When I was in the Canadian military it was 6 weeks basic, then another 12 weeks for the basic infantry course. Then to get the RCIC that took another 12 weeks. Then you typically had another 6 to 12 weeks specialist training. But that was done in conjunction with your regular duties.
In Cyprus (assigned to the RCR as UN Peace Keepers) for instance the least trained people would be in the middle of a patrol. If it were vehicle patrol they always were the drivers. As a very green officer, I only saw the middle of the patrol. I was told that, officially you're in command, but you're dead meat if you contradict the senior NCO. Europe was a bit different, but that was an armoured regiment (3rd Mech Commando)- the newbies were either loaders or drivers. Vietnam was a very different conflict, being fought by a military that was geared for a very different war. That said, the Viet Cong/NVA was militarily defeated, but essentially won because they realized the real was was political. At the time the US army was constrained a lot - they needed around 50,000 soldiers but had a lot more commitments elsewhere - Europe, Korea, Japan, mainland US. In addition the attrition was horrendous, I'm not talking about the casualty rates in Vietnam but also simply the numbers of people leaving the military each month simply because their commitment was over. So what they tried to do is crank out a lot of partially trained soldiers and hopefully they would get additional training in country. One of the more stupid decisions of that conflict. >I'm not sure how it is now, but during the Vietnam war lots of guys >went from boot camp to battlefield in less than 6 months. My husband >was one of them. Reported to boot camp in March, shipped to Nam in >August. He had little or no combat training before going, working as >a company clerk for two months before shipping to Nam. So I don't >think it's a good idea to send someone into battle with so little >training, but it happens, or it did then. > >But even if you call it a year of training, why does it take one year >for US soldiers and 3 plus years for Iraqs? Or to look to the past, >Vietnamese? Cause that's the same line the Johnson administration >used. "we can't leave until we train the South Vietnamese to defend >themselves"... > >And now Bush wants permanent bases, so I guess it's gonna take even >longer. Perhaps, as Cheney said at the very beginning "the rest of >our lives'. > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;192386516;25150098;k Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:261460 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
