Kenny's Theory and My Theory
As I approached ten years service in the Army I was stationed down in Texas for my third time. We had a great bunch of guys in the unit and most of them had served in combat in Vietnam. Ken, one of the fellows, had sixteen years in the Army and was a pretty wise fellow. He was well educated and had a great deal of experience. His greatest asset was that he was from Hawaii and never got upset about anything. He had the island laid-back attitude that is so much fun to be around.
One day when we were not able to get some things that we needed, Ken and I were talking about the Army supply system. I said something about the fact that I thought by now they would have been able to figure out how to make a supply system work. Kenny just laughed and told me that I didn’t understand the Army and our training.
Of course I asked Kenny what I didn’t understand and so he went on to teach me. He asked me if I thought any supply system would work well in a combat situation. I had to admit that I thought there would be big problems in combat with any supply system. He asked me how we got things we needed when the supply system failed us. I replied that we would lie, steal, cheat and improvise. Kenny then pointed out that in combat when the supply system didn’t work we would be all trained to get what we needed. We would be trained to lie, steal, cheat and improvise. The supply system not working was all part of the training for combat. I had never understood that before. Now the Army’s failure to fix the supply system made sense to me.
As time passed and I thought about Kenny’s insight into the training we received in the Army. I started looking at other things that happened in the Army and tried to understand the real purpose. Any one that has been in the Army has experienced frustration and anger as they fight their way through messed up training, finance office failures, personnel mess-ups, and food that isn’t fit to eat. Are all of these problems part of the training to prepare us for war? I think it is or at least it helps in the training.
Happy people or flower children wouldn’t want to hurt anyone! But folks who have been messed over repeatedly are frustrated and angry. They would like to take it out on somebody so anybody that gets in their way will do and they don’t care where or who it is. It doesn’t even have to be the people that have messed up their lives. So when angry people go on the battlefield they are eager to take out their anger on the enemy. These soldiers are fully ready. Fully trained for combat!
So my theory is that the Army intentionally makes soldiers angry so they will be ready for combat! To be combat ready you must be ready to hurt or kill someone. The trick is having soldiers trained to only hurt or kill the right folks and then only on command and also to stop on command!! It can be a very difficult thing to turn on and off. I wonder why we are surprised when a soldier steps over the line. We see the late hit or intentional foul in sports and we understand that sports players sometimes have problems turning it off when they should. Soldiers watch friends die and have been under the stress of possibly dying next. It takes an extremely disciplined soldier to go from the violence of combat to an instant stop in a spilt second and to do it at the right time – not too soon or too late.
I don’t know if Kenny’s theory or my theory was correct but I have always wondered. Then I wonder why many things are the way they are. Is there some reason behind why people, companies, or nations do things that don’t seem to make sense? Is there a hidden reason why things that seem so logical don’t get done? Are there hidden agendas that we don’t know about? This I do know: When and if we understand what is behind an action, then things start making sense. Look to see if there is some hidden reason behind the action. Answers are rarely on the surface. Understand the purpose and then you’ll understand the action!
One day when we were not able to get some things that we needed, Ken and I were talking about the Army supply system. I said something about the fact that I thought by now they would have been able to figure out how to make a supply system work. Kenny just laughed and told me that I didn’t understand the Army and our training.
Of course I asked Kenny what I didn’t understand and so he went on to teach me. He asked me if I thought any supply system would work well in a combat situation. I had to admit that I thought there would be big problems in combat with any supply system. He asked me how we got things we needed when the supply system failed us. I replied that we would lie, steal, cheat and improvise. Kenny then pointed out that in combat when the supply system didn’t work we would be all trained to get what we needed. We would be trained to lie, steal, cheat and improvise. The supply system not working was all part of the training for combat. I had never understood that before. Now the Army’s failure to fix the supply system made sense to me.
As time passed and I thought about Kenny’s insight into the training we received in the Army. I started looking at other things that happened in the Army and tried to understand the real purpose. Any one that has been in the Army has experienced frustration and anger as they fight their way through messed up training, finance office failures, personnel mess-ups, and food that isn’t fit to eat. Are all of these problems part of the training to prepare us for war? I think it is or at least it helps in the training.
Happy people or flower children wouldn’t want to hurt anyone! But folks who have been messed over repeatedly are frustrated and angry. They would like to take it out on somebody so anybody that gets in their way will do and they don’t care where or who it is. It doesn’t even have to be the people that have messed up their lives. So when angry people go on the battlefield they are eager to take out their anger on the enemy. These soldiers are fully ready. Fully trained for combat!
So my theory is that the Army intentionally makes soldiers angry so they will be ready for combat! To be combat ready you must be ready to hurt or kill someone. The trick is having soldiers trained to only hurt or kill the right folks and then only on command and also to stop on command!! It can be a very difficult thing to turn on and off. I wonder why we are surprised when a soldier steps over the line. We see the late hit or intentional foul in sports and we understand that sports players sometimes have problems turning it off when they should. Soldiers watch friends die and have been under the stress of possibly dying next. It takes an extremely disciplined soldier to go from the violence of combat to an instant stop in a spilt second and to do it at the right time – not too soon or too late.
I don’t know if Kenny’s theory or my theory was correct but I have always wondered. Then I wonder why many things are the way they are. Is there some reason behind why people, companies, or nations do things that don’t seem to make sense? Is there a hidden reason why things that seem so logical don’t get done? Are there hidden agendas that we don’t know about? This I do know: When and if we understand what is behind an action, then things start making sense. Look to see if there is some hidden reason behind the action. Answers are rarely on the surface. Understand the purpose and then you’ll understand the action!
posted by Bruce | 1:29 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home