Reddit reviews About Face: The Odyssey of an American Warrior
We found 7 Reddit comments about About Face: The Odyssey of an American Warrior. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Great product!
Some bits from his Wikipedia article with comments (I try not to rant):
> Grossman's first book, On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society is an analysis of the physiological processes involved with killing another human being. In it, he reveals evidence that most people have a phobia-level response to violence, and that soldiers need to be specifically trained to kill... Grossman's response to [a paper by a Robert] Engen ... addresses the criticisms by showing that SLA Marshall's findings, even after having doubt cast on their methodology
There's no "casting doubt" here, they are flat out fraudulent. In short, he claimed to have interviewed WWII infantrymen in Europe, and further claimed they said they pretty much didn't fire their individual weapons (such as the M1 (Garand) Rifle). This is contradicted by pretty much everything we know about the war there, and internal evidence from his papers. Most specifically, someone analyzed his appointment book or the like, and found that there were no such meetings (or very few, not enough to match his claims), nor was there unbudgeted time that could have covered them.
For further completely independent corroboration that SLA Marshall is not to be trusted, check out what David Hackworth had to say about how he became disillusioned with Marshal upon their spending time together in Vietnam in his (highly recommended!) autobiography, About Face: The Odyssey of an American Warrior.
> have borne out in further scientific studies and real world experience[citation needed], and furthermore, have been the cornerstone of military and police training for over a half century.
Yeah, that's a real "citation needed", especially with the escalating extreme psychology research replication crisis, and that concept is a multilevel tragedy. Maybe we're softer now, but people don't need (much) conditioning to kill, let alone by the "murder simulators" he claims are first-person shooters (more about all that at the above Wikipedia link, he wrote a 200 page book titled Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill: A Call to Action Against TV, Movie and Video Game Violence). But one wonders what effects current training done to train cops to make them more willing to kill anyone is having; see Radley Balko as /u/StrongStyleFiction notes for enough anecdotes to turn your stomach, even more if you're a dog or animal lover.
More, this prompted the Army to largely abandon the concepts of individual marksmanship, and after the M16 was forced on them (for good cause, but it wasn't a good thing), to not care very much about the reliability or effectiveness of individual weapons (the Marines still care very much about marksmanship, but can't do much about the M16/M4, besides recently fielding much better ammo for it that just manages, at least for now, to skirt the technical definition of purposely expanding ammo, which BTW is reported to be much better than the Army's alternative).
This burns me because I was raised to be a marksman (hunting father), although how knows if I would have (tried to) shoot anyone if my nearsightedness hadn't kept me out of the military, and this has caused undoubtedly hundreds, and probably thousands of needless combat deaths in our wars from mid-Vietnam on. Nor is this very humane for the enemies we've shot with these rifles.
Hahaha.... Yes. Yes people have felt this way before. I am not laughing because your question is funny - I'm laughing because those in the profession of arms, self included, have been feeling this way since the cradle of civilization in the war after the first war.
I'mma step on my soap box for a bit:
Speaking as a guy who has been in for awhile and been to the places that you've mentioned - anybody worth their salt has had those same feelings about the conflict(s) before them. I imagine most pilots over Iraq would have preferred to have been dropping bombs over the shit instead. Pilots from the 'Nam era talk about the glory days over MiG alley, and pilots over Korea will tell tales of victories and lost friends over Europe. Every Marine everywhere will always drive an extra mile for Chesty. In Korea the Glorious Glosters were literally wiped out while holding on to the greatness bestowed upon the badges of their regiment... earned 150 years earlier in Egypt against Napoleon's forces. The old soldiers storming Normandy hoped to honor those lost at Meuse-Argonne, and I could keep going on and on and on.
And now, speaking as a guy on the internet with no authority over you, I'm giving you homework. Amazon links are attached, but check your local library. Read about a soldier who was furious that he joined too late after WWII. Read about a small generation of men who was told the war was over, and that there was no need to train hard during peace. Read about some Air Force nonners who were promised protection on a lonely mountain top... in a country they weren't supposed to be in. Read about the fictional - yet all too true lesson that war is hardly ever over and that things never change.
I don't have a non-douchy, yet motivational way to say this... so hear goes: Your job, whether we are actively involved in a major conflict or not - is to prepare to go war. Your time may come, and when it does, it's best to be as prepared as possible.
And if it doesn't... well... at least you got a baller GI Bill and some tendies.
For questions 1 and 2, read this book:
About Face: The Odyssey of an American Warrior
by Amazon.com
Learn more: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/0671695347/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_kta1DbXWYZZFK
Hackworth goes into extreme detail on the problems with how the Vietnam war was lead including McNamara's obsession with body counts as an indicator of victory.
For question 4, read this book:
Chasing the Scream: The Opposite of Addiction is Connection
by Amazon.com
Learn more: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/1620408910/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_-Fa1DbKVVVJEX
Hari goes into detail on why sodiers in Vietnam did drugs and why the majority of them were able to stop once the war was over. There is little connection between Afghanistan and the current opioid crisis at least as far as soldiers working in a region with opium is concerned.
As far as the question about communication equipment vs yelling, there are several good reasons for yelling as opposed to using coms. First, yelling ALWAYS works. Unless you get shot in your airway, you can almost always yell commands. Coms can breakdown or get lost, broadcasts can be jammed. Coms are expensive, yelling is free. Yelling is also localized. Troops 100 meters away do not hear it effectively but close troops can. Coms broadcast to everyone on the frequency regardless of range. Coms also do not distinguish who is speaking unless call signs are used. If every troop had coms, they couldn't all start talking. They would have to wait their turn. In a firefight, waiting may mean death or worse. Special operators do use sophisticated coms as they approach a target, but still fall back on yelling while in a localized fire fight.
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I read About Face by Col. David Hackworth. He was a Mustang battlefield commission during Korea. It's a great book.
https://www.amazon.com/About-Face-Odyssey-American-Warrior/dp/0671695347
About Face
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0671695347/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_3?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=1568843224&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0SWVPV2A2TRYN6065NKQ
I would really recomend About Face by David Hackworth.
http://www.amazon.com/About-Face-Odyssey-American-Warrior/dp/0671695347