His too...Man after my own heart -- I've been screaming we need better initial entry training, officer and enlisted -- and better training across the board -- here and elsewhere for years. We do not embed the basics of the trade at all well and that is a very expensive and shortsighted error....The training must get better. And yes, it certainly should be better for enlisted as well.Howsomeever, I have to differ with you on some of that. I don't think you're in the minority among your peers and fellow soldiers. It is however a minority view in an open democratic society; toughen up training to wartime standards (and we have not done that as we write tonight...) and the Mommies of America will get upset that we're injuring their little darlings; they in turn will howl to their Congress Critters and the service will be told to belay the rough stuff (except for certain specialized triple volunteer units who can get away with hard training). Not desirable from a military standpoint but understandable from a political view. That certain softness is the penalty for the society from which we come. In my experience, it's worth the cost. Good news is that in more intense warfare than today's variant, it gets tough enough...I don't subscribe to the peacetime v. wartime issue. We are warfighting organizations - scrimping is lazy, wrong, and inexcusable. I see no room for compromise. I know I'm in the minority with that, but I don't see it as an issue where any of us should give ground.
All that said, we can and should do far better than we are now doing.It is and that too is a result of political problems. The good guys will not kill your career; the bad ones can and often do......One thing I've noticed in our military is that many times it's the LTs (NCOs too) that are squared away that get the least mentorship. Another wrong answer.All true. The first step to improving training, mentoring and not having leaders spend 90% of their effort on 10% of their dirtbags is to fix the Personnel system so it does not reward mediocrity. That can be done; it will be politically difficult but it can happen. There's unlikely to be a significant improvement in training until the Per system is fixed.Platoon Sergeants are indeed vital to the development of a young officer...We are all going to pay a terrible price if these types of issues are not addressed, soon.
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