Quote Originally Posted by Ken White View Post
Some of what's taught even comes from the Legions of Rome...

I've repeatedly denounced our refusal to dump many bad habits acquired in WW II -- and to a lesser extent WW I, Korea and Viet Nam -- all have lent some clutter. However, everything from any one of those is not bad; need to be careful what's retained and what's thrown out.
I concur. I am even moved to say that the best modern Army that ever existed, was the British Army of 1918-28. It could war fight and do pretty good COIN as well.

It could be eliminated as rarely used today in any force that has it's GPMGs at Platoon level -- if they're at company or higher, it doesn't need to be trained in one sense but in another, it makes for a better, more competent gunner, doesn't take long and isn't at all difficult to train. It's an asset, often a necessity in conventional war, not much required in COIN. The ability should not be lost.
I agree in that I think someone has to know how to do it, as per a support weapons specialisation, but I'd drop it from all but the Instructors courses.

What I am really talking about is the emphasis on the application and not the process. - Like Sniping. What you need are excellent shooters, not a bunch of Hiawatha wannabe Ninjas.

We can always make the arguments to retain and acquire skills, but training time and budget is finite, so cutting out those things that are not currently done on operations, may have merit.