Title: Thinking Soldier
Description: To Think or Not to Think.
snowfox - April 4, 2007 03:22 PM (GMT)
Was training a new batch of NSmen for a new vocation.
Mostly Professional with several years of working experience under their belt.
When post a problem to get them to go through the Decision Cycle, the reply I got most of the time.
Oh, I am Trained to Obey Orders, Not To ThinkWhy posting this posting?Link: http://www.govexec.com/features/0407-01/0407-01s2.htm| QUOTE |
Back to Iraq
Army 3rd Infantry Division prepares for an unprecedented third combat tour.
...But today, his soldiers are undergoing a very different type of training than they did before invading Iraq. Back then, the squadron's tanks and Bradleys ranged the NTC's open deserts in simulated high-tempo mechanized warfare. That was the old Army. The new Army is trying to embrace the skills of counterinsurgency warfare. They are more complex and subtle than those of the conventional war the Army has prepared to fight for the past half-century.
...
Capt. Joseph Inge is about to leave on his second tour to Iraq. Describing his upcoming mission, he sounds as much like a diplomat as a soldier. The soldiers from his tank company walk the streets of a mock Iraqi village in the Georgia forests. They are on their way to meet with the town's mayor, an Iraqi actor brought in from California. Inge's tanks sit out of sight. His soldiers are learning the art of soft power - negotiations and compromise - instead of rolling into town with their 70-ton weapons. "I'm teaching soldiers how, not what, to think," says Capt. Jeff Lewis, an Iraq veteran and trainer from the NTC. "It's really a self-discovery exercise." It's all about crafting thinking soldiers, not conditioned to react in certain ways, but to adapt and adjust to changing situations, he says.
... |
Wish that able to train my team for all possible situations, but doubt that the Aggressor is willing to be static or idle.
Believe that a Thinking Soldier is the way to go.
[i]After afew weeks of ICT, some of the NSmen, bought the idea that they need to think though the order. Commander may have afew "Crabs" but he human too.
snowfox - April 6, 2007 09:42 AM (GMT)
Maybe Don't Need to Think.
Commander, cannot think of another solution, Tell Soldier to Do a Kamikaze.
Solider Just Do It, Right?
Commander is a a Scholar right, good in Exams, Straight As, and S paper, Top Honor Rolls in oversea Universities.
If he(They) cannot fnd a solution.
What does a "beng(s)" (SG term for ruffian, but used very loosely, in a humlet (also another SG term) manner) knows.
Moonstriker - May 5, 2007 07:47 AM (GMT)
highly educated but cannot apply his knowledge = nothing...
their men under them might be able to think of solution because they don't go thru so many considerations abt failures. what ifs, etcetcetc... ;)
superspitfire - May 8, 2007 11:17 AM (GMT)
to me, obeying is one thing..but it's as important as well to think. At times, they must think on its feet and come up with impromptu solutions for on-the-spot problems. If they just obey and commit without thinking foresightly, then they just be following all the way, like being held in the hand to walk on the road. At some point, they have to think, at times for their survival...
maybe its just me... :blink:
evo - May 14, 2007 03:30 AM (GMT)
this is what happens when you have conscription...many NSmen are just going thru the motions...
