With the US transitioning from previous operations that saw tens or hundreds of thousands of troops on massive bases overseas to scores of tiny deployments, the Pentagon is shifting training with an eye toward preparing troops to go “anywhere.”
Anywhere, in the case of the training, means the middle of nowhere, as troops are being put through training that involves walking around with heavy rucksacks, digging foxholes and sleeping in tents with access to no more than basic supplies.
It’s far afield from deployments on massive bases with fast food and many of the comforts of home, and Pentagon officials insist that it’s important, because troops are going to increasingly be deployed in places where they don’t have such comforts, and where what little gear they are given, they are expected to fix and maintain themselves.
Unclear from the comments is actually what the point of such deployments is, why the Pentagon is planning so many small, remote deployments, and what the troops are going to be expected to accomplish in tents in the middle of nowhere.
“…that involves walking around with heavy rucksacks, digging foxholes and sleeping in tents with access to no more than basic supplies…deployed in places where they don’t have such comforts (fast food and many of the comforts of home), and where what
little gear they are given, they are expected to fix and maintain
themselves.”
Oh yeah, that’s going to boost recruitment a thousand-fold I’m guessing. No Wendy’s, no beer halls, nor pole-dancing eye-candy and no internet or phone service. How enticing. The guys and gals who join now are not going to rush to join the Army of 1942. Different people, different Army. Just sayin’.
Learning to fight a war ‘Taliban’ style? Not quite – there’s still a need for real time coms and a hot shower every week. But if the fight isn’t at home it’s where somebody else lives; that usually begs a logistics chain and puts somebody behind an 8-ball.
It is ridiculous; the idea we will be able to win these kinds of “wars”. Haven’t we learned that yet? ‘Small deployment?’ Fighting whom? The people we would most likely fight are on their own turf! They gather fight, hide weapons, disperse and go home. Vietnam was about like this for at least 3/4s of the war. Iraq, Afghanistan, and any other place peopled by peasants and villagers we have gone up against are wars we have not won. All we’ve done is waste lives and money and created more enemy and general animus amongst the larger population. Its impossible to defeat an enemy that has no standing armies. All one can do is gain a temporary advantage against an enemy that fades into the landscape and becomes something else until our small unit packs up and leaves. When and where and how will we gain anything of strategic value?