Lessons learned in combat never get old

By David W. Kuhns Sr., Northwest Guardian

Experience is important.

The Army makes a tremendous effort to try to capture the lessons learned by Soldiers in combat. The Center For Army Lessons Learned devotes all its efforts to capturing useful information that can be used to make Soldiers more effective than they would otherwise be.

But those efforts mostly draw on the recent past. Getting information about current operations, using current equipment, against current enemies is certainly the most efficient way to go. But there are lessons from combat that will never change. With Veterans Day just a week away, we should all make an effort to tap into the lessons of earlier warriors. The current Veterans Day holiday was formerly celebrated as Armistice Day. It was set aside to remember the end of the Great War, World War I, at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1917.

The veterans of that conflict are almost all gone now. The last U.S. Army combat veteran of the trenches passed away in Oregon early this year. The Northwest Guardian has a story this week about a Canadian veteran who is now 107.

World War II veterans are all growing pretty old, too. All are now in their 80s. More than 15 million Americans served in uniform in World War II, but their numbers are dropping rapidly. More than 1,000 pass away every week.

Veterans of the tough fighting in Korea are in their 70s and 80s now, too. Vietnam veterans might be the grandparents of current Soldiers. The veterans of those earlier conflicts — and those of Desert Storm, and Somalia and Bosnia and Kosovo, too — have experiences that ought to be passed on to Soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan today.

We need to pay attention. Those aging Soldiers are a resource we shouldn’t let slip away.

Of course, tactics change, equipment is modernized, rules of engagement shift. But the principles of leadership remain the same; the emotions individuals feel in combat haven’t changed; and lessons on how to deal with the loss of friends are as valid now as they were in any generation. That past wisdom isn’t encapsulated well in field manuals or PowerPoint presentations. It is best passed on at a personal level. For Soldiers today to benefit most from those individual experiences, they need to talk to the oldtimers who have gone before.

So take advantage of those you meet who have done it in the past. Tap into their experiences. It will make you a better Soldier today. And be willing to open up to others, too. Every day we are growing a new crop of old Soldiers. They owe it to others to pass on the lessons they learn.

Someday, the last of this generation of veterans will be passing on. I hope that the Soldiers of following generations will still be reaching out to them for the lessons they are learning now. Some lessons never get too old.