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Basic training gets an overhaul
Starting this month, basic training is no longer what it used to be.
No more screaming drill sergeants. Fewer boring PowerPoint presentations and no more mock fighting with bayonets.
The first recruits are going through a drastically revamped training program — designed in response to the changes in the “millennial” generation.
Over time, new grunts arriving at the Army’s basic training locations have been softer in body, mind and spirit but far more technologically savvy than previous generations and with a greater sense of purpose. But the Army was “using old methodologies to train on the battlefield,” said Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, who is in charge of the overhaul. “So we had to adjust what we’re training and how we’re training it.”
Army leaders were inspired by Tony Wagner’s book “The Global Achievement Gap,” which describes how the educational system isn’t producing workers prepared for the demands of corporate America. Hertling said recruits weren’t meeting the standards of the military, either, at a time when soldiers were needed for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
For starters, the military is working with just a small slice of the population, since only 25 percent of Americans between 17 and 24 are eligible to enlist; others are disqualified because they failed to graduate from high school, have a criminal record or don’t meet physical fitness standards.
With the downturn in the economy, the Army has seen a boost in the quality of recruits, but it still contends with weight woes. Of those who are recruited, 54 percent of males and 43 percent of females are overweight.
The obesity problem is so bad that a battalion of retired generals who belong to an advocacy group called Mission Readiness produced a report, “Too Fat to Fight,” that’s being used to help usher in a new childhood nutrition bill scheduled to be marked up this week in the House.
The military winds up discharging more than 1,200 enlistees because of weight problems, the report said.
“The military must then recruit and train their replacements at a cost of $50,000 for each man or woman, thus spending more than $60 million a year,” the Mission Readiness study said. “That figure pales in comparison, however, to the cost of treating the obesity-related problems of military personnel and their families under the military’s health care system, TRICARE, or the cost of treating obesity-related problems under the veterans’ health care system.”
Hertling faults the educational system for pulling the plug on gym class. “It became obvious to me when talking to kids and physical education teachers,” said Hertling, who has a master’s degree in exercise physiology.
“Every state in the union required physical education in 1983. Now only one does.”
By the time those kids arrived at basic training, not only did they lack aerobic or physical strength, but changes in their bone mass left them vulnerable to stress fractures and broken bones, he said.
“We have to account for a balance between improving fitness in the same period of time but not breaking them,” Hertling said.
One of the strengths new soldiers bring to the Army is their technical prowess. But the service, stuck in classroom settings that relied on lectures and PowerPoint slides, needed to catch up.
So the Army is undertaking a pilot program that issues smart phones to trainees so they can read training literature using an application on their phones and arrive at basic training already knowing some of the basics.
The service is also scrapping some of the courses that no longer make sense in today’s warfare to make way for cultural training that is vital to winning hearts and minds on today’s counterinsurgency fronts.
That wasn’t an easy transition, especially for some of the sergeants, Hertling said.
But since the last bayonet charge was in 1951, and today’s urban environments don’t allow for a steel blade on the end of a rifle, it was time for something new.
“That doesn’t come across as soldierly,” Hertling said. But “I’d rather have a course in how to get along versus another three hours on a bayonet assault course.”
Basic training also includes a component on values such as integrity and loyalty, which Hertling said many recruits don’t pick up as readily as they used to.
More recruits arrive having grown up with highly structured activities rather than free play, they’ve had divorced parents or overinvolved “helicopter” parents, and there’s less emphasis on competition. Values training aims to tap into recruits’ sense of wanting to make a change.
The Army has also included a course called Comprehensive Soldier Fitness, which helps soldiers improve their emotional intelligence.
“This is truly a generation that will opt out. They don’t quit; they just go do something else,” Hertling said. “But if trained right, these are the best soldiers imaginable.”
As part of the overhaul, drill sergeants have also had to swallow a change in how they deal with recruits. Now, respect is a value the Army tries to inculcate among its leaders and its soldiers.
While drill sergeants may raise their voices, they won’t be screaming and berating soldiers the way they might have in the past. “Soldiers don’t have to be remade,” Hertling said. “They just need to be polished a little bit.”
Starting this month, basic training is no longer what it used to be.
No more screaming drill sergeants. Fewer boring PowerPoint presentations and no more mock fighting with bayonets.
The first recruits are going through a drastically revamped training program — designed in response to the changes in the “millennial” generation.
Over time, new grunts arriving at the Army’s basic training locations have been softer in body, mind and spirit but far more technologically savvy than previous generations and with a greater sense of purpose. But the Army was “using old methodologies to train on the battlefield,” said Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, who is in charge of the overhaul. “So we had to adjust what we’re training and how we’re training it.”
Army leaders were inspired by Tony Wagner’s book “The Global Achievement Gap,” which describes how the educational system isn’t producing workers prepared for the demands of corporate America. Hertling said recruits weren’t meeting the standards of the military, either, at a time when soldiers were needed for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
For starters, the military is working with just a small slice of the population, since only 25 percent of Americans between 17 and 24 are eligible to enlist; others are disqualified because they failed to graduate from high school, have a criminal record or don’t meet physical fitness standards.
With the downturn in the economy, the Army has seen a boost in the quality of recruits, but it still contends with weight woes. Of those who are recruited, 54 percent of males and 43 percent of females are overweight.
The obesity problem is so bad that a battalion of retired generals who belong to an advocacy group called Mission Readiness produced a report, “Too Fat to Fight,” that’s being used to help usher in a new childhood nutrition bill scheduled to be marked up this week in the House.
The military winds up discharging more than 1,200 enlistees because of weight problems, the report said.
“The military must then recruit and train their replacements at a cost of $50,000 for each man or woman, thus spending more than $60 million a year,” the Mission Readiness study said. “That figure pales in comparison, however, to the cost of treating the obesity-related problems of military personnel and their families under the military’s health care system, TRICARE, or the cost of treating obesity-related problems under the veterans’ health care system.”
Hertling faults the educational system for pulling the plug on gym class. “It became obvious to me when talking to kids and physical education teachers,” said Hertling, who has a master’s degree in exercise physiology.
“Every state in the union required physical education in 1983. Now only one does.”
By the time those kids arrived at basic training, not only did they lack aerobic or physical strength, but changes in their bone mass left them vulnerable to stress fractures and broken bones, he said.
“We have to account for a balance between improving fitness in the same period of time but not breaking them,” Hertling said.
One of the strengths new soldiers bring to the Army is their technical prowess. But the service, stuck in classroom settings that relied on lectures and PowerPoint slides, needed to catch up.
So the Army is undertaking a pilot program that issues smart phones to trainees so they can read training literature using an application on their phones and arrive at basic training already knowing some of the basics.
The service is also scrapping some of the courses that no longer make sense in today’s warfare to make way for cultural training that is vital to winning hearts and minds on today’s counterinsurgency fronts.
That wasn’t an easy transition, especially for some of the sergeants, Hertling said.
But since the last bayonet charge was in 1951, and today’s urban environments don’t allow for a steel blade on the end of a rifle, it was time for something new.
“That doesn’t come across as soldierly,” Hertling said. But “I’d rather have a course in how to get along versus another three hours on a bayonet assault course.”
Basic training also includes a component on values such as integrity and loyalty, which Hertling said many recruits don’t pick up as readily as they used to.
More recruits arrive having grown up with highly structured activities rather than free play, they’ve had divorced parents or overinvolved “helicopter” parents, and there’s less emphasis on competition. Values training aims to tap into recruits’ sense of wanting to make a change.
The Army has also included a course called Comprehensive Soldier Fitness, which helps soldiers improve their emotional intelligence.
“This is truly a generation that will opt out. They don’t quit; they just go do something else,” Hertling said. “But if trained right, these are the best soldiers imaginable.”
As part of the overhaul, drill sergeants have also had to swallow a change in how they deal with recruits. Now, respect is a value the Army tries to inculcate among its leaders and its soldiers.
While drill sergeants may raise their voices, they won’t be screaming and berating soldiers the way they might have in the past. “Soldiers don’t have to be remade,” Hertling said. “They just need to be polished a little bit.”
Are you serious, Army? Is this a joke?
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