“Habit hardens the body for great exertions, strengthens the heart in great peril; Habit breeds that priceless quality: CALM, which passing from rifleman to commander, will lighten the task.”
-Clausewitz
In the CO’s quest to stay tactically prepared for any eventuality that may come down the pike, taking a realistic, no bullshit inventory of what skill-sets may have become neglected, for whatever reason, is a good ideal. As I have said many times before, when the CO decides to take charge of his own development and training as a warrior, Self-Delusion and Illusions of Grandeur have to be thrown out the window. HONESTY with one’s self is fundamental to be successful. Let’s face it: when it comes to “self-training”, all of us tend to focus more on the skills we are good at versus the ones we suck at, right? I mean none of us Alpha-Males will ever pass up the opportunity to pet our own ego’s when we can right? Word of advice: Stop thinking that your personal drill time is about creating opportunities to “pet your ego.” The sooner you realize that what you are doing is not a game or a round of “tactical golf”, but in essence a lifestyle, the sooner you will start becoming a warrior in the purest sense of the word.
A good friend suggested I do a “Top 3” or “Top 5” CO Neglected Skill Set list, but I soon realized that for this to be truly effective, it is going to be up to the CO to be honest with themselves and develop their own Top 5 or Top 10 “neglected skills” list. I did however, want to give you guys a guide to help steer you in the right direction, so I took a poll the other day with my students and came up with the following short list.
- Endurance Training
So many students when you start talking about “neglected skills sets” automatically want to either pick up a gun or knife and go Rambo. Very few want to consider the very base aspect that they are not in the most ideal shape physically to get into a fight. Bottom line, if you run out of steam 45 seconds into a fight, you are probably going to lose and/or die, so from my experiences, cardio and endurance training should be something you do every time you go to drill. Strength training is also important, but from what I have seen in my experiences, it has been a persons cardio/endurance and not just pure strength that has brought them through most “sideways situations.”
- Small Unit Tactics
If a guerilla resistance is to be effective in combat, it has to be organized. The squad is the basic tactical building block of an armed force; conventional or un-conventional, it is the primary war-fighting unit. U.S. ground forces, principally the squad rifleman, have historically suffered nearly 80% of all wartime casualties since WW1. The difference between the training for a small, guerilla army and a larger, more conventional army is that the guerilla armies training revolves principally around the squad and maybe platoon strength, while a conventional army training revolves around much larger contingents of men, typically company strength and above.
I will be doing a series of articles on this topic as I carefully develop the HCS syllabus for fall courses. In the meantime, a great resource to give you the basics is the US Army Rangers Handbook (I have an older version as a .pdf file if anybody wants it; just email me) Since this is a vast and in-depth topic, it would be my suggestion to focus on two primary things to begin with: Patrol Procedures and Setting Ambushes. Once you have the squad where they are semi-cohesive and can follow simple orders, you can start training on breaking and initiating contact.
Just remember: a well-trained and highly motivated individual by themselves can accomplish very little in the big scheme of things tactically, but just like a hand with five individual fingers, when it is open, it is vulnerable and pretty much useless, but when that hand closes and becomes a fist, it becomes a viable and potent weapon that can make a serious impact.
- Medical Trauma Training
Most CO’s know basic first aid and CPR, but very few have actually taken the time to learn how to treat a traumatic injury, like a gunshot wound or a knife stabbing. Just like the solider on the battlefield, every CO needs to be trained in how to treat a gunshot wound. Sure, we all may carry a Quickclot pack in our car or in our Range Bag, but have we actually used one yet in a simulated incident? The US Military uses pig carcasses to teach TCCC (Tactical Combat Casualty Care), so it is not out of the realm of possibility for civilians to do the same. Of course for you less adventurous souls, you can shell out the greenbacks and take a serious course like the ones offered at Lone Star Medics if patching up pigs is not your thing.
So there it is, a short list to get you going. But as I said before, be REAL with yourself and start with the SKILLS you know you need to work on! Now, enough sitting around and jaw jacking, get off your ass and go train!
Stay Real, Stay Armed and Stay Dangerous!
Reblogged this on Reality Check.