Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/1542142
we have no one to train: our youngest Polish reservists who completed ZSW are at least 35, while the overall average age of our reserve (those tra- ined in ZSW or who have done professional service) hovers around 50. If anyone wants to think abo- ut genuinely training citizens for wartime so that they could be used to fill unit personnel numbers without waiting weeks for training, two things must be considered. First — incentives to undergo such training or to take up military service in a longer form. Conscription is suspen- ded, ZSW does not exist, "you can't make a worker out of a slave," and reserves must be trained. So either we rein- state conscription and induct people into the army by for- ce, or we offer training in exchange for benefits or other bonuses. These could be tax breaks, preferential loans (but not consumer loans), help in obtaining education — the- re are many possibilities, and the "bonus" system could be tiered depending on how much time one devotes to the mi- litary. In any case, people must be incentivized, because without restoring ZSW there is simply no other possibility. One need only read the dec- larations of some people abo- ut defending the Fatherland — e.g., that in case of war "I'll pack the car and f*** off to Germany." Leaving aside that such plans are either difficult to carry out or impossible, such statements show parts of society's attitude and also demonstrate that "work at the grassroots" to eliminate such attitudes is completely lac - king. Second — the training must make sense. It cannot be re- duced to killing time in a lecture hall, to "platoon in captivity" field exercises, or to lots of "hiding in the wo- ods" or ineffective shooting "at torsos — three, aimed shot, single, FIRE!" For tra- ining to make any sense it must involve barrack-based training for several weeks following a coherent program designed to actually teach so- mething, not just to fill Excel tables. One example is USMC Boot Camp — the initial tra- ining for every Marine recruit — which after 13 weeks produ- ces a trained and reasonably fit rifleman (and remember that every Marine is a rifleman): an infantry soldier who alre- ady knows what, how and when to do things and is ready for specialist training. The USMC Boot Camp program is coherent and designed so that a recruit gradually acquires knowledge, skills and fitness, progressing to increasingly difficult chal- lenges. The whole is divided into consistently implemented "chapters" and marksmanship training takes one entire week rather than being scat- tered across several training days mixed with other acti- vities. As a result, in that week one can train a shooter to handle a rifle effectively and hit targets at 300 meters. If anyone wonders how to do it, the templates are ready — one just needs to copy them and not let anyone notice — almost ready, that is, becau- se then someone must want to implement them and have the means and places to do it, and that can be a separate issue... It is also worth remembering that the USMC is not an ex- ception when talking about modern armed forces — in no civilized country does basic training for an infantry/me- www.fragoutmag.com