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Originally Posted by Gene Econ
This discussion has been quite useful to me as I have always wanted to understand the logic of soldiers who reject competitive shooting in terms of any tie in with military training. I will admit that you have come the closest to stating things that I can understand -- although I will disagree with your points almost completely.
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You speak of military personnel that have earned the Presidents Hundred and Distinguished awards but not of those that have graduated from combat related schools such as SOTIC, SFAUC, etc, etc. I think you know if given a choice of personnel, which would be selected to go on a combat related mission. We also know who is being tenaciously recruited by the civilian contractors for PSD work in extremely hostile environments and who is being offered six figure bonuses to remain in the US military and why.
As a former SF Master Sergeant I can tell you the Presidents Hundred and Distinguished awards don’t mean a hill of beans to me when I look at a soldier, and truth be told I’d probably have the same view of the Presidents Hundred soldier as I would the soldiers on the Divisions Golf Team. What I’m alluding to is I would not regard their coaching of combat troops in a positive light. While they might be just fine working with basic trainees teaching BRM and coaching the Army Marksmanship Team they just don’t cut the mustard when it comes to teaching combat soldiers. Think about it, if they were so skilled then why don’t they teach at the schools that actually instruct the men that go toe to toe with the real bad men in this world? I’ll tell you what I think, is that shooting competently is but a small slice of what it takes to stand toe to toe with the most ruthless individuals on this planet and prevail. And this for no other reason is why I would not want a civilian with no military-LEO experience teaching someone to go into harms way.
I disagree with your use of “sports psychology” in order to enhance a soldier’s combat effectiveness or shooting skills, I do agree with the Roman woman’s quote: “Come home with your shield or upon it.” This is a mindset that cannot be handed down by those that have never faced anything more than a paper target. Shooting straight is but a small aspect of combat. It’s not a sport and in my opinion should not be approached as such. If one has never loaded a magazine with the intent of killing a man, then, in my opinion, they have no reason to be teaching others this skill.
I will tell you that in my twenty years one 30 minute talk by Maj Howard taught me more about combat than all the combat schools I've ever attended. It is with COL Howard in mind that when I teach someone the weapons skills they need to engage and win on today’s battlefield with their marksmanship training goes a heavy dose of the combat mindset.
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Originally Posted by Gene Econ
The guy tried to load his flashlight into the pistol because the training focused more on 'muscle memory' than the reality called situational awareness.
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In my opinion this scenario is caused by tunnel vision brought on by a lack of proper training in stress related environments. As you suggest this person lacks SA, SA can be taught but only if we continue to place individuals in high stress situations. Few military units have the ability to constantly place soldiers in high stress situations instead the military (after Pres Reagan) decided to embark on a “safety first” mindset which removed most chance conventional combat soldiers would develop a keen sense of SA. Only since 9/11 has conventional combat troops faced high stress situations that taught them a higher level of SA, and yet another reason I would not want civilians teaching combat soldiers their skills.
A bit of preemption on my part, I also do not consider the stresses the competitive shooters undergo during a competition the same stresses a soldiers faces while performing his duty in harms way. As has been mentioned before, the pucker factor is much different when the range is “two way” or a person is actually in harms way.
TS