What It Means to Be an ‘Educated’ Warfighter

Brochures for the University of Oklahoma are displayed during the 86th Force Support Squadron Ramstein Education Center Education Fair at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, on April 16, 2015. Airman 1st Class Tryphena Mayhugh/U.S. Air Force

Commentary

So, what does “education” for a warfighter look like?

In today’s military, many lament the tremendous amounts of time spent on what seems to be useless teaching—SHARP (Sexual Harassment / Assault Response and Prevention), EO (Equal Opportunity), “don’t-rape-that-person-or-that-one,” etc.—and a lack of relevant training. Whether or not the former examples are pointless is, although an interesting topic, a discussion for another time.

What is relevant now is addressing the issue of what should the modern warfighter know?

The best place to start is by reintroducing and then defining basic terminology. We can start by casting aside our preconceived notions of overweight guys in pajamas in strip malls wearing black belts they awarded themselves and digging into the often misunderstood name, “martial artist.”

The Oxford English Dictionary defines martial as “relating to fighting or war.” The same source offers multiple definitions of the term artist, the second of which is “a person skilled at a particular task or operation.”

It seems rather obvious, then, that if a modern warrior—be they a Marine, soldier, sailor, airmen, law enforcement officer, security contractor, or someone who just takes home protection seriously—starts with the premise that they are a martial artist, it offers a solid method for beginning to understand what being educated means in this environment.

This is an important distinction simply due to the fact that, once those terms are truly understood, one inherently derives a different mindset for looking at being a warrior: one that is at once fundamental and more fully developed. A martial artist isn’t someone who just owns a gun and learns how to shoot it—he or she is one who knows about things like marksmanship, weapons maintenance, and proper selection.

Once we establish a starting point, we must ask where we go from here. I posit that the logical progression from there is to address what applies to every situation imaginable versus what is situationally dependent. The best method for understanding this comes in the distinction between fundamentals and techniques.

Allow me to explain.

One of the first things a new infantry recruit will learn in the U.S. Army is the marching/slow jog cadence that repeats, over and over, “Shoot! Move! Communicate! Shoot! Move! Communicate!” What is the purpose of this?

It’s simple: shooting (i.e. engagement with the enemy), moving, and communicating are fundamentals of infantry tactics (which is to say all of combat tactics, really). These concepts are always relevant—they apply in every instance. A unit must be proficient in all three of these areas in order to dominate an opposing force.

But we can take this concept a step further. When we consider the individual aspect of martial arts in the context outlined above, what are the fundamentals—those attributes that apply in every situation?

It’s not too difficult to figure out if we imagine ourselves entering into personal combat with another human being sans weapons. Strength, endurance, speed, hand-eye coordination, reflexes, and the ability to think clearly during extreme levels of stress immediately come to mind as fundamental attributes that apply in every possible situation. There will not be any type of combat where these qualities won’t help in some way—the warrior will only benefit by developing them.

Contrasting these attributes with the development of techniques helps us clarify. For one-on-one combat, being physically strong and fit always applies, whereas a spinning wheel kick or rear-naked choke does not. They may be the perfect choice for a specific situation, but they might be terrible for others.

Similarly, on the battlefield, the small unit will always benefit from high functionality in the realm of shooting, moving, and communicating, but the techniques they use to employ those fundamentals can change depending on the mission, the enemy, or the overall strategy of the war.

Once we understand this premise, how we answer the question of what should a warfighter know becomes much more straightforward. We begin with fundamentals and move into higher-level techniques the more accomplished we become at the basics.

Individual Fundamentals

So strength, endurance, and the ability to move your body are all pretty important, right? Again, there really aren’t any situations where these attributes would be considered negative, so it’s essential that a warfighter have a solid understanding of them in relation to their own personal selves.

Notice that I said “understanding.” That doesn’t mean you just work out and get in decent shape. You need to understand the basics of fitness, including anatomy and physiology, diet, and proper training/rest cycles.

Some of these areas of knowledge serve a dual purpose. That anatomy and physiology stuff you should be learning? Guess what all emergency medical technicians, nurses, physician’s assistants, and doctors study? The educated warfighter needs to know how to patch up their fellow warfighters when things go wrong, so topics like those are doubly important.

Shoot

One of the biggest myths in shooting is that you need to have a lot of money/funding to get good at it. But did you know that some of the best shooters in the world have openly stated that 80 to 90 percent of their training was ... dry firing?

Read about guys like Brian Enos and Jerry Miculek (or meet them in person) and you’ll discover that the secret to their expertise doesn’t necessarily lie in spending excessive amounts of time at the range just because they are paid to be there.

Become educated on the right way to train versus training more.

Move

What do you know about kinesiology? If you started to answer that question with, “What does kinesiology mean?” then start by Googling it and go from there.

When it comes to moving multiple people in concert, that’s where we start getting more detailed. (See below under “Strategy”.)

Communicate

This category is often only discussed in the context of technology, e.g. radios or other communication devices, but rarely do we devote much time to the fundamentals of communication itself. How much do you know about classical rhetoric, verbal judo, and cognitive biases that directly relate to communication with other human beings?

Grasping the fundamental aspects of each of these puts you way ahead of your peers.

Strategy

This is a very big and broad topic, so it seems like too much for this article. But it is worth addressing how one would get started so as not to be completely lost when all those war college graduates start spewing nonsense offering rational plans that will totally work.

So where to begin? The obvious choice everyone points to is “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu. I’m not going to tell you not to read it, but I am also going to tell you that it’s just a starting point and you need to go further.

In our information-heavy age, there are so many resources available for learning about this topic that it’s hard to know where to start. Try YouTubing “military strategy” or “great generals”; listen to podcasts like “Hardcore History” with Dan Carlin; learn to play the game of Bridge (Eisenhower’s favorite) instead of Texas Hold ’em; dig into the topic of leadership at a deeper level than just reading the biography of a famous military figure (e.g., Google “the science of leadership”).

All of these enhance your understanding of strategy using methods other than just pouring over textbooks. Nothing wrong with the latter if you’re adept at it, but don’t be chained to the idea that it’s the only way to learn this stuff. The best part of all of this? As stated earlier, most of it is incredibly inexpensive, especially in comparison to formal schooling. With time, effort, and an internet connection, you can become highly educated in every one of these areas.

To be continued...

This article first appeared in The Havok Journal.

The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement.