MAJ Ehrhart - Increasing Small Arms Lethality in Afgh.

[JMA]

In some case yes, .... but that misses the point. How people say they behave in combat, and how they actually did behave varies greatly. What people remember is also often contradicted by facts and empirical evidence.

Case in point being how well people shoot in combat and/or what actually happened as a result. As concerns combat marksmanship, testing shows a lot of people are lying their asses off.

No sure that it misses the point at all. If such studies are run by those (or at least strongly influenced by those) who have much combat experience then there will be an understanding of the stresses under combat conditions which may be the cause of the drop in marksmanship in combat. Naturally when you speak to the troops about this it needs to be anonymous.

One trains soldiers on Drake/Cover shoots and Jungle Lanes to attempt to make the aimed shooting an instinctive reaction which for some does override the distractions of being under fire. It works for some but not for others.

To ask them in an interview situation what they did when they know what the answer should be is inviting them to lie.

It would be ideal to have a test for how people will behave/respond in combat and how they will be able to apply themselves to shooting in combat would be ideal... but there isn't. I hope some progress is being made though.

[William F. Owen]

If such studies are run by those (or at least strongly influenced by those) who have much combat experience then there will be an understanding of the stresses under combat conditions which may be the cause of the drop in marksmanship in combat.

That's the logical ideal. Unfortunately combat experience is not a coherent experience. More over men, who can translate a very varied set of experiences in combat into training are very rare (Wigram, Jary etc).
Those who can translate the same into the conduct of trials and studies are incredibly rare.

[JMA]

That's the logical ideal. Unfortunately combat experience is not a coherent experience. More over men, who can translate a very varied set of experiences in combat into training are very rare (Wigram, Jary etc).
Those who can translate the same into the conduct of trials and studies are incredibly rare.

I would love to see how they would design such a study.