Senior NCO leaves battlefield:

[jeffreyab]

Once again the Canadian Armed Forces learns that that good peace time soldiers do not always make good war time soldiers and that war is indeed a young man's game:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20061229.wxafghan-blatch29/BNStory/Afghanistan/home

The Canadian Army has not been in a shooting War since Korea back in 1950-1953. So it has developed a strong peace time attitude. In times of war soldiers have to shift to a wartime attitude sometimes quickly and not everyone can. An example of this is Captain Sobel from "band of Brothers." An effective trainer of soldiers he did not have the skills needed to adapt to the battlefield. The older you are physically the harder it is to make the change. Your reaction times are slower and your vision is not as good etc. The documentary "War" by Gwynne Dyer in the chapter "Anybody's Son Will Do" goes into why the young make better soldiers:

http://chat.wcc.cc.il.us/~kwestman/Anybodys_Son.htm

I imagine one result is that the Canadian Army will be changing both its training methods and requirements for promotion to the senior NCO ranks.

Comments

[tlatoani.livejournal.com]

I think it's insulting to suggest that his conduct had anything to do with his age. Two warrant officers were also killed in that battle (presumably while doing their jobs) and they're unlikely to have been young.

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

If you do much reading on the subject older people do not do as well in physical stress situations.

If you do not have the reflexes your reaction times slow down.

How many football palyers do you see in their forties for instance?

There are some but they have over 20 years of experience to fall back on and the oldest tend to be specialists like kickers and quarterbacks and exceptional like Brett Favre for instance.

If you look at the list of casualties you see that most of the dead are in their 20's:

http://www.icasualties.org/oef/byNationality.aspx?hndQry=Canada

The operation in question was not one of the better days of the Canadian Armed Forces. Warfare has a steep learning curve and that was the intent of my post.

[metalfatigue]

I concur with tlatoani: you have failed to draw any logical connection between the NCO's age and his inability to cope with the stress of actual combat. Nothing suggests that physical stress had anything to do with his desertion; football players do not suddenly get thrown into a bowl game after a decade or more of practices without any games; and most of the dead are in their 20's because most of the troops are in their 20's.

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

You reinforced my point:

Who is going to do better in a bowl game:

A twenty something practised athlete who has never played in a bowl game or

An athlete in their mid30's to 40's who is also practised but has never played in a bowl game?

Assume that the practising did not account for all possibilities of the bowl game.

[metalfatigue]

I don't dispute that younger men are better-prepared for the physical stress of combat. I do not think either of us knows whether younger men are better-prepared for the psychic stress of combat.

[dudarling.livejournal.com]

Even though your link about the Corps contains 20 year old information... most of it was still pretty much relevant. I did laugh at the quote from the Captain saying that the recruits get to call home every 3 weeks. How I wished I could have heard his voice those months he was at Parris Island! If anything, I wish that his training had been harder and more stressful. I wish more recruits were weeded out, who couldn't take the pressure. Because I don't want them standing next to my son!

There's a lot to be said for honor, courage, and commitment. For brave men. For freedom.

There is nothing to be said for that shitbird NCO, who abandoned his comrades and fled under enemy fire.

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

Except that he should have been weeded out earlier and assigned noncombat duties.

Even Captain Sobel had skills very useful to the military.