The Kill Company

[Uboat509]

and two books by Grossman, On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society; and On Combat, The Psychology and Physiology of Deadly Conflict in War and in Peace. These could be total bullroar, but the blurbs looked interesting.

I'm reading On Combat for my Psychology 101 class. It's not bad so far.

SFC W

[Ken White]

I'm reading On Combat for my Psychology 101 class. It's not bad so far.

I thought it was a lot better than "On Killing." Eight years later and the presence of co-authors probably helped. I've also talked to folks who've been to his recent lectures and apparently he's gotten still smarter. Some people do that as they age -- I, of course, elected not to do so...

I'm probably excessively suspicious of anyone who puts much reliance on psychology; while I acknowledge it's a discipline and has merits, I also believe people are very difficult to pigeon hole and that events can affect or change people in unexpected ways. I've seen veritable Tigers fall apart at small provocation and mousy types take on a Company -- literally. You never know what drives people...

[Greyhawk]

...the only good unit seen in Vietnam on their co-tour was his old one. They did everything perfectly.

Never crossed paths with any of the gentlemen, but that part of Hackworth's story had me shaking my head and chuckling. Maybe it was accurate, I don't know, wouldn't claim the right to judge and don't believe my opinion matters. But had he been a bit less glowing in his praise (esp in comparison to all others) he would have convinced me.

[Ken White]

As Vicky said, 'we were not amused.' LINK, LINK.

Marshall was a political, cheerful and sort of unfocused type IMO -- did have some good stories, though. At least he had a sense of humor and was funny.

Hackworth OTOH was one of those people you meet everywhere, not just in the service, and who are memorable only for the force of their egos and their focus on appearances.

My son met Grossman, says he's okay. More than he says about some other icons he's met who are named here on occasion...

[Uboat509]

Group brought LTC Grossman in to speak to us before OIF V. At the time, we didn't know much about him other than some idea about his controversial theories. We were not enthusiastic about listening to that. It turned out though that he actually had some good stuff about physiological and psychological reactions to stress as well as some good stuff on PTSD. I thought he was a pretty good speaker. A good friend of mine was a little less impressed. He refers to him as the Tony Robbins of combat stress theory.

SFC W