Visual Tracking and the Military Tracking Team Capability
Visual Tracking and the Military Tracking Team Capability
Entry Excerpt:
Visual Tracking and the Military Tracking Team Capability:
A Disappearing Skill and Misunderstood Capability
by John D. Hurth and Jason W. Brokaw
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Of all the potentially valuable skills in the military the one that is most commonly misunderstood and underestimated is Visual Tracking. Unfortunately most opinions are based on misconceptions within the civilian tracking community. Trackers who are teachers of a holistic form of tracking that focus their instruction on a spiritual aspect have crushed any true debate on the virtues of tracking as a military specialty skill. Visual Tracking is not an exclusive skill associated with the Native American, San Bushmen, Iban, or Dyak trackers.
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John D. Hurth is a retired United States Army Special Forces soldier.
Jason W. Brokaw currently maintains active military status with the United States Army Reserves, assigned to a special operations unit as a Signals Intelligence Analyst (35N).
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Fighting deadlines so can't spend too much time here...
The context of this post is tracking... so scouting (in the original sense of the word) and recce probably fit well with context.
Baden-Powell and Burnham were mates. I posted Burnham's comments on BP and now this is what Baden-Powell says about his thoughts which led to the development of Boy Scouts across the world:
Quote:
THE MATOPOS AND THE BOY SCOUTS
I suppose there is no more damnable country in the world for Scouting in than the Matopos.
But without scouting little could be done in the way of coming to grips with the enemy there.
The men of the Rhodesian forces rose to the occasion when, in 1896, the Matabele took to their fastnesses there.
With extraordinary pluck and endurance those Rhodesians succeeded in finally putting an end to their resistance in spite of the appalling difficulties of the terrain.
Their action taught me a lesson which has "borne fruit since then, not only throughout our Empire but in foreign lands as well. The spirit that makes a scout is the spirit that makes a man of the best type. The selfless devotion to duty, the exercise of keen-eyed observation and clever deduction, the patience and pluck and initiative involved in playing the game for their side and not for themselves exhibited by those Rhodesians showed me the qualities which ought to be encouraged in our boys as an essential part of their education.
The three Rs are all very well but they don't make MEN.
In these days of modern inventions, which tend to mollycoddle our lads, such training is more than ever necessary.
Boys long for adventure. Frontiersmen are their heroes. So it needed no great imagination to visualise that, give them the name of Boy Scouts, and teach them Scoutcraft and backwoodsmanship. You would have their enthusiastic response and you could mould them, body, mind and spirit, onto the desired model.
Thus it has come about that the spirit of the Pioneers of Rhodesia is not confined merely to their successors in the country but has spread itself across the world in ever-growing force among the oncoming generation of all nations.
Find the original letter here.
These are the type of people who should form the basis and backbone of modern armies, go find them and draw them in to the service - and some time ago when I suggested that as enlistment incentives items like a hunting rifle, such kids can only dream of, with the latest, greatest model of the desired pick-up truck are offered, I was not joking.
Yes armies do need numbers when they mobilise for war and they draw their cannon fodder from the cities and towns. These 'scouting' types are a national treasure and must be nurtured and developed as such. They help provide commanders with the field intel to plan operations/battles for maximum effect with minimum losses.
PS: I am a city boy from Cape Town who joined up to fight the Rhodesian bush war. I worked with such people there but don't count myself among them and was smart enough to realise and accept that they were 20+ years ahead of me in terms of bushcraft (and I could never catch up) and I was better suited to fly in as the sledgehammer (with the other city lads) to deal with whatever their 'scouting' ability had found for us.