With Vietnam our military learned how to overcome the human aversion to killing its own kind. Firing rates on the front line were higher (greater than 90%) than any war in the past (mostly 15%). And with the operant conditioning tools used to overcome this built-in psychological barrier came an epidemic of PTSD. In hindsight we also learned another unfortunate fact - most things that could have been done wrong in Vietnam were done wrong.
- Soldiers were trained as individuals rather than as a group. They went to battle as individuals rather than in tightly knit groups.
- There wasn't a well-defined front line, and - more importantly - a place to get away from the action.
- Soldiers spent too long on the front lines.
- Soldiers were sent home quickly as individuals rather than via the slow boat ride or long march home in groups.
- Instead of an appreciative public, soldiers came back to protesters who spit in their faces and called them baby killers. Vietnam vets were considered failures because the war effort failed.
Enter women in large numbers in the services. Now we have two new problems.
- Women think, act, and feel differently than men.
- The rate of sexual assault for service women is about 10 times that of men. Not only is sexual assault another nasty ingredient to the witch's brew, but the conditions that make it possible haven't yet been considered.
- Bill