bush craft were at one time hallmarks of an Infantry and Special Operations warrior….however not any longer. We have military “managers” and not enough leaders. You are correct changes will never come from any higher than platoon level. The platoons, squads and fire teams will have to relearn what has been lost because those who live by the sword die by the sword. Everything above the platoon is about managing assets not leading troops. When I was a NCO, my peers always bitched about not having enough time to train their soldiers. I always thought that was an excuse. Every day time is set aside for PT. I used to practice battle drills, immediate action drills as well as instill aggressiveness and leadership potential with my men during PT or conducted rock drills when training time was either limited or when sitting around for other training to take place.”
There’s a lot more I’d like to be able to do in this area, beyond just writing about it…
http://www.breachbangclear.com/site/10-blog/306-we-shoot-and-communicate-but-dont-move-so-much.html