“Stragglers” & “Strategists”: Training Lessons from the Field by Mark Hatmaker

 

[This one is best read in conjunction with a previous offering The Empirical Fighter: Rules for the Serious Combatant.]

Let’s start with a contextual definition from history.

A “straggler,” in US Civil War vernacular, was any combatant who found a “good” reason to be at the rear of an action, or “I would have helped y’all dig that entrenchment, but I had a heap of rifle cleanin’ to do.”

I wager that as you read that definition more than a few personal acquaintances came to mind.

We’ll broaden our definition of straggler in a moment, but first we must understand, that to men and women in the field, a straggler was considered worse than a deserter.

That’s right, a foot dragging, sandbagging, goldbricking, soldier who remains with the unit was evaluated a worse drain than the abject soul who up and abandoned all for their own ends.

Here’s Lieutenant General Jubal Early to put this distinctive comparison into perspective for us.

Of all the men about the army, the most worthless was a straggler, for he was always showing up to get his share of the rations, but never present to do his share of the fighting. The deserter was infinitely better, for by absenting himself he ceased to be a burden on the commissariat of the army, and rendered fully as much service as the straggler. No military man of one grain of sense would be likely to count him as part of his “effective strength in battle.”-SHSP, vol. 6, July-Dec. 1878

Sounds like General Early was on the money. Resources diverted to that which does not earn said resources and/or contribute to fighting strength are a net drag on the unit, whereas an absent soldier [the deserter] fights as much as the straggler and is no longer a drain on precious resources.

Resources better used on the useful, willing, and valorous.

“All right, cool Mark. Nice history lesson, but…um, with all due respect, is this going somewhere?”

Great question, glad you asked it. Decontextualized knowledge is trivia, whereas info we can apply…

Let us turn General Early’s eye upon our own arsenal, our own habits, our own training, our own conduct.

[You’re ahead of me now, I wager.]

Let us ask ourselves…

·        Which tools and tactics are high yield?

·        Which strikes, scrambles and submissions provide big bangs and big bucks

·        Which tools and tactics, no matter how often we see them in drill simply do not turn up when the going gets hot?

·        That is, what are your own personal “stragglers” that provide a drain on training and recuperation time that simply don’t pop out in your hands, feet, elbows, knees, locks, snaps, chokes, trips, drops, etc. when push comes to shove.

We have to have a Field Officer’s cold calculating eye when we examine ourselves.

Maybe we have personal affection for Private Johnson because he plays harmonica well around the campfire, but if he don’t show up, he don’t show up.

The same for our infatuation with, say, a kick-disarm. If the dog don’t hunt, it don’t hunt.

That kick-disarm and Private Johnson need to go so the proven hard-fighters in your quiver can have more resources to fuel their effective fire.

Stragglers, Part 2: Tactics & Strategy

Let’s return to our amiable Private Johnson, let’s say that around the campfire that instead of harmonica serenades he regales us with a vast knowledge of the field maneuvers of Frederick the Great. He is intimately familiar with the battle machinations of Napoleon. He explains how Lord Nelson revolutionized naval warfare in the heyday of fighting sail.

For many of us, Private Johnson’s stock goes up. He is clearly a man of great martial knowledge. Our military betters might be wise to lend him an ear now and then.

But…we still need to look at how Private Johnson behaves under fire.

Does his vast knowledge of strategy prove of value in the midst of black powder smoke?

Does his nimble point-by-point breakdown of the ins-and-outs of skirmish provide honest tangible results?

If not, Private Johnson is still a straggler, simply a more deceptive straggler.

Let us look to another contemporary of General Early.

“We are tired of scientific leaders and regard strategy---as it is called—a humbug. Next thing to cowardice. What we want is a leader who will go ahead.”-Major General Alexander Hays, letter to John B. McFadden, July 18, 1863.

Next thing to cowardice? Strong words.

General Hays is expressing his frustration with pontificating Private Johnsons of all ranks. Men with the gift of gab, silver tongues, nice Power Point, yakkity-yak bullet-pointed martial smoke without fire.

Again, I wager that as you read that, personal acquaintances come to mind.

Let us be clear, the General is not advising “Go ahead!” with no thought. He is saying, get into the field of fire with what you know, and learn to adjust, tweak, temper drills and tactics from contact with reality.

Let strategy be reflective of reality, not a phantom of “This idea is neat as hell!”

But…identifying the stragglers and strategists among us and surrounding us does the personal warrior [that is Y-O-U, Dear Reader] not a lick of good.

Again, we are beset served to turn that eye upon the self.

·        What aspect of our training do we preserve simply because we have well argued “good reasons” for preserving it, but…if we are honest, we see it simply does not add to our progress?

·        Do we have smoke and mirror humbug tactics that echo “High-speed, low-drag, Rangers all the way!!” vibes in our souls but if we really examine them closely, they dissolve like snowflakes on summer seas? [Props to Tennyson for the snowflakes.]

Wise warriors warn us that training and feeding a low-yield tool captures more time and energy than cutting the useless tool, thusly leaving more resources for the high-yielding.

Wise warriors also warn us that time spent strategizing must be weighted with actual empirical application or, well, this is the General talking, and not me—We may be engaging in an activity that is the next thing to cowardice.

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