Request for advice on real life Ukranian recruit training.

[Boche]

I'm here to ask you guys some for some informed help.

There have been Ukrainians training in my country for a while now, and this last cycle that just graduated, they have selected 3 dozen or so candidates to go through another X amount of extended training and turn them into NCO's/Officers.

My unit is going to be in charge of that training.

I was talking with the base psychologist, who is going to be in charge of their "psychological" training. She will be giving them half a dozen of weekly addresses, but she has been given no advice or direction on what to teach them. She has some idea of where to start (stress handling, leadership skills...etc) but apart from that, taking into account these guys are headed for an actual shooting war obviously she wants to make an actual contribution and not give them hollow TedTalks.

As people with more expertise than me, I refer to you all the question:

What sort of psychological training would you recommend she prepare given the circumstances? What topics should she cover or what sort of techniques could she teach?

Thank you in advance.

 

PS I apologize if this isn't the correct place for the post but it's the place with the most traffic at the moment and the training isn't far off, so we would appreciate the help. Again, thank you in advance.

Edited June 7, 2023 by Boche

[Grey_Fox]

I'd say some of the top things are that:

1. They're going to try to kill people

2. At some point they're going to have to look a subordinate in the eye and give them an order that they and the subordinate know will probably end in their death.

3. How to help their subordinates continue in their duty despite the stresses they'll face.

Edited June 7, 2023 by Grey_Fox

[Centurian52]

I had read a pretty good book on battlefield psychology a while back. I can't find my copy to reference it at the moment. It was War Games: The Psychology of Combat, by Leo Murray. Obviously I'm not suggesting you try to rush through an entire book when you've got training just around the corner. But I think there are a few highlights that I may be able to pull from memory. An understanding of battlefield psychology is useful in two respects. It can help you to get the enemy to stop fighting. And it can help to keep your own men fighting. If you are giving psychological training to a bunch of soldiers then I assume you are primarily interested in the latter of those two, though the fundamentals are the same either way.

IIRC there are four responses that a soldier might have to combat, three of which could make them stop fighting, called the four f's. The four f's are fighting, fleeing, fussing, and freezing. In the case of our own troops we want them to keep fighting, which means keeping them from doing the other three f's. In the case of the enemy we want them to stop fighting, which means encouraging them to do one of the other three (or, ideally, killing them or taking them prisoner). Fleeing and freezing are self explanatory. Fussing is when you become overly focused on small details or tasks that aren't important because you aren't operating on enough brain power to prioritize things properly. An example of fussing that the book gave was one soldier during a firefight in the Korean war rushing back and forth from the line to the rear to bring up ammunition. That was an important job when he started doing it, but he became so focused on it that he never stopped, and by the end of the fight his squad's position had a whole mountain of ammunition that they didn't need.

So I don't know how you'll teach it to them. But I would think the goal would be to teach them to not flee, freeze, or fuss. Maybe teach them how to get the enemy to do those things if there's time (the book had some pointers on that which I've long forgotten).

[The_Capt]

22 hours ago, Boche said:

I'm here to ask you guys some for some informed help.

There have been Ukrainians training in my country for a while now, and this last cycle that just graduated, they have selected 3 dozen or so candidates to go through another X amount of extended training and turn them into NCO's/Officers.

My unit is going to be in charge of that training.

I was talking with the base psychologist, who is going to be in charge of their "psychological" training. She will be giving them half a dozen of weekly addresses, but she has been given no advice or direction on what to teach them. She has some idea of where to start (stress handling, leadership skills...etc) but apart from that, taking into account these guys are headed for an actual shooting war obviously she wants to make an actual contribution and not give them hollow TedTalks.

As people with more expertise than me, I refer to you all the question:

What sort of psychological training would you recommend she prepare given the circumstances? What topics should she cover or what sort of techniques could she teach?

Thank you in advance.

 

PS I apologize if this isn't the correct place for the post but it's the place with the most traffic at the moment and the training isn't far off, so we would appreciate the help. Again, thank you in advance.

Good lord that is a tough one. So are we talking leadership training?  Sounds like it.  Battlefield leadership and resilience is a big freakin topic.  If I had 15 mins before jumping off the truck and running into it:

- Don’t get pulled too far in.  Combat is pretty wild and it is easy to get pulled too far into a single crisis.  The reality is that is all crisis.  A tactical line leader needs to keep one step back and try and see the system of crisis as it unfolds.  If the leader is pulled in too far they lose the picture they need to sustain in order to give their people the best chances and to keep the pointed at the enemy.

- Don’t get pulled too far back.  Fear and shock is normal but once the initial contact is made leaders cannot suck too far back.  You do that and the troops feel abandoned and you start to lose the ability to get a feel of how the whole machine is holding together.

- Combat is a longer game than people think.  Once the initial actions and shooting start, the drama starts to normalize.  Leaders need to stay on top of that.  Normalize can mean troops get sloppy…they got into combat and did not die…so now what?  Also the need to watch out for sustainment.  Modern western troops were set up for about 20 mins of sustained combat before air or indirect firepower came to the rescue.  The UA guys do not have this, so they might have to settle in and make their ammo last - so back to basics like fire discipline and marksmanship (yep they still matter).

- On Basics - build them in as priority and stick to them. Once the lead starts flying and people start screaming everything else strips away.  You are left with relationships and trust you built up to that point (ie each other) and the basic skills you have beaten into their brains.  Something as simple as IAs and stoppages and simply keeping you weapon in operation can be really hard under fire unless it is beaten into muscle memory.  Have the troops practice the most mundane things, hundreds of times.

- Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.  Be deliberate and as calm as you can be at all times.  Calm like panic is contagious.  If the leader is not freaking out, the troops likely won’t either.  Be deliberate, take the few extra seconds to pull order together.  Get past scared, get past mad and get cold.  You should literally feel cold inside - once you get there it gets a lot easier.  People become systems.  The enemy is a metric.  Really hard to describe this space but you have a mission and everything else, including you are simply means to that end, or a obstacle to remove.

- Build trust and use it.  As a ground force leader your weapon is the unit.  It is only as good as you kept it before the shooting started.  In combat let it do its job and try hard to stay out of people’s way.  There is an art to knowing when to step in and when not too.

- Leadership is nothing like the movies or even the BS fed in basic. It starts with whipping the troops in training while driving them in front of you, then it shifts to walking with them under fire - lean on each other.  In the back end you will be out in front pulling, sometimes begging and pleading to get them across the finish line.  Again quiet calm is the norm.  Then when you do yell or swear everyone really pays attention because it is so much out of character.

- Establish depth and redundancy…everywhere.  Everyone has a 2 IC, 3 IC and then last man standing.  I cannot describe how fast the famous “chain of command” can fall apart.  So build it deep.  Also leave room for informal leaders, they will emerge.

- Don’t be a hero, your people do not need one.  Some guys go in looking for that hero moment but that often only gets people killed.  A hero gets in and gets the job done while keeping as many of his people alive as he can.  Take opportunities if the come but don’t lean too far forward at the expense of peoples lives.

- Little things matter so much.  A joke, a quiet word a little luxury and a small sacrifice.  For some troops when they get ragged these little things make all the difference and can sustain them.

- Finally, and this is the hardest one, do not forget that you and your people are ammunition. Your job is to spend them on problems. Worse, your job is to convince them that it is worth it.  Once the war is over you are going to be living with this fact for the rest of you life.  You only get to put that one down at the end.  You will spend those years writing reference letters for jobs they are applying for, checking in on the survivors and people left behind, and re-living every decision you made.  Just accept that and move on but never forget the weight of this thing, that is your end.

Beyond that, resilience is a lot about understanding what is happening to you.  If you can name it, you take its power away.  You need to be really self aware and do self checks,  Cannot stress the importance of the lead NCO and officer team in this.  You and your troop or company NCO need to really be able to gauge where each other are at as a check and balance system.  And none of it makes sense.  You might get into three firefights and are fine, then once fourth you freeze up.  Why you froze up could be anything in the human soup.  You need to understand it is happening and hand off as quickly as possible.  Then get over it because it may never happen again.  If it happens a lot or all the time - you are not a coward, you are simply too evolved for this business.  Time to get pulled off the line and go do an important job somewhere else.  Perhaps you are a brilliant staff officer or analyst that can save hundreds of lives.  Everyone will break eventually (well anyone who is not a complete psychopath) it is a matter of when, not if…even you.

[Boche]

Thank you guys so much, amazing posts. This really helps. the psychologist also passes on her regards. Any more contributions ofcourse will be much apreciated.

 

[The_Capt]

4 hours ago, Boche said:

Thank you guys so much, amazing posts. This really helps. the psychologist also passes on her regards. Any more contributions ofcourse will be much apreciated.

 

Well to follow up you got one right there - listen to the doc.  A human brain is a machine that runs on electricity and chemicals.  Combat will mess up both of those, sometimes permanently.  Get the head checked during (if one can on trips off the line) and definitely after.  This is not weakness anymore than someone who get their legs shot off is “too weak in using a prosthetic”.  Treatments vary, use them.  The aim is to win the war and then become a functioning member of society when it is over…need to work on that last part as hard as one did the first part.

Edited June 9, 2023 by The_Capt

[sross112]

As @The_Capt noted, resiliency training is pretty important. The University of Pennsylvania put together the VALOR program for the US military and first responders a few years ago. It is very helpful with a good range of recognition and simple tactics for working through common psychological problems that are seen in combat scenarios. This program or another like it could be very helpful in maintaining the psychological health of the troops and the first line leaders. 

[Lethaface]

On 6/7/2023 at 6:33 PM, Boche said:

I'm here to ask you guys some for some informed help.

There have been Ukrainians training in my country for a while now, and this last cycle that just graduated, they have selected 3 dozen or so candidates to go through another X amount of extended training and turn them into NCO's/Officers.

My unit is going to be in charge of that training.

I was talking with the base psychologist, who is going to be in charge of their "psychological" training. She will be giving them half a dozen of weekly addresses, but she has been given no advice or direction on what to teach them. She has some idea of where to start (stress handling, leadership skills...etc) but apart from that, taking into account these guys are headed for an actual shooting war obviously she wants to make an actual contribution and not give them hollow TedTalks.

As people with more expertise than me, I refer to you all the question:

What sort of psychological training would you recommend she prepare given the circumstances? What topics should she cover or what sort of techniques could she teach?

Thank you in advance.

 

PS I apologize if this isn't the correct place for the post but it's the place with the most traffic at the moment and the training isn't far off, so we would appreciate the help. Again, thank you in advance.

The best advise imo is to look for qualified / experienced people to directly fill in on the subject, or even do actual lecture on the spot. Ideally combat veteran/reserve psychologists/psychiatrists , with actual deployment experience. These people do exist, perhaps more among SF formations. 

If not available through army channels, they might be hire-able.

 

Edited June 12, 2023 by Lethaface