Common Sense Training: A Working Philosophy for Leaders - Softcover

Collins Jr., Arthur S. S.

 
9780891416760: Common Sense Training: A Working Philosophy for Leaders
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0891416765 ISBN 13: 9780891416760
Verlag: Random House Publishing Group, 1998

Inhaltsangabe

Leadership is so much a part of the conduct of training that at times it is difficult to tell where one stops and the other starts. . . . 

“The best book on military training from platoon to division level that has been published in any army.”—Army magazine

“His message is that whatever works and gets results by the most direct and efficient means is good. All else should be eliminated.”—Air University Review

“A utilitarian book that talks intelligently of leadership, management and common sense.”—ARMOR magazine

“A hardhitting and unvarnished . . . authoritative work that should be read and reread by everyone who aspires to be a truly professional soldier.”—General Bruce Palmer, U.S. Army (Ret.)

“A gem, with few peers, invaluable . . . [Arthur Collins'] advice is always performance oriented. Don't talk so much about it, he says, Don't make so many fancy charts about training. Instead, do it. Teach it. Perform it.”—Parameters

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Lt. Gen. Arthur S. Collins, Jr., (1915–1984) graduated from West Point in 1938 and received an MA from George Washington University. He served in the U.S. Army for 40 years and was a combat veteran of World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. Collins commanded at every level from platoon to field army, before his 1974 retirement.

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This is more than just a book on training. The ideal treatise on training would be shorter by a third—better still by a half—and would contain only suggestions to stimulate thought and action by commanders in the field of training. But the training environment that now exists is not conducive to good training. This environment must be analyzed critically, and this book attempts to do so.
 
Two major themes predominate in this work: first, that training is the number one business of a peacetime army but that it has suffered neglect; and, second, that the senior commander sets the tone on training in an army organization. The training atmosphere the commander creates prevails over all the efforts of his subordinates. This book is aimed at him and those who respond to his orders and attitudes. There is a message here for all levels of the chain of command, from the civilian secretaries who influence the quality of the soldier to the noncommissioned officer who is involved in most of his training.
 
The focus is on training at battalion level and below with major emphasis on company/battery/troop level.1 Although many suggestions on practical down-to-earth training techniques are to be found here, few detailed charts or specific programs are included. In every unit, conditions vary with respect to training areas, experience, and a host of other variables, not the least of which is the commander’s attitude. Therefore, training guidance from a distance is not much help to the trainer at the unit level. The details of particular training programs are spelled out in appropriate field and technical manuals. But no matter what is in the manuals, junior leaders cannot be effective trainers if a healthy atmosphere is not created where the training takes place. Training flourishes only in an atmosphere that invites it to do so, and only the generals and the colonels can extend that invitation.
 
If the senior commanders improve the training environment, training will improve rapidly. Ideas and attitudes conducive to good training are pervasive since they come from a true recognition of the importance of training to an army. All ranks, from the general officer to the NCO, can use these ideas and attitudes within the scope of their respective responsibilities. These ideas on training are internally consistent, and the basic themes apply to the National Guard and Reserves as well as to the active Army.
 
The most notable training achievement in Army history was the creation of a great Army and Air Force between 1940 and 1945. Churchill said, “The rate at which the small American Army of only a few hundred thousand men, not long before the war, created the mighty force of millions of soldiers is a wonder of military history … This is an achievement which the soldiers of every other nation will always study with admiration and envy.” The pre-World War II Army that accomplished that feat did not have nearly the capability or expertise that today’s Army has. The leaders of that Army, however, had a training knack that has been lost. The task at hand is to recapture the art.
 
In addressing a new generation of leaders, I cannot emphasize too strongly that the fundamentals of training do not change. Weapons change, technology advances, and tactics adjust to what is new. The fundamentals of training, however—to prepare an army to fight in some national crisis with whatever means are at hand—change but little. The major changes in training come from the social changes that affect the human condition. The enlightened trainer takes advantage of these changes to forge a better fighting force.
 
This book is a dialogue with my fellow soldiers on a subject vital to the Army’s future. The soldier knows that death, sacrifice, and hardship are daily companions in combat; only good training or an end to the fighting alleviates them. My prejudices on training are strong, as my colleagues in the service are well aware. Although I do not presume that my training prescriptions are the best, they have been tried at every level of command—and they work. A host of solid professional soldiers taught me what I know. Few of these men were famous, but all of them were dedicated to the military profession and the Army. This book will repay a small part of my debt to them and to the Army, whose virtues far outweigh its faults.
 
If this volume illuminates the training environment, helps its readers to overcome the neglect of training, and kindles an imaginative interest in training in the new generation of officers and noncommissioned officers, who have to train an Army far more complex than the one I joined in 1938, it will have served a useful purpose.
 
1
 
A Philosophy of Training
 
Training is all-encompassing and should be related to everything a unit does or can have happen to it.
 
The essential characteristics of a good army are that it be well trained and well disciplined. These two characteristics are apparent in every unit achievement, whether in peace or in war. Discipline derives and flows from training and serves to emphasize a fundamental point essential to a philosophy of training: that training is all-encompassing. Training permeates everything a military organization does.
 
If training is so important, why is it so often neglected? There must be some inherent contradiction when commanders fail to devote adequate attention to the activity which can do so much for every aspect of a unit’s operations, maintenance, administration, and esprit. In trying to analyze this contradiction, I have come to the conclusion that perhaps a misconception exists as to what is meant by training. Through the years, I have noticed that when commanders and staff officers discuss training, they most often talk in terms of tactical exercises, firing of weapons, and those aspects of military operations that focus on “move, shoot, and communicate.” Seldom do they talk or write about training in the context of personnel and administrative procedures, maintenance, and safety. They fail to relate the serious-incident reports, which tell of accidents and injuries resulting from a broken towbar or poor rigging, to the training that might have prevented the accidents. Too many commanders are not aware that training is all-encompassing and should be related to everything a unit does—or can have happen to it.
 
A professional soldier, be he officer or noncommissioned officer, must learn early in his career not to think of training as the insatiable enemy that endlessly consumes his time. True, he and his troops will be training most of every day. But training is not just a priority to be emphasized this week because a senior commander is now pushing it, as he was “maintenance” last week and “safety” or “equal opportunity” the week before. Training affords a commander the opportunity to explore the variety of problems and missions that will always confront him. When a commander of a military unit takes this attitude, most of his problems—and those of his unit—will be met and solved in the course of daily training, and thus will cease to be problems. The same attitude will prevail again over new problems.
 
A good example of a comprehensive view of training comes from The Patton Papers. General Patton’s flamboyance in the context of training is irrelevant, a matter of personal style. Sometimes it works; most often it doesn’t. What really bears on the issue of training is that General Patton was a keen student of the military art and gave much thought to weapons, tactics, training of the individual and the small teams, as well as to physical conditioning. He stressed the...

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Verlag
Random House Publishing Group
Erscheinungsdatum
1998
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0891416765
ISBN 13 
9780891416760
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
256
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
gpsr@phaidon.com
gpsr@phaidon.com

Zähringerstraße 24
Berlin
10707
Deutschland

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