Originally posted by Pugsly
Who is the CO at Fort Lewis? He needs to be informed of the gross indescretion of his soldiers.
Well, I would assume you would want to contact someone higher than the CO of Ft. Lewis.
FM 3-25.150 Combatives, 18 January 2002
I can no longer find the [1992] FM 21-150 Combatives Manual. This one [3-25.150 Combatives] is not much of an improvement in my opinion...
The 1992 21-150 Combatives Manual was entirely line drawings, the new one has some of the old line drawings and some photos as seen above.
In the line drawings, Soldiers are wearing combat boots, in the actual photos [I don't know about all of them, but in many of them.] Soldiers are wearing "tennis" shoes, although they are not white, they're more subdued.
I come from a long line of military personnel, and I find it hard to believe that our SF troops are allowed to train in tennis shoes. A military uniform includes combat boots, or uniform shoes. Not white sneakers. We train in the same uniform that we are going to wear into combat. It would not make sense to do it any other way.
It's pretty obvious that white "tennis" shoes are not a part of the uniform. Then again, it's a training environment and it's not about being "lax," I'm sure. It's probably more about injuries both to the person wearing them as well as "receiving" them by accident during training in the teeth, etc. A "tennis" shoe might hurt in the mouth and might split a lip, a boot will knock your teeth out.
There was a time when Soldiers and Marines had to run exclusively in combat boots, I believe they changed it due to injuries. That's not to say they never run or train in combat boots, it's just to say that in alot of instances, it's better to allow them to use "tennis" shoes than to wash people out of Programs because of a misguided and overly-Authoritarian calls for absolute uniformity.
Yes, yes, yes, the Military is by its nature "Authoritarian" and "uniform." However, it shows a responsible and mature attitude in not causing injuries that can be avoided which offers more benefit than training in combat boots constantly.
And like I said, I'm sure they sometimes
do train in them.
The second problem I have is the fact that pictures were taken of our SF team (or at least two of them) training. Was this cleared? And why were they allowed to be put on the internet?
Again, investigate the picture posted above as well as the link. The October 2001 Issue of Inside Kung Fu Magazine featured an Article by Stuart Craig. "The Future of Battle." I'm sure all of this is OK.
They have faces in their own Combatives Manual and that is on the Internet as well.
I think in some cases, your point would be valid, but it is apparently not an issue at all in some cases.
