IJCH - Inside JaiChai's Head
(Meaning: My warped, personal opinions and musings)
From the Author:
Salutations.
I am JaiChai.
And if I haven't had the pleasure of meeting you before, I'm delighted to make your acquaintance now.
Background
After retiring from over two decades of military service and clinical/combat medicine operations, I don't enjoy watching war or medical emergency related movies like most folk.
Why?
Because I immediately pick up on the blatant disparity between the Hollywood versions vs. real life versions of armed conflict scenarios, close quarters combat strategies, physical injuries, medical treatment, etc.
I mean seriously? A person gets kicked in the head multiple times, suddenly remembers something inspiring, gets up, and continues to fight - even stronger?
Give me a break!
In real life, if a person - even a frail, little old lady - performs a proper, ballistic head butt (meaning: She launches the top of her head into an assailant's face - while pulling him towards her with her latissimus dorsi and full bodyweight, not her arms), that attacker IS NOT getting up. Period.
In the movies, the routine occurrence of "sweeping the head" of an operator by a following team member never results in a tragic "friendly fire" mishap (or at least a good "dressing down" - getting royally bitched out over a bonehead mistake, after the mission is complete)?
And rounding a right hand corner holding a side arm with the right hand never results in getting shot?
Here's a clue:
Right/Right "cornering" is WRONG and will get you killed because it presents a large target to the enemy.
Proper "cornering" means right corner, left hand and vice versa. This presents a tiny target consisting of your knuckles, your gun barrel, and a set of eyes.
Some will argue these points.
My response?
"Yeah right. And shaking a plate of jello doesn't look like a fat hooker on a cold night?"
In short, most movie attempts at realism make me roll my eyes and yawn.
But once in awhile a movie comes along that actually depicts what it's really like in real life. "Blackhawk Down" and "Outbreak" are good examples of this.
And that's why I like "Tears of the Sun".
Its authenticity allows me to truly enjoy the story, identify with the characters, and experience the context/settings without those annoying distractions that instantly trigger the inner critic in me.
Tears of the Sun - The Movie
Tears of the Sun is a 2003 American action war drama film depicting a U.S. Navy SEAL team rescue mission amidst the civil war in Nigeria. Lt. A.K. Waters (Bruce Willis) commands the team sent to rescue U.S. citizen Dr. Lena Fiore Kendricks (Monica Bellucci) from the civil war en route to her jungle hospital. The film was directed by Antoine Fuqua.
Willis produced Tears of the Sun through Cheyenne Enterprises, his production company, and took the title from an early sub–title for Live Free or Die Hard, the fourth film in the Die Hard series. He filmed the sequel on the condition that he could use its sub-title for his SEALs war film.[citation needed] The cast of Tears of the Sun features refugees portrayed by actual African refugees living in the United States.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tears_of_the_Sun
I especially liked the ambush scenes.
If ambushed, the success of all special forces like the SEALs against numerically superior forces is largely due to mindset and training.
It allows them to appear like a bigger, overwhelming force.
(Let me state right now that - IMHO - the main reason for any SpecWar unit getting ambushed is because of that ubiquitous department with the oxymoronic name called "MIlitary Intelligence"!)
I will not discuss in detail what the physical training entails aspect in this article.
Suffice it to say that the underlying philosophy is this:
"If motivated, any man can perform ten times more than he thinks he's capable of - temporarily."
Stated differently, a motivated fit and healthy individual could probably make it through one day of BUDs (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training).
The big difference is that SEALs do it everyday for months on end. And they challenge themselves even more throughout their careers; continually raising their personal performance bars.
One last SEAL motto: "The only easy day was yesterday.
'Nuff said on that...
Mindset - The Rubber Band Class
I used to teach the introductory course for what we affectionately called "The Killer Instinct" program.
Imagine this.
The blindfolded, hungry, waterlogged, sleep deprived, physically exhausted, and shivering students (sometimes I could hear their teeth still chattering) are led to a darkened classroom and crammed into tiny first-grade size school desks.
On cue, their blindfolds come off, the lights come on and they see my smiling face.
I pose as just another blue-ballcapped, polo shirt wearing, civilian contractor that's about to put them to sleep with another mundane lecture.
Curiously, most of the students do not notice the three rubber bands stuffed into the pencil/erasure well on the top of their miniscule desks.
I drone on about hypothermia, yada, yada, yada...until 2/3 of them are nodding off.
Then I calmly trigger a rubber band and shoot two or three of the sleeping ones in the ear until I reach an awake student who has witnessed my earlier shots.
With another triggered rubberband, I aim it at that awake/alert student, and slowly walk duck-footed (that awkward walk that allows a person to keep steady and continue shooting even after taking a couple non-lethal hits) to close the gap and get into my weapon's effective range.
The Goal of this Exercise -
The goal of this exercise is to introduce the students to the advantages of "The Killer Instinct/mindset" vs. traditional, highly ingrained Western beliefs about warfare.
Did you know that in WWI, in spite of being well acquainted with rifles and hunting, the vast majority of soldiers could not bring themselves to shoot another human being?
Because of this, units suffered huge casualties. It resulted in the creation of drastically different training methods for military recruits from that point forward.
Options, Reactions and Responses
With regard to the "Rubber Bands Class", my job was to evoke four different behaviors:
Flight (Reaction) - students attempt (to no avail) to extricate themselves from their tiny, first-grade school desks and run.
Surrender (Reaction) - After unsuccessful attempts at escape, students shield their faces from the onslaught of stinging rubber bands, admit their defeat, and hope that the enemy (me) will accept their surrender.
Fight (Reaction) - Looking like an army jumper with a butt pack on, some students make it to an awkward crouching position and try to (again in vain) grab my rubber band chambered, finger triggered hand or wildly flail fists at any part of my out-of-range body.
Attack (Response) - Optimally, I would eventually motivate a student to "Respond" instead of "React". That is, a student yells "Ambush!", finds the rubber bands in the pencil/erasure well and begins shooting at me immediately.
One exceptional student assumed a prone position, used the tiny desk to shield half his exposed, forward looking enemy target area, and while gathering fallen comrades rubber bands, actually crawled towards me; slinging a constant flow of his rubber bands.
In fact, his actions prompted more students to adopt his tactics.
Now that's what I call a good "Killer Instinct" response!
He even got in a good ear shot. Damn! Those little buggers can sting more than a paintball body shot!
The Best Strategy when Ambushed Explained
If a sudden ambush occurs there's only a few options available:
Hide - Iffy idea. Especially if the opposing force outnumbers your unit and is carefully advancing - thoroughly sweeping forward ground.
Run - Bad idea. That's what the enemy expects and wants. And you end up getting bullets in the back/ass.
Stand Defend - Bad idea. Again, that's what the enemy will also expect and want. You are a stationary, sitting duck just waiting to get overrun.
Flank - Iffy idea. Especially if the enemy is too large to go around or if the terrain inhibits performing the maneuver effectively.
Attack - BEST IDEA.
The enemy will not expect it, especially if they deemed your unit as a smaller, weaker force.
It camouflages your unit's size and makes the enemy believe your unit is larger, stronger than previously thought.
If you get forward enough, the enemy ends up shooting at each other.
In short, the best strategy when suddenly ambushed IS TO GO THROUGH IT!
See this excellent 3 1/2 minute clip from the movie:
I hope you learned something, or at least got a chuckle from my musings...
By JaiChai
Thanks for stopping by.
Truly Hope to see you again!
About the Author
Believing that school was too boring, he dropped out of High School early; only to earn an AA, BS and MBA in less than 4 years much later in life – while working full-time as a Navy/Marine Corps Medic.
In spite of a fear of heights and deep water, he performed high altitude, free-fall parachute jumps and hazardous diving ops in deep, open ocean water.
After 24 years of active duty, he retired in Asia.
Since then, he's been a full-time, single papa and actively pursuing his varied passions (Writing, Disruptive Technology, Computer Science and Cryptocurrency - plus more hobbies too boring or bizarre for most folk).
He lives on an island paradise with his teenage daughter, longtime girlfriend and three dogs.