Students of War

War fighting.

I had no idea there was such an extensive theory about it. But it made sense as I paged through the 100 page book at my desk in my room. Three other officers, sitting at their desks, read the same book in silence. We were all worried about tomorrow, as our first classes for training day one would begin. And what better way to start an education in war than with a theory on war.

Frankly, the book is dryer than a desert in the summer time.


We all sat on the chairs in the white cinder block class room. Sweat was already forming on my forehead from the humidity. I looked down at my watch and then out at the window. 2pm in the afternoon only? It felt like it was 7 in the evening. But I guess that would be the feeling if classes were back to back starting at 6 this morning. The instructor, a captain, sat in the front of the room by the white board. He stood up and looked to the board.

“Here is the situation and a map of your objective”, Said the captain. He reviewed the map and the situation of the enemy. “There is an unknown enemy position at this town.” He said point to the board. “Kilo Company and India Company are located here. You are in charge of India Company. Assess the enemies’ center of gravity, their area of vulnerability, and come up with a plan of action. Issue a 5 paragraph order and be prepared to present. You have 12 minutes. Go.” He said

Holy Crap! that was fast. The 30 of us in the small class room frantically started to look at the small hand out in front of us and started to scribble down notes.

“Also, put your name on the paper, you will be hand this in to your staff platoon commander for assessment later.” He said.

Great, already being individually evaluated and its the first day.,I thought.


The Basics school is very similar to graduate school. The main difference is the amount of time (and obviously the focus of study). It is very much condensed. Over the next 6 months, I will receive 1595 hours of training either in the classroom or out in the field. If you do the math, that’s 12 hours of classes a day, which calculates to approximately 2.5 years of school crunched into 6 months.

The average amount of class during college: 2.5 hours a day...



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