A native of Indiana, John Shields' career includes work in education, business and industry, management consulting. He is also a published writer / photographer and lecturer.
As a professor and head basketball coach at Purdue University Calumet in the late 1960's, Shields' office was located in the Armory of the Indiana Army National Guard 376th Engineering Company. For six years, in addition to his teaching and coaching duties, Shields worked closely with Army National Guard personnel.
Later, Shields was appointed Dean of Admissions at Culver Military Academy. During his Culver tenure, Shields worked closely with many active and retired military personnel from all branches of service. He became involved with Culver's JROTC program and was associated with military personnel from the U.S. Marines, Army, Navy and Air Force, along with military officers representing various foreign services.
While at Culver, Shields spent time at the United States Naval Academy, the United States Air Force Academy and the Citadel.
Later, his son was in his final Para Rescue training phase at Kirtland AFB when he suffered a career-ending fractured leg. He also has a nephew who graduated from the Canadian Military Academy and is now a Captain in the Canadian Army.
Shields has a unique prospective of the military, having worked as a civilian hand-in-glove with military people most of his working life.
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March 7, 2005
[Have an opinion on a John Shields column? Sound off in the Discussion
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The military has a tough job training people to become team members in a unified, seamless fighting force that coordinates all branches of service into one lean, mean fighting machine.
The important question is: "How does the military accomplish this vital task?"
The answer: By providing training programs that will ensure that their product will without question defeat the strongest, most disciplined army that they'll ever face in combat.
The next logical question should be: "Is our present training thorough enough to ensure that each soldier, sailor, Marine, airman and Coast Guard member is superior in every aspect to any possible enemy?
Since all military today is comprised of volunteers, we start training with a motivated group. Nevertheless, these troops are also individuals who come from all walks of life with different life experiences, social/economic and educational backgrounds.
The first objective is to let each aspiring military member clearly understand the goal of military training. Instructors then have to skin the bark off recruits and start building on the new bark so that each individual understands where and how their talents will contribute to the overall goal. The final objective is to ensure that each individual has the skill sets required to become a competent member of a cohesive team.
Based on studies conducted by the services, military leaders feel confident that our officer corps is highly motivated, well educated and superbly trained to accomplish their tasks.
It is often stated that NCO's run the military. And it's also believed that we have a highly motivated and competent NCO corps, especially on the field of battle.
There is, however, the prevailing belief that our training has slipped somewhat in the past few years as a result of cultural pressures and that training techniques need to be upgraded with more "real life" training scenarios.
First and foremost, we must set high training standards with lofty troop expectations. If expectations are elevated, troops will meet or surpass these expectations. Conversely, if expectations are set low, then the performance of our service men and women will fall to the lowest common denominator.
In certain instances, commanding officers set training standards too low. As such, many troops learn real life lessons on the job that in many cases can be a very dangerous situation for both new and seasoned troops.
Meeting higher expectations may also require that instructors make some attitude adjustments. Too often people in charge of training think that by yelling and harassment, one produces superior troops. This idea may be fostered because as a trainee, the instructor was conditioned to accept that technique as being effective. Discipline is essential because without discipline, unit goals will not be realized. Nevertheless, trainees must also have dignity, humility and pride in order to achieve.
Trainees also must be taught to take initiative. The current thinking by many instructors is to deprive troops of initiative but taking constructive initiative should be encouraged. What makes Americans different from many other people in the world is the fact that in most cases we're taught to think creatively and then take action.
Many of the best ideas that saved countless lives during past wars were a result of individual out-of-the-box initiatives taken by troops to win battles and save their brothers and sisters in arms. Many of the troops who took individual initiative and action during combat are our revered Medal of Honor, Silver Star and Bronze Star winners and heroes.
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Trainees are best led by the leadership examples set by their instructors. If the instructor sets high standards and stellar example, trainees will follow suit and emulate that leadership.
It's up to the instructor and their superior officers to establish the standards...standards that foster duty, honor and courage as well as dignity and respect. Training should also encourage critical thinking skills, a skill that may not be encouraged as often as it should be in the military these days, but a skill that is often needed on the field of battle.
This doesn't mean that instructors should be soft. Quite the opposite Instructors should be demanding, but in a productive way.
We've got to get back to perhaps a more Spartan training mentality with skilled instructors leading the effort. We've got to fine tune skills to a sharp cutting edge with no compromises for men or women so that everyone can be absolutely assured that our service members in combat will prevail over any possible enemy anywhere in the world.
We must train harder and smarter, be better prepared physically and mentally, have the best tools and equipment possible to accomplish the mission and our troops must be trained under the most realistic battle conditions possible.
Are we doing a credible job of training today? Perhaps! However, many professional military people feel we should be doing even better especially if, God forbid, we're forced to face a highly trained, professional, well disciplined well-equipped army of skilled and determined forces. Add to that factor the possible loss of air supremacy during such a conflict? Would we prevail?
It's through intense pressure and fire that carbon is transformed into a diamond. The same maxim can be applied to training Warriors who will stand proud and defend this great nation, as did the Spartans at Thermopylae. The ancient inscription attests, "Go tell the Spartans and strangers passing by, that here obedient to their principles we lie."
Training must be as the fire that shapes and hones our young men and women and superbly prepares them for the rigors of facing the new and sometimes faceless enemy of the 21st Century.
Author's Note: This article is by no means meant to denigrate the efforts of our armed forces in its current war against terror. Our troops are performing brilliantly and the entire country is grateful for their dedication, bravery and sacrifice. The principal objective is to point out that some active and retired officers who contributed to this article feel that our present training is not as thorough or rigorous as it needs to be in order to meet future potential adversaries.
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