Warrior Ethos

[Ken White]

is an absolute no-no -- but that's exactly what the SME bit has fostered.

I was at the Armor School when the Master Gunner was invented. A number of us thought it was a terrible idea for all the reasons you cite and pointed out that too many TCs, PLs and Co Cdrs would abrogate their gunnery skills. The civilian educational bureaucracy won that battle on two totally inane points; It was industry 'best practice' and it was akin to the 'Instructor Pilot' of the Aviation community.

Pointing out that civilian best practice was totally not germane and that Tanks weren't helicopters didn't sway them. In fairness, one thing that aided their cause was that the incoming M1 and its high tech goodies ran smack into the tail of McNamara's Project 100,000 and sub standard recruits. Those folks are long gone; today's troops are a whole lot more capable -- but we're still using techniques that were marginal applied to their less competent predecessors.

Old habits die hard...

Our chaotic training system needs to die.

Added: Re: the 1SGs. Those guys should be the trainers for the Company / Battery / Troop. Theoretically, they're the most experienced guys in the unit. I've seen some that refused to be the chief clerk; refused to be the Cdr's shadow and worked at training troops -- most of those few did a superb job and had good units. Too many are willing to sit and fester. They rarely have good units