Training?

This is coolbert:

Here are some excellent ideas for providing realistic training for the U.S. military [yes, Marines are included here as well!!]

To quote from Dupuy's "the timeless verities of combat", # 12:

"Tests and exercises are not truly realistic portrayals of combat, because they lack the element of fear in a lethal environment, present only in real combat."

And this is true, what Dupuy says. Modern military field exercises lack the element of fear. You DO NOT have an enemy shooting at you with live ammo. YOU DO NOT have someone trying to kill you.

It should be noted that certain activities of man do mimic combat.

And do provide realistic training for soldiers.

Fighting forest fires would be one of them. There IS the element of danger present. Just about a week ago, an article in the paper mentioned that twelve Spanish forest fire fighters were burned to death when a fire they were fighting got out of control. This happened not so long ago in the mountains of Colorado. At least fourteen young forest fire fighters were burned to death when a forest fire they were fighting also got out of control.

Certain "sports" engaged in by man also provide a sense of danger. Lethality is present at all times. These "sports" would include sport parachuting and mountain climbing. The latter more than the former is very germane to military training. Physical exertion, teamwork, a certain repetoire of skills is necessary to mountaineer successfully. And the element of danger is present in both "sports". Folks die jumping out of airplanes or climbing mountains all the time!!

Hunting of certain types of wild beasts [big game animals] could also provide excellent combat training. Introducing the element of danger from a wild and dangerous animal that has the capability to kill a man.

One animal in particular would make an excellent candidate for the hunting of wild, dangerous beasts as a means of providing realistic combat training.

The wild boar.




Big, tough, ugly, dangerous, wily. Hard to kill. NOT a whole lot of people would mind seeing one these beasts killed. And killing a wild boar is not an easy proposition. These critters are tough hombres. Animal game parks where wild boar can be hunted currently exist. You can hunt the wild boar with whatever weapon you desire, backed up by a guide and hunting dogs, the guide equipped with a shotgun for close-range support if necessary to stop a charging wounded, vicious wild boar attacking the hunter!!

What I would propose is to send in specially selected and trained soldiers to hunt the wild boar, equipped with archaic or antique weaponry. Cross-bows, bow and arrow, black powder rife, etc. Troops trained with such weaponry might be members of the Special Forces, Rangers, Marine Recon, etc. Troops should be told that they should pay close attention in developing expertise with the archaic weapons they train with. Their lives may depend upon it!! Special Operations troops who desire realistic training WILL receive same, complete with danger. Some troops might actually get killed hunting these critters!!!

A team of soldiers, equipped suitably, would have to enter a woods, track, find, engage and kill the wild boar. Without dogs, backup, or the use of anything other than their skill in tracking and use of weaponry.

It would be necessary for the hunters to hunt as a team. The archaic weapons HAVE stopping power. BUT, to make sure you get the beast before it gets you, it would be advisable to hunt as a team. African big game hunters rate the Cape Buffalo [M'bogo] as the most dangerous game. Hunters from the nineteenth century hunting the Cape Buffalo with single shot black powder weapons did so as a team, to make sure they could stop the charging beast with multiple shots and hits as needed.

And the wild boar from time of antiquity has been a symbol of military prowess. The Roman Legion XX [Twenty] had as it's symbol the wild boar. From even of times of old, hunting the wild boar was a military "sport", complete with DANGER!!



The meat is said to be tasty. And the heads could be used to decorate mess halls. Sort of like in medieval times, when the halls of the nobility WERE decorated with the heads of wild boars. Hunting and hunting the wild boar in particular WAS a means for the nobility to exercise military readiness. Nobles on horseback, wielding lances [pig stickers] would hunt for "sport" the wild boar of the European forest. And the meat, as has been said, is tasty. You would not even think of eating a lion or tiger, even if you could hunt them, but a wild boar, you can and will eat.

[In ancient times, around say 2000 B.C., the kings of Mesopotamia hunted lions from chariots as a way of demonstrating their military and physical prowess. There are wall sculptures done of Mesopotamian kings galloping along in a chariot, shooting arrows at a charging, leaping lion, the lion already having been made a pin cushion with arrows.]

There would seem to be precedent for this sort of activity in the modern era also. It seems a Soviet military attache, posted in Paris in the 1960's suggested to some of his NATO colleagues that the wild boar inhabiting the forest around Paris would make excellent targets for a hunting expedition. A hunt to be done at night. A hunt to be done with rifles sporting infra-red night sights. It is not mentioned if anyone took the attache up on his offer. Would have been interesting.

[personal note on the last paragraph. According to John Keegan, the British military historian: "protracted battles on the eastern frontier of France in the autumn and winter of 1944 provided a westward migration of much of its major fauna. Wild boar, for example, not seen in the Seine valley since the nineteenth century, had become comparatively plentiful again in the nineteen-fifties."]

coolbert.