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How is your average soldier, as a non-college grad, going to internalize a 316 page document that covers everything from cultural, to environmental, to social p

• cl42 5y ago
  I'm not in the military so can't speak to this directly, but I've been in training scenarios where you have 100s of pages to "memorize". The trick here is to actually learn via repetition so you internalize much of the training in a way that it becomes subconscious. The same would apply to me asking a developer how to build an iOS app (random example) -- you probably have so much internalized knowledge that you can write a few hundred pages on UX, UI, underlying tech infrastructure, coding practices, etc.
  • lainga 5y ago
    Or it leads to a situation where the 2nd LT is reciting in his head "3-69 The process of listening is composed of Listening, Receiving, Attending and Understanding... 3-70 Speaking is the call to listen, the speaker has not communicated until the receiver interprets and understands the message sent..." while the guy in front of him is nervously telling him he's ordered a fire mission 50m from the wall they're behind.
  • ethbr0 5y ago
    > you probably have so much internalized knowledge that you can write a few hundred pages on UX, UI, underlying tech infrastructure, coding practices, etc This. If I had to put numbers on it, I'd probably say: 4th grade = 250 pages (excluding social skills); 8th grade = 1000 pages; 12th grade = 2000 pages; bachelor's = 10,000 pages; PhD = 15,000 pages Then about 100 pages(?) for each year of work experience.
• chrisseaton 5y ago
  What makes you think this document is aimed at an average soldier? It's a training reference. From this actual training serials are prepared which are aimed at average soldiers.
  • Ansil849 5y ago
    > What makes you think this document is aimed at an average soldier? Literally the second sentence in the document, on p. ix: > Included in the intended audience are Soldiers
    • chrisseaton 5y ago
      > particularly those tasked with integrating ASA concepts into training They mean soldiers who need to develop training to deliver to other soldiers.
      • Ansil849 5y ago
        That seems to be your own connotative reading, not what is actually written in the text. Had the actual written meaning been exclusively those tasked with integrating training, then the wording would have said so. As it is currently written, the intended audience is all soldiers.
        • WJW 5y ago
          If a non-trainer soldier wants to read it, they are welcome to do so and the manuals will never turn away willing students (unless it is classified material of course). But regular soldiers are not the primary audience of this document.
          • Ansil849 5y ago
            Again, the document clearly states that Soldiers are the intended audience. In plain English. In the second sentence. Your interpretation, irrespective of accuracy, is at odds with what is written in the actual document.
• op03 5y ago
  Video games and super hero movies. They start on them young.
• bovermyer 5y ago
  Rote memorization enough to pass the exams, and situational training enough to memorize key behaviors. 100% memorization is neither achieved nor expected.
• balls187 5y ago
  They're not. Read the preface, while the intended audience is all soldiers, the manual is geared towards trainers. The value isn't in the content of the publication (hence why it's public), it's in the training that soldiers undergo to make the information 1st-hand nature. Example--you can read about the OODA loop. Reading about it doesn't make you good at using it. That takes training, and the Army has specific exercises that helps a baseline soldier know the fundamentals. Like with nearly all skills, start with first principles, ingrain them with drills and repetation, then build advanced skills based on those fundamentals.
• tylerflick 5y ago
  Checkout the Combat Hunter program. It’s good example even though it predates this document.
• openasocket 5y ago
  I don't believe this is a part of boot camp, this is advanced specialized training. This looks to be a course teaching these concepts: https://www.benning.army.mil/Armor/316thCav/ASA/index.html https://www.benning.army.mil/Armor/316thCav/ASA/index.html . It seems to be open only to Sergeants through Captains, many of those will have a college education. From the course schedule it looks like this takes a month. It's not clear but it sounds like it's an all day thing too.
• batch12 5y ago
  When I was in basic, we were all given STP-21-1 and expected to read it. While waiting for other activities (haircuts, range, etc) often we were told to read it. I probably read the entire thing from cover to cover twice in those 9 weeks. Edit: I was also not a college grad at the time. People can still read without a degree.
  • crocodiletears 5y ago
    Don't tell degree-holders this, they might start to suspect that the worker-ants have the capacity to make informed diecisions, self-actualize, or plan into the future.
• phendrenad2 5y ago
  How would Steve Jobs read this without a college degree?
• Rebelgecko 5y ago
  I don't think the average soldier is expected to internalize the entire document. It's more a training tool, or maybe taken into the field as a reference if someone thinks it's relevant. One of my favorite army field manuals is "FM 3-05.213: Special Forces Use of Pack Animal". 99.999% of soldiers don't need to know that when an elephant's body temperature reaches 38.3 degrees celsius you need to let it rest, or the fact that the average working llama needs 4 liters of water per day. But if they ever find themselves utilizing war elephants (which is strongly discouraged in the manual!), they know that somewhere in this 225 page tome they can find information to help them succeed.
  • thinkingemote 5y ago
    My first question would be "how do you monitor an elephant's body temperature in a combat environment?" and my next thought was "this will be answered in the document"
    • ethbr0 5y ago
      Given that elephants only sweat around their toes, look at its feet?
• anotha1 5y ago
  The last few chapters are all about training.
• swebs 5y ago
  I'm sure you've experienced 300+ page textbooks in high school.
  • kube-system 5y ago
    I also read a few in undergrad, before I was a college grad.
• metiscus 5y ago
  I am going to try to dispel a few things about this. "Boot camp" or basic training results in a basically trained Soldier. While in times of a severe national emergency, it is possible that a basically trained soldier may be deployed, in usual circumstances, even during war this does not happen. Soldiers in basic training are selected into Military Occupational Specialties (or basically your job in the military) as an example, 11B is the infantry. After basic training, soldiers are sent to their units and/or specialist schools for additional training particular to their MOS. For some enlistment types, there are exceptions to this, officer and warrant officer candidates go to separate schools and for some MOS there is OSUT which allows a soldier to remain in the same unit from basic through ait. These schools can take anywhere from a few weeks to months depending on the specialty. During basic training, a soldier is expected to read and understand several documents, primary among them, the soldier Blue Book TP600-4 https://adminpubs.tradoc.army.mil/pamphlets/TP600-4.pdf https://adminpubs.tradoc.army.mil/pamphlets/TP600-4.pdf After basic training and individual training, soldiers may have need to memorize and reference things from many manuals but they are not generally expected to memorize large manuals as part of basic. The requirements are a bit different for officers and warrant officers. The training of officers and warrant officers is much more academically oriented. A 152F, Apache attack helicopter pilot is required to basically memorize the entire Technical Manual for their aircraft as well as many details about Army procedure for radios, weapon engagement, airspace management, etc. There are also joint publications, that are shared across the army, navy, airforce, marines, etc (sometimes with NATO allies) that folks in certain roles (pilots, FACs, officers) must be aware of. Hopefully you find this helpful.
• chrisBob 5y ago
  Like all good Army manuals this one has a training plan! It starts on Chapter 12. Seriously though. The goal isn't to make every soldier an expert. At the most this will be discussed for a few hours in Basic Training, and units that are in the training phase of their cycle can spend a little time on it. Basic training is the Hello World of military training. When Soldiers aren't deployed the spend about half of their work hours on training that is planned and executed at the company (~120 person) level. The Platoon Leader and Platoon Sergeant will most likely incorporate this into other activities. Other specialized training programs (SAPPER, Ranger, SF, ...) will use this document extensively as part of their training.
• kodah 5y ago
  Different branches tackle this in different ways. It's probably important to note that each branch has more specific things they need to know. Much of the Marine Corps relies on cross-training to fulfill this demand because their goal is much more open-ended than the rest of the branches (to my knowledge it's something like, "seize forward operation bases and areas of operation".) To put it in a metaphor: bootcamp is considered dipping your toes in the water, your MOS school is like getting in ankle deep, the fleet is being nose deep with only your clothes on. When you get to "the fleet" is when your real training will begin and it is unending; the only thing that changes over time is that you figure out your clothes are actually flotation devices (fun fact, they actually are). You will spend night after night in the field training, they'll institute artificial stress, and attempt to train you into dealing with it. They'll use simulations like paint rounds, explosions, medical evacuations, and simulation towns in group-training settings with real civilians doing all the erratic things real civilians would do when caught in the middle of a gun fight or normal operation. No expense is really spared, you will actually fight like you play and that is a regular mantra. I'm reminded of a time in 29 Palms where my unit airlifted a radio truck onto a mountain so they could broadcast on the other side of it, which is exactly what you would do in country if you couldn't get to the top of the mountain. Aside from that you'll be subject to the typical "death by powerpoint" classes that continue to drive in some of these trainings, but they're always referring you to a manual to learn more from. When people do screw up, they'll usually make them teach a class to show everyone what they learned. I don't know if there's an official statistic on this, but a majority of the training that is conducted in the Marines I would be willing to put three paychecks on is conducted by Lance Corporal through Sergeant. The goal is to cross-train enough people and foster enough interest that a team can be mostly self-sustaining.