Training is Important – Jocko Willink & Dave Berke

training is important yes uh he breaks down here organization for unit training training plans comprehensible and workable plans are indispensable and should be formulated with consideration of the following four essentials established training goals that’s number one number two continuous evaluation this process must go on throughout the training cycle and as an integral part of it only by continuous evaluation can deficiencies be discovered early enough to make immediate correction possible number three testing closely related to evaluation is the more formal testing that is given to an individual or unit at the conclusion of a phase of training or block of instruction it’s here that we determine whether our training goals have been met number four remedial training i must emphasize here the value of remedial or makeup training once eve once evaluation and testing have identified the areas of deficiency remedial training must be used to correct them it should be an integral part of every training schedule of course the instruction will be designed to overcome specific weaknesses that have been exposed by the testing program and will have to be keyed to the specific needs of your unit it is essential however that remedial training be regularly scheduled gosh that makes sense so those are the four things established training goals continuous evaluation testing and remedial training what were the was there a test were there tests at each phase of top gun as you were going through the training yeah absolutely what was an example of a test the most common test that we give is that we’d want to make sure the students understood the mechanics of a system so how will missile system work how the targeting system worked how the radar system worked you had we wanted to make sure they understood the mechanics of it before they used it in in practical terms it probably isn’t too much different than than your experience of understanding how the radios worked before you were using them in the field right you had to understand hf propagation yeah you did you had to understand the ionosphere you you absolutely did because what would happen is you’re going to find yourself in a position and this is me i don’t know i was in that position as if you’re in a particular geography a particular place and talking to a particular other person some radio is going to work better than other radios and you might need to know hey you know what we’re like in the bushes here in the in the wilderness in the jungle this radio doesn’t work here it doesn’t penetrate through this this thing so there’s a million different examples of that if you get that out of order and you just work you you learn how to maneuver the system like i my my cursor moves it here and i move my my cursor on the display here and you don’t actually know what’s happening to the mechanics behind that you’re gonna start making mistakes inside in specific settings oh it worked here so it must work everywhere like no it doesn’t work everywhere this environment is optimized here this environment it doesn’t work at all and if all you know is the mechanics and not what’s happening behind it you actually can’t apply it when it matters the most you know what that made me think of the book leadership strategy and tactics by me because because i say that exact same thing when i’m talking i compare i compare a leader to a woodworker and talk about the fact that you know when you’re a leader you got to know the different tools but then you got to if you’re a woodworker you got to know the different tools and then you got to know the different types of wood and then you got to know how to apply those different type those different tools to different types of wood and then you’ve got to realize that even each individual piece of wood a piece of pine is super soft a piece of oak is super hard you got to use those tools differently with those different types of wood and then on top of that each individual piece of pine is different it has a knot it has a rift it has a cut it has a split and you gotta know how to deal with that so you gotta understand the principles of the tools i may regularly plagiarize the hell out of that book by the way check uh talks about assignment of administrative tasks he talks about when a unit is under strength reduced strengths must be offset by more efficient utilization and equipment i got asked this question today by a client yeah but you know we we don’t we don’t we need more people guess what everybo everybody needs more people we got visited by a senior ranking officer in the seal teams when we’re in ramadi and leif likes to tell the story the the you know great great officer huge supporter says hey dude what else do you need out here is there anything else you need and i said i need two more task units worth of men you know like we need we had enough missions to get everybody busy but guess what we didn’t get anybody we didn’t you know like that’s the way it works um next next little section inject realism the experienced commander knows that soldiers do in combat exactly what they have been taught and have practiced in training therefore each training situation and problem must be as valid and realistic as possible with unreal or artificial aspects eliminated training must reflect as many of the conditions scenes noises and situations of the battlefield as ingenuity can conceive and safety rules will permit and i remember i remember i put on we’d be doing when i got back from my last point when when we got back from ramadi and i took over training a few months into that when you would put on your nods at night you would you might as well be in iraq you might as well have been in iraq we had we had the the speakers playing gun battles and and called a prayer we had tires burning we had people dressed up like you know local iraqi citizens walking around it was freaking awesome it was freaking awesome that’s what you’re supposed to do damn i remember that the first time we were rolling into the moo lob then it was early in the morning it was a it was it was actually when the blue on blue happened in extreme ownership but when we were rolling in there i remember rolling in and like there’s tires burning in the streets and yeah i was like okay because what does that do that screws up your nods and luckily the sun was coming up but it was still dark outside but i’m thinking these these mujahideen fighters know what they’re doing these guys know what they’re doing there’s and then guess what so it messes up your night vision when you’re staring at these burning fires and then then the sun comes up well now there’s just black smoke everywhere and you you can gear and damn to you that when i got back and i was running training you rolled out the street we’re bourbon tires your night vision’s gonna be all jacked up and when you’re done with the night vision being all jacked up and the sun comes up guess what it’s gonna be black smoke everywhere one of the best ways to emphasize realistic realism is to assess personnel casualties for improper use of cover or in the case of night exercises vehicles can be knocked out for unauthorized use of nights what does that mean you’re putting your get putting people down this is like trade instructions i might as well have written this for tradet to use this is exactly what we did oh you’re you’re not standing by cover cool you’re dead oh you’re going to move out cross an open street without any cover fire roger that you’re dead you’re down man now let’s get this thing figured out oh by the way your buddy wants to come help you immediately without putting down suppressive fire cool he’s dead too let’s rock and roll who wants to figure this out who wants to put the cover in cover and move dude you’re literally like re i wrote that thing down fundamental sound and realistic oh cool you’re not applying the fundamentals you’re good you’re dead oh your tactics aren’t sound cool he’s gone now what are you gonna do i mean i should have a tracker i should literally just be marking how many times he and you are referring back to the realism that’s required and the beauty of that especially when you have experiences it completely takes away that ammunition of this would never happen or or this is unrealistic you know them the the sich the unwinnable scenarios we go well this would never happen oh really oh cool this would never happen watch this and the easier the training is the more acclimated people get to things being easy and the more unwilling they are to believe how difficult they can be and when your training is realistic how many times have you told me and everybody the story of seth’s first firefight and the guy’s like wow how many firefights have you been in you must be and he’s like it was my first one that was my first one that comes from fundamental sound realistic training yeah and putting that guy in a position i might not be able to re i don’t know what this is i can’t recreate this scenario i don’t know exactly how it’s going to play out but i do know what it’s going to be i i do understand how this is going to reveal itself and the only way to prepare for that is fundamental sound realistic training over and over and over again emphasis on night training self-sufficiency and confidence are key factors in developing a unit’s capability for night operations and this was just you know not gonna spend a bunch of time on this because now we’ve got night vision but what is more important what are we talking about i’m not talking about night vision versus not night vision what i’m talking about is put your troops into hard training situations that’s what you need to do put your troops into the most difficult of situations because when you’re used to fighting at night even the pre-night vision if you’re used to fighting at night number one yes you get used to it number two fighting at the day becomes easy it it makes fighting at the day become easy and it also gives you a potential advantage if it just so happens that your competition isn’t willing to put in the hard training at night good you’re to dominate same thing here inclement weather training i got to read this one though because it’s funny uh adverse weather will inevitably be encountered in combat and will give rise to problems that can best be solved by experience it will have an impact on mobility on maintenance of vehicle and equipment on observation on the availability of tactical air support and in fact will hinder tactical operations in every conceivable way adverse weather conditions can be turned into an asset during battle however boom there you go so we’re already look bad weather good commanders should take every advantage of training under such conditions troops who have mastered the problems of operating effectively in spite of the weather can turn low visibility extreme heat biting cold or heavy rain into tactical advantage against an enemy not so well adapted to these adverse conditions so that’s everything you just said and then it’s this the solution of rainy day schedule is to put on the raincoat and take full advantage of the adverse conditions for profitable field training and experience totally legit you know what’s fun in the in the teams when there’s giant waves like when a massive storm comes and there’s massive just destroyer waves it’s like time to go out and do surf passage with the zodiacs and just get annihilated it’s so fun and they do that with bud students oh it’s oh the waves are freaking just giant cool get your boats you’re going to do surf passage or sometimes get together swim uh in the teams it was hey rig up the zodiacs we’re gonna go get some experience in this stuff that’s what absolutely you have to do if you’re in the teams and there’s big waves in in coronado or virginia beach and you’re not getting jocked up to go get some you’re wrong get your platoon together and get them out there getting after it cross-training for flexibility cross-training is vital to any organization when your personnel are trained in several jobs you have achieved depth and capability that may well split the difference between success and failure in combat of course needless switching of personnel from one job to another is harmful so cross-train but that doesn’t mean you switch them completely training personnel and duties other than their primary mos however will increase your peacetime efficiency and subsequent combat effectiveness it will also make the individual a more valuable asset to the army increases pride and self-confidence and may well help him qualify for promotion boom a little time spent cross-training will be ampli rewarded in the increased overall effectiveness of your unit everyone will benefit not the least you as the commander just throws that in there everyone smiles got a little eagle that slips out every once in a while we hear it gotta be something driving this guy to do 45 years in the army i reckon but he likes that taking care of the troops also little benny little side benny for the man chaining chain of command a good organization always has a smoothly functioning chain a command a sound training program properly supervised can be the primary means of developing the proper functioning of the chain of command which is also essential in combat a good commander will guide the development of his unit to ensure that subordinate commanders retain and use their authority and responsibility in any unit the non-commissioner officer plays a leading role that’s your frontline managers he must be carefully instructed given responsibility and then held accountable i frequently find squad leaders ignoring their team leaders by issuing orders giving fire commands and taking other actions directly with the individual members of the squads even worse i found responsible officers who were condoning these mistakes the squad leader should use his team leaders to exercise control over the squad at all times commanders should supervise a assault battle drill and squad exercise to ensure that squad leaders understand and apply the principle of exercising command over the rifle squad through designated team leaders so don’t jump through the chain of command let your subordinate leaders lead self-sufficiency and confidence confidence to fight semi-independently under conditions of decentralized control is developed by training exercises current concepts of warfare visualizing greater dispersion on the battlefield so we’re more spread out dictate the necessity for units to acquire self-confidence and self-sufficiency these aspects can be developed in most tactical exercises and can be furthered through realistic use of active aggressor forces force on force training that’s what we want to do ranger type operations also instill confidence and show the need for self-sufficiency when out of physical contact with friendly forces or beyond the range of mutual fire support so we’re not covering and moving it moving anymore the isolated unit becomes a problem in our training commanders should recognize the plight of the isolated unit not by simulating it but by actually demonstrating it when the small unit is confronted with an isolated mission confidence can always be instilled by ensuring that procedures are established for maintaining communications and for rallying to its support if required training should be aimed at developing integrated procedures for the employment of army aviation and air force troop carrier troop movements for resupply and medical evacuation so we have to learn to work independently but we always have to be able to support each other if we’re alone out on the battlefield we die you mean there’s a balance there there’s a balance there is a little dichotomy but cover move there’s another doctrinal term that i love is supporting distance i’m not allowed to be further away from dave if i can’t defend dave’s position or cover for dave because he’s out of the range of my weapon systems he’s too far away that’s a perfect example of the cross training he’s talking about i could be an infantryman do i need to be an expert on indirect fires no i probably don’t need to know how to field strip every little but you know i need to know how far that thing can shoot where because if i get too far away from that supporting element and i go well the reason i got too far away is i didn’t know how murders worked cool the outcome is your team gets annihilated so do i need to know every single thing that their motor platoon commander knows no you don’t but you got to know a little bit you got to know how you and he interact together and so even that idea of cross training is if you don’t have a sort of a functional understanding inside your company you use the example before of the sales people and the customer satisfaction people if you’re a sales lead and the only metric you measure for success is how much you sell and you don’t realize that in the return department that number is the same you’re losing you’re losing because you there’s a piece that you don’t do you have to know everything they know you don’t and actually you don’t have time to know everything they know but you got to know enough you gotta have enough understanding what’s going on there to measure the success of the entire organization to include your team and that requires a little bit of cross training and that is a perfect example of how come you need to know something about everybody small unit tactical exercises tactical exercises should be as well prepared as training tests as often as possible the tactical situation for a field exercise should be laid in the framework of an echelon one or two levels higher than the participating unit this is desirable to bring into play the necessary intelligence supply evacuation and similar roles of supporting forces that have a bearing on the specific tactical operation don’t confuse the squad leader however by giving him everything that was in the battalion and company commander’s orders that’s an interesting little point to bring up is that well they’re saying that you need to test the subordinate units you know subordinate leadership you you can’t just i can’t and this is true in the fuel teams i can’t test myself if if i’m relying on me as the platoon leader to test my platoon it’s very difficult to do that look and it can happen and there’s some great platoon leaders that’ll be able to do that but there’s platoon leaders that will they’ll pass every test for some reason with flying colors because they’re not really being tested so it’s good when you are utilizing the chain of command and some of the some of the elements above to test the elements below so that’s that makes sense again he always emphasizes all exercises should be conducted under simulated combat conditions i think we’ve covered that one enough despite limitations on our capabilities to conduct field exercises and combined arms training i am convinced that commanders can always devise ways and means of achieving essential training objectives now i’ll give you an example that we would want to have close air support in our urban environment for training we’d want to have an ac-130 overhead we’d want to have f-18s overhead we’d want to have a marine corps fighter squadron ready to come and drop bombs for us that doesn’t always happen in fact it’s very rare that we would get those live assets so what would we do we would either bring a pilot or we’d bring a jtac a person that was qualified to call and we’d put them up on one of the buildings in our mount facility and give them a radio and look it’s almost the same thing you know you got a guy that understands how pilots talk and he imitates a pilot talking on the radio and then we would put up simulated explosions to go off when if they drop the bomb in the right spot we would blow we’d blow something up and they’d get that they’d get that satisfaction in fact there was a company we were using that had little model airplanes they were actually big model airplanes but the model airplanes would fly over and then explosions would happen we kind of went the distance to make the training realistic launching these you know f-18s that would come down and strafe the city and explosions would go off it’s pretty good but that’s a great way to do it and what does it cost for me to give the radio to one of my jtacs and stand on a building it costs zero dollars zero what does it cost to get an f-18 to give me or a section of f-18s to give me a few hours of support it cost what a hundred thousand dollars yeah how much how much how much fuel do you burn in an f-18 in an hour 10 000 pounds yes check check