Killing
“Killing is not normal.
Most animals have an inborn repulsion for killing a specimen of their own kind, and this is natural.
No soldier goes into a fight willingly.
When he is forced for real, he take an aggressive stance, and that's the moment he looks like an animal the most: he then screams and shoots in the air, hoping to terrify the enemy, hoping to make him surrender without killing him.
Only during the third phase, when the enemy shows no submission, does the soldier start killing.
Your problem is that you can show none of these spontaneous reactions.
You have to learn how to kill instantaneously, with no passing through all three of the phases the common soldier usually goes through.
And you are going to get it by engaging moving targets, dummies and highly believable targets in general, until you won't lose any hesitation in shooting even when you are absolutely sure about hitting and killing.
And most of all, on Sunday mornings you are going to help the butcher of the base”
Fire fights
“A fire fight is no boxing match, nor football game: there's no fair confrontation with the final victory of the strongest one, as most usually think”
While pausing to choose the right words, Garner was strolling backwards and forwards.
“No... A fire fight is far different from the kind of idea people have about it.
During a fire fight, there are some people shooting and some others receiving those shots, and a while later everything's done. During such an exchange, we talk about some shooters being better than others, quick reflexes or good training... But that is all bullshit. Nothing will ever save you from a firefight fought at the same level with your enemy.
Then of course... Some things may help: aggressiveness, smart fighting, cold blood... But if you end up fighting a fair fire fight, the final outcome of the fight will be decided by pure chaos, or luck.
Pulling a trigger is too easy to let 'the best man win'.
And so, finding yourself dragged into a fair fire fight is a half loss already.
You will try to avoid that with any means... Like the surprise effect, creating diversions or always taking the initiative. There are many ways to avoid ending up in an even firefight and this is going to be the real difference between the Baker teams and the other special forces teams”
Garner made a pause to reflect, then he started a very long explanation.
Action and Re-action: the importance of taking the initiative during firefights
“You should never leave your enemy the opportunity of taking the initiative. You should always push him into just reacting to your actions, never giving him time to think or act following an accurate plan either. Hit in one place, then another one, then another...
As long as his moves are nothing but reactions to yours, you will always be able to foresee his next moves.
But whenever you give him the necessary time to organize himself, you will give him a chance to reason too, and so formulate and implement an accurate plan.
And we don't want our enemy to follow a plan, do we?
The guys shook their heads..
“Well. The best way to prevent your enemies from organizing themselves is using the surprise effect. But surprise doesn't last for long... And that's the reason why whatever you are going to do, you will have to do it fast”
The surprise effect and speed
“If you set an ambush up against some North Vietnamese soldiers, you know roughly what is going to happen next... But the Vietcong are different. When ambushed, the North Vietnamese are trained in some automatic reactions, just like we are... But the Vietcong's partisans are not. This makes them very bad soldiers, but unpredictable too”
They could react in any way.
They could even run towards you and without even realising what they’re doing, like cows at the slaughter house”
The recruits smiled.
“Do what you have to as fast as you can: hit using maximum force, evaluate the damages and get the hell out of there immediately.
Do always remember the rule of speed: whatever happens, get away from there fast.
After fifteen minutes, the enemy has had enough time to re-arm, spread out and find the right move to take you down.
On the contrary, with good planning, applied with the surprise effect and good speed, you have a very good chance of being successful in doing anything.
Let's start by introducing some basic schemes...”