That's experience.
I've heard of this phenomena from other guys who fought in the desert. Young men being shot at, terrified, but relying on their training. First time, they were more liability than good soldiers.
But by the fifth time they are engaged, combat becomes "sitting around casually on rooftops, smoking cigarettes and scanning for targets". This could go on for hours. Those first few minutes are a major adrenaline dump. But once you've established a position, there's a lot of waiting. It's almost physically impossible to remain panicked for that long, especially when you have older, more experienced men with you.
There's an old idiom, I do not know from where it originates: "In a profession where young men die, fear the old men." This applies to soldiering more than almost anything else. The ones that survive long careers, engaging in combat multiple times- copy them. Mimic their every action, try to move the way they do, communicate the way they do. They made it to their age as a warrior because they knew what they were doing and were a little lucky.
And there's where my fear lies. Luck- you either have it or you do not. Are you the first guy the sniper spots? Or is it your best friend, right next to you? Did the sniper get a good night's sleep, is he well fed, is he motivated? Is he a real killer? Most untrained people subconsciously fuck up their aim when shooting at people.
Here's a fantastic video about "shooting to kill": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zViyZGmBhvs
A lot of research was done around WW1 and WW2 into this psychology. German's reported feeling what they called "trigger finger frostbite". They'd see the enemy, look down their rifle sights, line up the shot... and while they're staring at this man, about to end his life... their finger doesn't respond. They can't do it. All factions involved in these wars reported some degree of this happening at some point. Then, the Skinnerian method of marksmanship training was cooked up, where trainees would shoot human-shaped targets as they popped up, and be praised/rewarded. With modern military training, you can get about 9/10 men to be actual killers. Pre-Skinnerian training, barely 2/10 men would shoot to kill.
If you've got a job to do, you have to do it to the best of your ability so you need only focus on that. If you die, you died well.
I don't have any first hand knowledge about this phenomena of "chickenshititus" but I do understand what it is. It is because most men are worthless cretins who have a million excuses for why they can't do the simplest things.
My whole life, I've seen people freeze up and fail to fight, including these "ex-special forces" bozos. They'd rather just curl up into a ball and see anyone they (don't really) care about get fucked over than to take a chance and go down swinging. They'll do anything to avoid combat with the enemy, it's really pathetic. I don't know how you can even call yourself a man if you are like this but most men are absolutely like this.
I was in the weight room today, marveling how the shitheads had managed to put everything in the wrong place, turning the place into an absolute dump after the owners had spent last weekend making things perfect, all because they "don't care" about anything.
Maybe you don't see how these things are related but they absolutely are. It's pure selfishness. They can't fight the enemy because they don't care about anyone but themselves, their fears, their neurosis, their laziness...fucking things up for everyone else because of how THEY feel. Once their womanly emotions start, that's all that exists to them.
Imagine coming to a place to "train" and being too lazy to put the weights away after you use them. I've organized the entire gym between sets for a little extra work and it was not that hard. Consequently, I'm in shape and can do things.
Do these people imagine that they're getting the same benefit from training that I am? They are not, because they don't care.
Then I went into the bathroom and the toilets were not flushed and there's shit everywhere, all for a bunch of assholes who are just there to fuck things up for everyone else while deriving very little benefit for themselves.
I went into the parking lot and no one stopped for me at the stop signs on the road even though, "law and order" and "empathy" is allegedly so important to them.
Ridiculous, and you would hesitate to pull the trigger?
These are "average, everyday" people in a pretty rural area and apparently, most of of them don't even deserve to live. They're a bunch of dirtbags and they aren't even the enemy.
Imagine how I feel about them. lol
Maybe you don't see how these things are related but they absolutely are. It's pure selfishness. They can't fight the enemy because they don't care about anyone but themselves, their fears, their neurosis, their laziness...fucking things up for everyone else because of how THEY feel. Once their womanly emotions start, that's all that exists to them.
A study was done on Victoria Cross (basically UK's version of Medal of Honor) recipients, to try and find something that these tremendously brave men had in common that can drive them to their incredible feats. This medal is often rewarded for saving lives of their comrades by performing suicidal/extremely dangerous action, usually involving killing or distracting the enemy. They found that almost every single recipient had this one thing in common: they were the eldest siblings in a dysfunctional household, where they had to be "dad" to their brothers and sisters for whatever reason.
So you take this guy who grew up literally looking after the lives of his four younger brothers/sisters, and put him in the military. He ends up in a unit, and this unit becomes his sort of "new family". These men he will fight with- he looks at them as literal brothers that he feels responsible for.
When shit hits the fan, these are the men who sacrifice themselves to destroy an enemy bunker that's spraying their brothers with bullets. This familial connection and responsibility is what drives a man to run up a steep mountain in waist-deep snow in the pitch black while being fired at from all angles- "If I don't kill these guys, they're going to hurt my family". This appears to be the motivator.
These are the kind of people you want at your back. They see your gear isn't affixed properly, they help you out. You're being shot at, they'll do literally everything in their ability to stop that.
Just thought you might find that interesting, seeing as you've already got some understanding on the subject.
Let's be clear. Artillery and aircraft bombs are the killer of infantry more than rounds. 80% during ww1 iirc
Sounds about right. This was pre-Skinnerian training methods as well.
If you didn't watch the video, let me just explain one story that seems to have happened several times: British troops are on patrol in France, fighting the Germans in WW2. A small squad of Brits are sitting on a hill, and they see a small group of Germans start walking up the road. When the Germans get within throwing/shouting distance, the British soldiers stood up and started shouting insults and throwing clumps of mud and rocks at the Germans, who responded in turn. One side would eventually flee, and the other side goes about their watch, picking up their unused rifles and saying "We showed them, eh?!"
Their rifles lay on the ground beside them as these exchanges occurred. I know of at least two incidents where this was recorded, so it probably happened way more than we know about. In one of the recorded incidents, the British soldiers were questioned by their officers: "Why didn't you kill the Germans? You had your weapons, you are all good shots, the weather was clear, you had the opportunity to kill them all. What happened?"
The answer they got from the British troops was roundly something like "Well... it never occurred to us to use our guns. Our orders were to hold the road, and we threw rocks at the Germans and they ran off." It seems like people just don't like killing other people, or engaging in fights- it's much safer for both parties to solve conflict by making a bunch of noise and scaring the other side off. Why risk being shot at, or caught with a lucky punch, or stabbed, or w/e, when you can just throw a rocks at the bad guy and call him a faggot until he leaves?
Bizarre but I read a study on gettysburg.
They had collected thousands of dropped muskets and found many had multiple rounds pounded into them. The soldiers went through the actions of life and adding as trained but wouldn't pull the trigger.
This and the similar experience of Vietnam was what lead us army to start using Hunan shaped targets for training
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