Leadership: June 29, 2003

Archives

When the 3rd Infantry division landed in Kuwait before the Iraq campaign, they underwent weeks of intensive training. In particular, there was a need for training in street fighting ("urban warfare" in milspeak). An urban warfare training area (a bunch of rapidly constructed building that could be shot up) was built. But the training was not supervised, as training usually is, by the officers and NCOs of the division. Civilian specialists were called in to supervise. Civilians? Yes, retired NCOs and officers were provided by MPRI, an private company that, since the 1980s, has hired retired military personnel to provide military training for nations the United States wants to provide those services for, but does not want to send American troops to do it. Aside from avoiding unwanted diplomatic and media attention, MPRI has the advantage of hiring the most experienced and effective retired military personnel for training contracts. Many of these trainers served for years in the Special Forces, or otherwise established a track record as very effective trainers over a long period of time. Most of the MPRI trainers are recent retirees, thus they are in their late 30s or early 40s and in good physical shape. Because of their military experience, they worked well with the NCOs and officers of the units they were training.

 


Article Archive

Leadership: Current 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 


X

ad
0
20

Help Keep Us Soaring

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling. We need your help in reversing that trend. We would like to add 20 new subscribers this month.

Each month we count on your subscriptions or contributions. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage. A contribution is not a donation that you can deduct at tax time, but a form of crowdfunding. We store none of your information when you contribute..
Subscribe   Contribute   Close