Training to Win


© Dennis Morehouse

What is training and what kind of training is required in order for armies to win wars? War is kind of a brute force type of occupation in many people's eyes, and the training required is seldom thought about or talked about outside of the military.

Early "armies" consisted of a few cavemen armed with sticks. They had no training and used strictly brute force tactics. This sort of thing was not very successful because you could decimate both sides without coming to any kind of decision. This led to improvement in tactics and weapons.

Even for a simple change, training is needed. Using a flanking movement to attack the other cave men won't work if you can't communicate what you want to do with your side. So you have to tell them what you want and you should also have them practice doing it. This is training in a nutshell. As tactics become more elaborate, and weapons increase in destructive power and complexity, more training is needed for the troops to fully understand just what is expected of them. And for them to become proficient in actually doing it.

As a whole, the United States Armed Forces are arguably the best trained in the world at this point in time. Training is dependent on having the discipline to actually conduct the boring tasks that are needed, over and over again; and on having the resources needed. Even in its current depleted condition, the U. S. Forces are much better resourced than any other military. They have, for the most part, usable supplies, adequate space and dedicated people. They have the ability to conduct the full range of training that is required to build an effective force.

The full range of training includes all levels of the force and all Services of the Armed Forces. It starts with the individual and continues up to the national level. All training is an ongoing and repetitive task. At the lowest level, each individual must be taught every aspect of his job. The U. S. Army has a variety of manuals that list every individual task that soldiers in different jobs must be able to do. These tasks range from "Engage targets with M-16 rifle" to "encrypt and decrypt radio message." Individual tasks include things like "Move as a member of a fire team" which brings the training up to the next level.

Each level of organization has its own training requirements and manuals, and they're all tied in with the levels above and below them. Individuals work as part of the smallest sub unit. That subunit works as part of the next larger sub unit and so on - from squad up through Army or section up through Air Force or Navy.

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Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: View all related messages

5.   Sep 1, 1998 11:51 PM
Brian Carpenter Yes, and the apparent weakness of the Red Army undoubtedly encouraged Hitler's aggressive plans (not that he and Stalin wouldn't have tangled sooner or later anyway).
...

-- posted by not_him_again


4.   Sep 1, 1998 11:32 PM
Brian,

Actually, Krushchev stated that "All of us--and Stalin first and foremost--sensed in our victory a defeat by the Finns..." so I suppose you could make a case that the Finns didn't lose, afte ...


-- posted by DennisM_3


3.   Aug 31, 1998 9:56 PM
Brian Carpenter Yes, that certainly seems to fit the bill very well. I had in mind, after wondering just how I would answer my own question, the disaster suffered by the Persians at Guagamela. I r ...

-- posted by not_him_again


2.   Aug 31, 1998 6:53 PM
Brian,

Just off the top of my head; how about the Winter War, 1939-1940 between Finland and the USSR? Training wasn't the only thing wrong with the Soviet forces, of course; but it was a severe ...


-- posted by DennisM_3


1.   Aug 27, 1998 12:03 AM
Brian Carpenter Dennis, do you have an example to hand of a country or side that lost a war due primarily to weakness in training? It is easy to discuss training for successful military formations, ...

-- posted by not_him_again





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