From: uso01@unidata.com (Steven Owens)
Subject: Re: Officer Pilots
Organization: Unidata, Inc.
Date: Sun, 26 Jul 1992 17:52:52 GMT


From uso01@unidata.com (Steven Owens)

	I just stumbled onto this conversation (I am not a sci.military
regular, although I stop by every now and then...), but I thought I'd 
comment on something.

>In article <1992Jul16.200158.1519@lawday.DaytonOH.NCR.COM>,
> ke4zv!gary@gatech.edu (Gary Coffman) writes:
>  [college vs. bootcamp on initiative]
>> Individual *initative* is discouraged in both places. [...[
>> Obviously neither boot camp nor college are 100% effective
>> in their objectives. Many NCOs still have a shred of initative left in
>                       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>> Still, the training in both cases leads in those directions.

Then, In article <1992Jul20.132936.25668@lawday.DaytonOH.NCR.COM> gawne@stsci.edu writes:
> [...]
>Ever since I made Corporal I have been rated in terms of leadership 
>qualities and traits -- one of which is initiative.  And the last time
>I went by OCS it sure seemed like a lot of imposed structure to me.
>I gather you've known some scummy NCO's, so have I.  But the system does
>build initiative and self motivation, at least the one I've spent 20 years
>in as a Marine, and the ones my brothers have spent time in with the Army
>and the Navy.  There's a heck of a lot more to training than boot camp.

	A minor point; from what I saw he was referring to boot camp,
not training.  Your comment about training may well be true, but that
happens after the recruit goes through boot camp.

	A major point, or an observation, if you will, about boot camp.
"Everybody knows" the basic purpose of boot camp, right?  To prepare the
recruit, both physically and mentally, to be a soldier.  This includes
physical conditioning, physical skills (combat, etc) and mental skills.

	This also includes indoctrinating the recruit with the right
attitudes.  Like any mass movement, the military requires new members
to undergo certain rituals which reshape their sense of self-worth and
identity.  Indoctrination has become a loaded term, but it means
simply to inculcate a set a views into a person.  We indocrinate our
children as we raise them.  We indoctrinate people as they join our
groups.

	Read up on mass movements, cults, etc.  Most of them have a
variety of rituals that a new recruit undergoes before becoming a full
fledged member.  These include being verbally (and sometimes
physically) abused; being denigrated; made to feel worthless; being
subjected to physical exhaustion; being denied privacy; radical
changes to their appearance, such as haircuts, wearing a particular
type of clothing; immersion in a social environment where everybody
ELSE is also in a particular type of clothing, undergoing similar
types of behavior, etc.

	Now, take all of these and compare them to boot camp.  
Notice the similarities?

	Again, I am neither disparaging nor championing boot camp or
the military (I have my own views on the military, but since they are
in a large part based on the experiences and opinions of my father, a
retired USAF colonel, they may have some validity).  This type of
behavior is all part of destroying the recruit's OLD sense of identity
and self-worth (which may have been based on independence, or on being
the class cut-up, or on rebellion, etc) and recreating a sense of
identity and self-worth invested in being part of the platoon, in
being a "good soldier", in not letting their buddies [*] down.

	This sort of indoctrination is integral to getting people to
act in an insane manner ("Lemme get this straight;  those guys over
there have guns, and you want me to run up and try to kill them?")
in an insane situation (war).  Is this wrong or right?  I'm not too
sure either way;  sanity may be an inappropriate response in an 
insane situation.  Certainly, the sense of self-preservation, if
allowed to override the sense of group-preservation, can result in
eventual self-death.  What should pikemen do if charged by cavalry?
The sane response says run, but a braced pike wall will destroy a
charge, while running will get the pikemen killed.

	Whether you agree with the ends or not, you should understand
the process.

Steven J. Owens
steveno@unidata.com

[*  Why do men fight?  A survey of soldiers, the name and date of
    which completely elude me <I read about this years ago> showed
    that the primary motivation was to avoid letting their buddies
    down.]



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