Quote Originally Posted by Ranger94 View Post
Pre-deployment training did not include "Shout, Show, Shove, Shoot (to Warn), Shoot (to disable), Shoot (to Kill)" unitl 2004.
It did the for Balkans rotations prior to 9/11 and it was incorporated into our new ROE while in Iraq in 2003, soon after we began the occupation. In fact, most of us with Balkans deployments under our belts (vast majority of NCO's in my unit and a few of us O's) simply fell back upon the peacekeeping ROE and instructed our Soldiers to abide by it. If not incorporated into OIF pre-deployment training until 2004, well, that seems about as early as it could have been. Most units replacing us in late 2003 weren't really sure what to expect. But they got the same ROE brief that we did when they RIP/TOA'd. And, really, the "five S" rule isn't all that complicated.

As for "new"ness, I still remember my NCOs lecturing their men often in 2003: "we're going to pick our fights carefully. You piss these people off today and they'll be shooting RPGs at you tomorrow. Our job is to identify the dickheads and let everyone else just do their thing so we don't make more enemies." That's about what I would have told them at the time, but I didn't even need to. It was almost common sense. Today it's new math that our senior leaders have apparently just discovered in the past couple of years or so.