One less skill for soldiers to master at boot camp: bayonet training

When a US Army general made the decision recently to remove bayonet assaults from the array of skills soldiers must learn during basic training, it seemed like a no-brainer.

US troops hadn’t launched a bayonet charge since 1951 during the Korean War. And new soldiers preparing for an increasingly violent war in Afghanistan already need to learn far more skills than the 10 weeks of basic training allows, says Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, head of initial entry training and the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command.

So he made a change, substituting skills drill sergeants reported that they wanted to teach new recruits in favor of dropping the time-honored practice of the bayonet charge.

But in the weeks since that decision, Hertling has heard about it. “Bayonet training is pretty fascinating,” he says. “I’ve been slammed by retirees.”

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I actually have my father’s bayonet, I use it as a letter opener.

This story reminded me of a comic I read on Friday.

A bit more on that battle here.

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Bag of Randomness

  • WifeGeeding’s best friend is an FBI agent in Washington D.C.  WifeGeeding has been wanting to visit her, and she’s been a bit homesick from Texas.  Since I found a great round trip airfare I sent WifeGeeding to our nation’s capital from Friday to today.
  • While she was out, I baked a pound cake for my team as a bit of a going away presnt, it may have been the first cake I ever baked:
  • October is breast cancer awareness month, which means you’ll see many in the NFL wearing pink this month.  Out of all the cancers, it sure does seem like breast cancer gets the most attention, and although that is important, I’m not sure how I feel about that.
  • One interesting and entertaining part of about October being breast cancer awareness month is hearing individuals say “I’m supporting breast cancer” or some derivative when they actually mean “I’m supporting breast cancer awareness.”  Seriously, this happens all this time, and hardly anyone catches it.
  • The Rutgers suicide is without a doubt tragic, but I wonder how much of his suicide dealt with being gay?  I have no knowledge of the situation other than what’s been reported, but  think knowing a sexual encounter being streamed online with no doubt other people recording it or getting screen prints all orchestrated by the person you lived with had to be a factor, even it if was heterosexual.
  • I caught some of the Redskins/Eagles game and the amount of hard hits the Skins delivered were something else.  Speaking of that game, how could that Eagles received not catch that hail mary?
  • Part of me is actually happy the Longhorns have lost two games this year as it takes any emotional attachment I have for the rest of the season.   Well, other than that A&M game, of course.
  • It cost me about $500 to repair the car I don’t like.  Man, I really want a new ride, but the ‘smart’ thing to do is to keep it.  Several hundred dollars here and there is better than being locked into several hundred dollars each month for the next three to five years.
  • One thing I’ve learned over the years is that nine out of ten times it’s best to hold off on replying to an email, no matter if it’s one that makes you upset or one that is friendly.  I use to have the tendency that I had to reply right away, but if I let the message sink in a little bit, my replies have more substance and clarity.
  • Kanye West had two great visually stunning performances on SNL.
  • It wasn’t until last night that learned that Melinda Gates, the wife of Bill, was a Dallas native.
  • The Tiger Woods photo (that deals with golf) that will be on every blog today.
  • Twitter’s new design is based upon the Golden Ratio –
  • The way the Vdara hotel in Las Vegas is built, it creates a death ray using the sun
  • Gillette decides to sell cheap razors to India
  • A Domino’s that delivers a breakfast pizza
  • If you are into classic starlets
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