I went through in 98-99 and after a few years of team time I have come up with some ideas for changes based on personnal experience and also what was expected of me from the get go. Also I know with the sizes of teams today that not everyone will have the benefit that I did of having a senior who knew his shit, most guys now-a-days come onto teams as the senior.
I will not come out here and say I came on the team as a stellar performer, I had a hard time like most folks, and was in a forward stationed battalion so even more was expected of me than stateside, or so I was told. After 1 year on my team my shot group was on target and I knew what was expected of me and what to expect, I had the basics down, after 2 years I knew my job thoroughly and the system at my duty station thoroughly enough to do the senior's job with full competence and also be able to react to whatever was thrown my way. By the end of my third year I had that shit down to an artform, and was confident in everything I did, at least it felt that way
I still made a jackass of myself on occassion.
My desired endstate with this thread is to find out, within OPSEC boundaries, what other B's here would change about the B course based on their experiences on a team. What would you do different in the course to prepare guys for the experiences you faced when coming to an ODA.
My offering for the discussion: I feel the course is good as it is, but needs some additions. Assembly and disassembly and familiarization with numerous weapon systems is great and necessary, in both light and heavy small arms. The mortars section was my favorite (RIP Sully) and was a great condensed version of the Benning school. Same with AT weapons. Basically everything that had to do with function and use was good, but I will always argue for more range time, even if I have enough, it's my belief we should live on the range.
Where changes should be made, and some of these changes may exist already, I am unfamiliar with the current POI:
1. Tactics, employment and use of the weapons up to a battalion level. Teach mortars tactics up to this level, same with AT employment, include PEs that aren't done in front of a computer screen.
2. Tactics on the small unit level, an easy way to acheive this is making Ranger School slots available to B course grads, this will probably go over like a fart in a spacesuit, I have my doubts whether many would want to attend. Then that whole high school college comparison comes up and it turns into a pissing contest. But the bottom line is this: The POI exists, the facilities exist and the slots are almost always there, why reinvent the wheel, if anything just make the school available in some way shape or form, whether it be before SERE or after Robin Sage, or right after the MOS training (ideal). Already qualified guys can do whatever...give me some ideas.
I know what some of you are thinking, what about the phase 2, isn't that enough SUT's to build a base, yes it is for the average team guy, but as the primary teachers of the SUT POIs down range, the B's should have some Infantry experience, and if they don't have that, the best way to get a lot quickly is the POI in Benning. There's nothing worse than a non-former Infantry guy, with no practical knowledge teaching a group of LBGs SUTs, when those very LBGs have just spent the last 6 years in combat. We teach TTPs, which are learned through hands on experience, the info found in FMs is only as good as the guy reading them. I hope that made some sense.
3. Next, make the Bs good shooters BEFORE they get on a team (I fondly remember a day on Guam with my team standing around waiting for me to qualify for about an hour, because I couldn't shoot for shit).
How do we accomplish this? Easy, send them through SOT or a SFAUC course (not SFARTAEC, slots for that school are hard enough to come by as is). The course will have to be the full course, no condensed versions here. Start with at least 2 weeks of combat marksmanship, build the muscle memory, and while teaching them to shoot, you are also teaching them how to teach the POI, not only to Booky downrange, but also to their team when they get there. Culminate this 2 weeks with a stress event, something to give the students feedback and confidence in their abilities. Next in the course move on to infantry battle drills, the last being enter and clear a room. From there teach them urban movement, and guess what, you have fully qualified guy to teach SFAUC to his team internally, or to teach any basic 7-8, AMOUT, Marksmanship, Combat Marksmanship, and Basic Patrolling to any foreign troops. If anything you have built a good foundation for him.
If this part is done right, you can integrate patrolling and SUT's so the Ranger school idea becomes something for later in the Soldier's career, giving you a better final product to send to a team.
That's it. I don't feel this post is the end all for everything, that's why I am initiating a discussion of it, the more ideas the better. Some of my ideas are not totally complete, no time frames were given, and feedback would be helpfull. I could take a group of guys and teach them from basic shooting to urban movement with all the Infantry battledrills in the middle as described above in approximately 6 weeks, maybe more, maybe less. Preferably more, since there will be problems and teaching will have to progress at a slow pace, nothing would be accelerated.
Feel free to share your opinions, call me an idiot, flame me whatever. I hope this gets some good feedback and starts a good discussion.
PLEASE: DO NOT come on here and say we should give HALO slots to all course grads or some retarded shit like that. HALO is a great school, but it will not make you patrol or shoot better, same with SCUBA. Let's stay focused on the task I am addressing: delivering Bs to teams that have the preparation to teach their teams SUTs and shooting on a competent enough level that the experience is beneficial for the team.
Thanks in advance for all replies, I'll be watching this thread. Right now I just hope I am not the only B out there who is currently active duty and on an A team who reads this forum.
Sneaky, Razor and Psywar, this is a thread inspired by the one that got moved to the closed forum of LF's forum. Hope you fuckers are doing well, long time no hear from you.