11-25-2016, 11:14 PM
Like I said, none of the Marines ever raised it as an issue. They just seemed happy to be getting taught tactics that actually worked and made sense, rather than what they had been taught before. I am not making assumptions, I am the one that has actually done this remember?
I have answered your question. I do not see the need for anyone to be leading from the front. We do not have any commanders in the front rank of shield units and I have never known it to be an issue on operations. The police in the UK do not have any commanders in the front rank, the police in Germany do not have any commanders in the front rank etc etc and I have never heard of them having any issues. In none of the eight countries I have trained people to do this in have I taught commanders to be in the front rank and not one of them has come back and said there have been any problems when they have deployed and done it for real.
I can give an example of the opposite though. In Armenia when we were teaching them one of their Battalion Commanders told us that they, in the one actual riot they had policed since independence, put all their commanders in the front of their units because that had been the Soviet doctrine they had been taught. 50% of Battalions officers became casualties in a very short period and, largely due to the fact that their NCOs were not normally allowed to make decisions without the approval of an officer, command and control completely broke down and a large chunk of their unit ran away. When we taught them how to command their units from the rear they took to it immediately, because they had seen the effect of not doing it in a real situation rather than a hypothetical one.
I have answered your question. I do not see the need for anyone to be leading from the front. We do not have any commanders in the front rank of shield units and I have never known it to be an issue on operations. The police in the UK do not have any commanders in the front rank, the police in Germany do not have any commanders in the front rank etc etc and I have never heard of them having any issues. In none of the eight countries I have trained people to do this in have I taught commanders to be in the front rank and not one of them has come back and said there have been any problems when they have deployed and done it for real.
I can give an example of the opposite though. In Armenia when we were teaching them one of their Battalion Commanders told us that they, in the one actual riot they had policed since independence, put all their commanders in the front of their units because that had been the Soviet doctrine they had been taught. 50% of Battalions officers became casualties in a very short period and, largely due to the fact that their NCOs were not normally allowed to make decisions without the approval of an officer, command and control completely broke down and a large chunk of their unit ran away. When we taught them how to command their units from the rear they took to it immediately, because they had seen the effect of not doing it in a real situation rather than a hypothetical one.
Adam
No man resisted or offered to stand up in his defence, save one only, a centurion, Sempronius Densus, the single man among so many thousands that the sun beheld that day act worthily of the Roman empire.
No man resisted or offered to stand up in his defence, save one only, a centurion, Sempronius Densus, the single man among so many thousands that the sun beheld that day act worthily of the Roman empire.
