Combat Worst-Case Scenario

[stef]

by Maj Ryan Whittemore

“Rip asked me a question which at first I thought rather odd. “What is the worst-case scenario for you in combat?” he asked. Rather than speculate, I figured I would simply recount the worst situation I had personally faced in combat.”

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[Patrick]

This was an incredibly compelling argument for the implementation of strength-based training. This site has been host to a few articles and discussions that all point to the same conclusion, but an assessment of what you need to be able to do when the worst actually happens seems to make an ironclad case.

[Thin_White_Duke]

Dear Major Whittemore,
That was an excellent article. I was emailing someone about exactly this topic last night. I will point out one minor quibble, though. In the article, you mention convincing soldiers that combat "is predominantly a strength sport, not an endurance sport".
Without getting into an exercise science discussion about what "endurance" means, I would suggest that in combat, strength IS endurance.
In my opinion, the "type" of endurance required for a fast 10K or marathon performance is largely irrelevant to operations. As you point out in the article, one will never be operating wearing a T-shirt, shorts and running shoes.
I'm sure you would agree that, in your own personal experience, soldiers who cannot keep up on long ruck marches do not fall out because they are out of breath. They fall out because they are out of legs.
As a thought experiment, imagine one of the better known endurance races such as a 20-50 kilometre endurance race. As the event stands, I think it is clear that the "endurance athlete" would be favoured over a strength athlete, say an NFL player. However, if we were to make it more "realistic", we would need to add the 60+lbs of equipment to each competitor. Now, I think the result would either be far more even, or in favour of the NFL player.
Next, we would need to repeat the race more or less daily for several months. Probably on less than ideal type and quantity of food. Now the extra 60lbs of mass that the NFL player is carrying is going to allow him to better survive this. Furthermore, his thicker, stronger bones, tendons, ligaments and muscles are less likely to be damaged. In this scenario the smart money would be on the NFL player.
Lastly, if we were to "spice up" the race with some tasks along the way, like the contact you were involved in, I think one would struggle to find anyone to back the "endurance athlete".
I hope your initiative in your unit meets the success it deserves and, along with similar programmes, does "infect" the rest of the Army. It is sorely needed in most Western armies, whether US/UK/European. I made the analogy previously that, if Army PT were weapons and marksmanship training and the military was sustaining the level of injuries and casualties it takes in PT through range/live-fire accidents, there would be a national outcry.

[Ardek]

So does the military read this stuff or what

[BigShot]

...seems to make an ironclad case.

Which is exactly why it will be resisted hard every step of the way.

[karlwright]

The US military is already an intimidating sight. They were likened to giants in Korea and Vietnam during those campaigns. Can you imagine if all soldiers gained the weight that comes along with SS. Its hard to imagine that they could be a more efficient war machine but, they would be a more efficient war/peace keeping machine. The bill to feed those guys might get out of hand though.

[John2336]

Outstanding article. My experiences in combat have led me to the same conclusion. When everyone is walking around with 50-100 pounds of additional gear, your run time in sneakers is not what matters. At one point I was walking around with around 90 pounds of gear which put me at over 300 pounds on my feet. When my team leader was fragged and concussed during an ambush, myself and one other Marine had to carry him roughly a click and a half away to the armored coil while sweeping a path with our metal detectors. I wasn't as strong then as I am now, but I was strong enough. And the difficulties I had that day and with other scenarios I faced during the deployment are what led me back to SS. I got the job done, but I need to know before a future deployment that I have done everything in my power to go back out better prepared. Oddly enough, it's been awhile since I've gone on a LSD run in my sneakers.

Thanks for the work put into your article. It's nice to see the upper leadership is catching on. Hopefully the changes will eventually trickle down and better prepare Marines and Soldiers for the tasks they are expected to perform.

[Good Ryan]

Great article. I had a talk with a guy recently who would dream up scenarios in which being a good runner would be advantageous. Not only were they all far fetched, they don't happen with the frequency (if even at all) of events like Major Whittemore describes. And even when taking the scenario from worst case back to the mundane every day activities of the combat soldier while in theater, stronger is always better. Carrying 100+ pounds of gear while on patrol, scaling mountains, walls, staircases with that gear, lifting a .50 cal machine gun up to the turret gunner, opening an up-armored HUMVEE door on a HUMVEE laying on its side in a ditch after a driver fell asleep...These are common occurences, none of which are aided by pushups or long distance running. I asked why would you train specifiically for an unlikely occurence, at the expense of your performance carrying out the everyday essential, known tasks. He said something about "the unknown and unknowable" and I stopped listening...

[f4thpathway]

The predominant force that prevents the conditioning and capacity gained from LSD/calisthenics-only PT from becoming effective in combat isn't the Warfighter's kit, it is the enemy. The enemy won't let you move around at an "able to carry on a conversation" pace for 20-60 minutes or otherwise allow you to dictate how and where you fight him. He will force you into an all-out sprint, wearing said kit, while shooting back at him, looking out for other enemies/IEDS/ambushes, obstacles (things that will cause you to fall down and summarily bring about the end of your life), etc. That is only once the enemy and the good guy locate each other and begin communicating in their preferred manner. And aerobic conditioning isn't one of the languages currently being spoken.

Before enemy contact the Warfighter must be able to achieve patrol requirements, climbs walls, jump across rooftops, search vehicles and houses, climb mountains, traverse waterways, and climb stairs. If he does not possess a solid level of strength before his mission begins he will be able to do most of those things (climbing walls and jumping roofs is rarely easy for running-only folks) but he will most assuredly not have his teammates' confidence in the events that occur following enemy contact.

The Warfighter without unquestionable strength will be a follower. No one will be quite sure of why he is even there. He will not be called upon to run through a locked door, he will not carry mission-essential equipment because he will not be able to perform previously listed tasks while carrying it (he will never be able to fight with it), he will not be able to effectively assist in casualty evacuation operations (something that no one wants to do with a weak individual slowing things down), he may not be able to run through an individual even with his gear weight, he will not be able to assist in vehicle extrication operations with the exception of clean up, he most assuredly will be of no use in nonlethal applications of force because by the time he needs to apply such force he will have none. But perhaps he could take off all of his kit and run somewhere far away. By himself. On a battlefield. Because no one runs on a battlefield. They walk, climb, crawl, or sprint. If someone is running they are incorrect. They are either 1: not moving fast enough and therefore are screwing people over, or 2: not in danger and need to be paying more attention to what is going on.

If none of these things happened in combat and there was no enemy then the LSD Warfighter would be alright. He would not require brute strength and strength endurance for anything. And Warfighters would not have to train for strength to operate at optimal levels. As things stand now the minority of individuals who used their predeployment and deployment free time to improve their strength and strength endurance are relied upon to carry out the most vital tasks. Everyone else rides on their backs. So missions are accomplished and things are getting done, but not everyone is responsible for that. Imagine what could be accomplished if every individual in every combat unit was as dependable as the strong guys.

The weight of the gear alone isn't what says LSD and calisthenics do not make a well-rounded Warfighter. That type of conditioning would fail him even without gear on. Everyone who has trained without body armor and combat ammo knows this. Movement under fire requires much different conditioning than LSD provides. Being a superb runner does not make you capable of sustaining rushes and crawling for any significant period of time. When you put the gear on then calisthenics become useless. Unless you never encounter an external obstacle of any kind. The combination of anaerobic requirements, weight of the gear, frequency and severity of obstacles, time frames of firefights, agility under load neccessity, and enemy contributions all add up to "stop doing LSD and calisthenics as more than recovery from REAL physical training". Unfortunately the virus is proving most difficult to cure. It should be as simple as stating "runners run, fighters fight" but for some reason it isn't.

[track]

Excellent article. I have the same problem in our fire department. Everyone thinks the best way to prepare is a 3 mile jog when our tasks generally include wearing 60# of gear and hauling tools and equipment up a 35' ladder (besides hauling and hoisting said ladder), wrestling a charged 2-1/2" hose and pulling a 245" unconscious victim from a building, possibly up or down several floors. I'll tell you, trying to raise a 35' ladder with a "jogger" is damn near like doing it by yourself.

I finally have a few doing SS but respect for strength is still a hard sell.