whatever they did in b/c, it is still with me. folding my socks and underwear the navy way after 40 years as a sloppy civilian. wife won’t do it right. BTW its not about the clothes, it is attention to detail. BT1 Donyatzi would be proud of me.

Jim, do you really think attention to detail training in boot camp has resulted in senior leadership ignoring the items you listed? Bootcamp is the very first training enlisted Sailors, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen receive…I don’t see the connection to major service issues. I would bet there is a better causal connection to be made with officer continuing education and the emphasis on business ‘acumen’ than there is to bootcamp.

Bootcamp is, or should be, designed to prepare young Americans to serve at the most basic level and to adapt to the service culture. One of those basic skills is attention to detail.

Scenario Based Training would be a recommendation. (It is also called Problem-Based Learning)It develops critical thinking more quickly than subject based learning.

http://www.usc.edu/hsc/dental/ccmb/usc-csp/Quikfacts.htm

It has become the basis for flight training in the civilian flight training sector, as mandated by the FAA.

https://www.faasafety.gov/files/gslac/library/documents/2007/Sep/19529/Introduction%20to%20Scenario-Based%20Training.pdf

URR:

Once again:

The young recruit is silly… (you know who)

balanced by:

The most important thing a Commander can do for the
welfare of his troops is ensure realistic training…(Rommel)

Basic military requirements, basic specialty theory and skill training, sequenced training specific to equipment and in rate knowlege, basic military team training, practical on the job individual and watch team training, leadership and administration introductory skill training, tactical team training, team leader training, refresher training for new developments, and on to the next level while increasingly guiding, teaching and polishing those who come behind you, designing and improving training based on all you can learn from experience and stretching yourself to reach for the next higher skill level.

Sounds like life to me.

The beat goes on…(S & C Bono).

Lord Nelson is supposed to have stated “Before a naval officer can aspire to high command, he must first know the duties of a seaman.”

Furthering the idea of the above quote; while Chesty Puller was a Captain in the Marine Corps he was sent to the Army’s Infantry School for officers. Chesty Puller had already been in the Marine Corps for 13 years (for those that do not know, he actually enlisted as a private in 1918, but was quickly selected to become an officer) with most of his education/experience coming from being in the field. While at this school Chesty Puller found that his instructors had been picked from the ranks of schoolteachers and lawyers, and that combat was not a factor. Puller also found these men lacking with knowledge when pressed with unexpected questions and he also found that their knowledge was limited to that gained from books. Later during this school, Puller found out that the instructors stated that they had no answers for his questions. As a matter of fact, Puller took over many of the classes with his stories of real situations and how he overcame them. Like Lord Nelson, Chesty Puller thought that the best way to lead properly was by being there, leading your men and gaining the experience first hand.

With the above stated, there are many goals of basic training of which two are accomplished by the instructors, of any service. The instructors have to educate the civilian on “basic” information which will set the fundamentals for higher information. One cannot just jump into calculus without first learning lower mathematics.

Another major goal of the instructors during basic training is to simulate the chaos of war to see if the young recruit has the character traits to withstand the hardships. Instructors cannot shoot nor beat recruits, but they must weed out those that cannot handle the difficulties of war, physical and mental. Why waste resources on traiing a person advanced war skills if they cannot handle basic training?

So, there are many reasons for what seems to be “mindless training” to a person that does not think out why they are doing something. One such item is the requirement of sitting indian style during Marine recruit training although the Marine Corps has thousands of chairs. After 2 months of sitting indian style the recruit finally gets to use this sitting style on the rifle range where the recruit spends hours a day in a position that has become comfortable.

I would also offer that no person can be disciplined without something to be disicplined toward. In other words, there must first be a chosen purpose that one is disciplined toward before a person can be highly disciplined. So, basic training should also teach the person the past of their chosen service and country which should instill in them the pride noted of military members when they earn the title of their chosen service.

Once the person graduates from basic training they should be sent to there MOS school which should be taught by the people with the real world experience in that field. After this further and slightly more advanced training, almost everything else can only be learned through the experience of being there, schools will never be able to simulate what dealing with real world situations can teach.

If our military members are going to win wars then they have to be willing to fight and to do that they must be tough if they are going to survive and win. When Chesty Puller was asked almost 60 years ago if he would change his training methods he responded; “I’ll train my new men as Marines have always been trained. I want’em to be able to march twenty miles, the last five in double time, and then be ready to fight.”

The tactics on how one wins a specific fight/battle/war will constantly need to be adapted to. But, this can only be learned through constant training of real world situations, not simulators, and or the real thing which cannot be learned in basic training nor a class room. But, basic training should remain what it was desgigned to be, the first checking point of seeing who has what it takes to earn the title of warrior of which not everyone will.