....
In my 23 years of service, a Drill Sergeant who has trained many, many men (all of whom have come back home alive), I can make you these assurances:
There will always exist a person with more training than yourself who at some point will oppose you with complete, efficient, commitment; Always seek better training than your own.
To become comfortable with your own sense of security is to commit yourself to suicide; Train diligently and often.
....
Following this back-and-forth has been at times amusing, depressing, chilling, and most of the time frustrating tending towards angering. It's time to speak up.
As I go about my daily life the number of people that I encounter that have more training than I do is exceedingly small. Further, the people I am armed to defend against tend overwhelmingly to have no training at all - what they may have more of than me is experience in shooting
at people. Their record of actually hitting someone who is not standing still directly in front of them, however, is abysmal.
The question of commitment is so personal as to be next to impossible to guage until the brown matter is in fact being moved by the rotary air impeller. I know, and know of, cops who were members of special, elite, super-operator units that did not pull the trigger when that was the only logical response, let alone being the correct response. I know, and know of, little old granny ladies who have had a revolver in their unmentionables drawer for longer than I have been alive, and it stayed there untouched until that one time when they unhesitatingly put enough holes in the BG to stop the threat. Cop that trains weekly and practices daily - 0. Granny lady who never touched the handgun since it went into the drawer decades ago - 1!
The big take-away? Training means squat without commitment, and commitment does not need training (although it might make the outcome more in line with some arbitrary standard of "correctness").
There are no Drill Sergeants in civillian life. There are a bunch of reasons for that, but probably the biggest one is that "we" just flat out refuse to be browbeaten into conformity with arbitrary standards that have no practical meaning in our lives. There is a reason why there is a right way, a "wrong" way, and the <branch of service> way. That last one is about conformity rather than about practicality, efficiency, or even effectiveness.
Speaking of Drill Sergeants - are you not only aware (as in admit it exists) but cognizant (as in believe it with all your heart and soul) that we all outrank you? We are, individually as well as collectively, the highest ranking individuals in this country - civillians with the vote. If you come around here telling us how we
ought to do anything, you ought to expect to have your hat handed to you on your way out the door. Thank you for your service and all that, but you seem to have forgotten what you were serving to protect and defend, against all enemies foreign and domestic. Thank you, also, for sharing your opinion - but remember that just like azz holes, everybody (except Bubba) has one.[SUP]1[/SUP]
stay safe.
[SUP]1[/SUP] - it's a very bad joke about Bubba, Cletus and Jethro. PM me if you want to read it.
