Effective Training....

[Ken White]

(I am not taking the rap for this tome...)

Contd:

Module 7 - Cross country march (~6-9km) to Hut Encampment. Issue and classes, NVG, laser pointers, etc. Squad movement, Squad tactics and exrecises, Field firing emphasizing fire discipline to include night live fire with and without NVG. Calls for fire. PT daily, random times exercise with weapons plus random times [not necessarily concurrent with exercise]alternating run, road, and cross country march starting at 3.5km and adding 750m per day, ending at 7km (4.25 mi). 25-40% night or low vis with and without NVG.

Module 8 - Cross country march (~12km, speed march) to Barracks; two days cleanup and maintenance. Cross country march (< 5km, no speed) to test area, Four day performance test under Test NCOs (Active duty SGTs/Cpls f/ Canada [no higher grades other than one Captain OIC, one SSG/Sgt NCOIC]; Squad Cadre not allowed in test area. Test devised by test cadre and changed for each iteration using standard set of test modules. Test runs day and night, roughly 50% night. Return to barracks by vehicle, two days cleanup and maintenance.

Module 9 - Abbreviated, three to five days. ASVAB retest, Admin processing, equipment maintenance and turn in.

There you have it; 85 or so days, twelve [strikeout]seven[/strikeout] weeks -- and that should cull out most of the unmotivated and produce a basic soldier who should be prepared for the real training which follows. Recycles encouraged. All they'll do is learn more -- simply changing instructors can enhance learning of identical topics -- and the cost is minimal.

For an infantryman, basically the same pattern, this time with Platoon cadre but small platoons of no more than 25 and a platoon cadre that mix the Retired guys on contract and active NCOs but no higher than SSG/MCpl (thus each can learn from the other -- ideally). The difference is that the modules are extended to 14 days, 9 or 10 to 12 working and 2 (minimum) to 4 (maximum and no more than once if at all) days off and that the same basic instruction is repeated but at an advanced level adding more sub tasks, skills and team training (2 man) instead of individual training is used early on using the coach and pupil method (to identify the high performers). Squad training also is introduced earlier, PT is an order of magnitude harder and night training with and without NVG, approaches 40% in total All firing is conducted at squad and platoon level except for some familiarization (other then issue weapon) firing and one four day block to allow another qualification for record (KD and field fire) with the issue weapon. This obviously provide some to much repetition in training subject dependent, something that is generally avoided now due to cost -- it's worth the extra money to embed and imprint good habits. All that training is Outcome Based, not rote and repetition tasks, conditions and standards stuff.

I wouldn't want much more COD than I outlined for the Basic period; for those who think it's important, add it in the barracks phases of the follow on training. Thus Intermediate Infantry training is about 120 days, 17 weeks.

The standard objections to all that are cost (to include the cost of tentage and the huts, not to mention the added ranges and ammo plus time and a few other things like more wear and tear on clothes and equpment), the vagaries of weather, and that many people will not be willing to enlist if they have to go through that.

My responses to that are; You get what you pay for; Soldiering is an outdoor sport; if they aren't willing to do that to become part of a competent professional organization that challenges people instead of encouraging mediocrity, they probably aren't capable of going to war and surviving without falling apart and better to find out earlier than later -- plus, it will deter the faint of heart from enlisting thus saving a dollar or two...

Eden said he was addressing Enlisted Initial Entry Training only, I did as well. However, I believe the Combat Arms Officer Basic Courses should replicate a combination of the above Basic and Intermediate training regimen (the same seven weeks should suffice for the individual effort, combining aspects of the enlisted Basic and Intermediate above) with only slight modification because those are basic skills better taught in an institutional setting than picked up by osmosis in a unit (and that new LT has to insure NCOs that work for him train their troops properly). In the institution you CAN have quality control; all units are not equal and will never be. The Intermediate OBC Phase would concentrate on Platoon tasks and would require, to do it right, about the same 17 weeks as the enlisted intermediate phase. I base this on watching and working a 9 to 12 week (it varies as Commanders cam and went... whims...) Armor Officer Basic Course do its thing over seven years at Knox -- that is just not enough time; we're being really unfair to those LTs -- and to their Troops...

Even unfair to the taxpayers who are paying the bills and deserve a better, more competent product -- officer and enlisted.

Obviously, the OBC students also require more garrison time for the really important things like Supply Officer, voting officer, etc. . Thus for the initial entry officer, about 7 weeks individual skills; 7 weeks garrison based admin and tactical training and 17 or so weeks in the field working on being a Platoon Leader -- and refining individual skills. Add a couple of weeks fore and aft for administrative processing and such and that hits about 35 weeks -- about 8 months. That's two months longer than the Marines Basic School now and one month less than it was years ago.

All that can probably be done for the next 20 year at the cost of one Zumwalt...

That's unconstrained -- you want a simpler less effective solution that costs less? Simply train people for two jobs higher than their theoretical next job -- almost all of them will serve in positions requiring that knowledge before they return to