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Old School Fire-Mission in Afghanistan
Published 3 years ago
A Soldier in contact utilizes a very analog method of calling for fire when his squad comes under direct attack from Taliban positions. These are basic Soldier skill-sets that we can never lose.
Technology is always moving forward, and one of the primary driving factors for this is how wars are fought. It's easy to sit down and say that technology is advanced for the entirety of human-kind, but everyone who has done more than two years in military service knows that most technology is being funneled directly into the military industrial complex, and pumped out directly to front-line troops to make them safer, and more deadly.
With the advancement of technology, it is very easy for basic Soldier skills to be lost. Land navigation via terrain features and dead reckoning for example was a dying skill-set when I was on my way out of the Marines. This used to be a skill that basically trained infantrymen needed mastery of before they would be allowed into the Fleet Marine Force. However, with the amount global positioning systems available to the Marines at the time, it was a skill-set that was often overlooked and undertaught.
This video is a simple example of how basic Soldier skills should never be lost to time or technology. These analog methods of fire control will allow our troops on the ground to continue to dominate the battlespace against near-peer foes in the future should our technology falter or fail in any way. Something as simple as the polar fire mission needs to continue to be taught today, and it needs to be practiced on the range as well. You never know when a compass can save your entire platoon's life.