Natural Killers-Turning the Tide of Battle
1999; The MIT Press; Volume: 79; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0026-4148
Autores Tópico(s)Military History and Strategy
ResumoRecent experiences, such as the death of a comrade, can cause soldiers to kill the enemy out of revenge or frustration. This is a temporary condition resulting from combat stress. It is based upon emotion and can subside as quickly as it occurred ... While we may attempt to emotionally condition soldiers through propaganda, it has little long-term effect on them on the battlefield. I STEPPED OVER TO GREET the tank company commander as he approached the tactical operationas center. This man was a neighbor and a friend, but he was not the same soldier I had briefed three days ealier. After 72 houre of combat, his eyes were sunken and dark, The left side of his face was stained with iodine and bandaged to cover a bullet wound received 14 hours earlier. He was distant and detached as he described an incident that had occurred just hours before. His company had engaged two Iraqi trucks moving across its front. The trucks exploded and Iraqi soldiers leapt out of them on fire. The company then finished them off with coaxial machineguns and a single sabot round that vaporized the soldier it hit. My friend was clearly shaken by the episode. This man was a warrior. Circumstances had made him a killer. My friend wasn't a natural killer. A natural killer is a person who has a predisposition to kill--he enjoys combat and feels little or no remorse about killing the enemy. These men have existed throughout the history of warfare, and their feats have often been hailed as heroic. They constitute less than 4 percent of the force, yet some studies show that they do almost half of the killing. These men rarely distinguish themselves before the moment arrives to pull the trigger. It is only after the smoke has cleared that the full impact of their accomplishment is seen. It is important to identify natural killers before combet, because these soldiers are both a vital asset and a potential liability--correctly positioning them in a unit can turn the tide of battle. To better understand the importance of identifying these soldiers, one should understand what makes soldiers kill, the characteristics of natural killers and their battlefield capabilities and limitations. Thou Shall Not Kill Most soldiers are unknowingly conscientious objectors.' They try to avoid taking a human life. This is not a bad thing. Rather, it is a reflection of a strong moral upbringing. Getting most soldiers to pull the trigger on another human being requires great effort. In World War II, General S.L.A. Marshall studied infantry unit firing ratios and concluded that only 15 to 25 percent of infantrymen ever fired their weapons in combat. In general, those on specialty and crew-served weapons were firers, while the nonfirers were almost exclusively riflemen.2 In On Killing, David Grossman points out that there are three things that make soldiers kill: conditioning, recent experience and temperament.3 Soldiers can be conditioned individually and collectively to pull the trigger. Individual conditioning includes gunnery and rifle ranges where popup human shaped targets are rapidly engaged without thought. The trigger-pull response becomes automatic. Close supervision also affects firing rates. Men pull the trigger more frequently under supervision or in groups, hence a higher ratio of firing among key weapons. Artillery, the greatest killer on the battlefield, has always killed in teams. We indirectly condition soldiers to kill by training them as killing teams. Recognizing that men had to be conditioned to fire, the Army changed its training programs after World War II, and firing rates during the Korean War rose to 55 percent.4 This figure reached 95 percent during the Vietnam War.5 Soldiers can be taught to pull the trigger, but that does not guarantee that the bullet will find the target. Recent experiences, such as the death of a comrade, can cause soldiers to kill the enemy out of revenge or frustration. …
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