I wonder if there’s a History and Moral Philosophy component to the sylabus as well.
Personally, I see nothing wrong with this sort of instruction. I think there should be an ‘opt out’ option if someone doesn’t want to partake of this training, but otherwise I see no problem with it. Coupled with some strong educational and historical emphasis on liberty and duty, I think it would only create better, more responsible citizens.
I find it interesting that states that were formerly under the heel of the Communists take very pro-active steps to prevent it from happening again (looking at you, Poland) while in this country we have people earnestly telling us that socialism just ‘hasn’t been done right’. Yeah, one or two more genocides and I’m sure we’ll have it all worked out, comrade.
Smallbore rifle practice in a converted school hallway. Those were the days.
And why stop at smallbore? Local varsity indoor RPG championship winner …two years running.
It’s easy to make fun of Starship Troopers if you’ve only seen the horrible movies, but if you read the book theres some very interesting discussions about civilian vs. citizen, duty, liberty, and a few other topics that are worth examining.
re: small bore practice – sling needs to be higher on the arm…
I read Starship Troopers back in the sixties and it has stayed with me all these years. It was a good yarn, and it covered social issues that were beginning to crop up in Canada and the US at that time. As I became more mature I realized that it was a treatise on Citizenship and personal responsibility for your society. Something our younger people should read and understand. Assuming, of course, that they can read. I spent my adult life in the Military, so I do have a somewhat skewed view of our duties and responsibilities. I was in the Military(Canadian) during the end of the Vietnam war and I saw the damage done to good men who answered the call and the way they were treated once they came home. TTFN Phil
A few years ago, I taught a short course to our community college’s Honor College student using Starship Troopers as the main material. Also include the “Duty, Honor, Country” speech by General McArthur as required listening. I don’t know if it reached any of the students, but at least they were exposed to the concept of citizenship.
Why for we can’t have some ot that here in USA ? When I was in high school ROTC (1978), part of the instruction was shooting .22 rimfire at bullseye targets and no one left bleeding. It was fun.
Part of our problem now is there is so little spaces where a kid can walk – ride a bike to areas where taking a rimfire rifle out to do a little hunting or plinking is possible. Frickin’ urbans grew up too fast for a lot of later generation. Damn shame.
mu Mom was on her high school shooting team. both rifle and pistol
her weapon of choice was a big barrel Smith in 38 loaded with wadcutters
but when we went down to the farm, she always out shot my Dad and uncles.
I heard the story of her hitting a crow at 200 yards with a 22 rifle off hand
any times. Dad showed us how to hunt, but Mom taught us how to shoot.
My last teaching job before I retired was a high school in Johnson County NC. The principal created a short rifle range (about 12 yrds) out of an unused hothouse for the ROTC cadets. They had to use pellet guns, but at least there was that. I asked several times is the staff could use it too, but he was told no.
My 1980s high school had a rifle range in the basement clearly labeled on the lobby blueprints. The building was built in the 1960s. No one could or would verify the last year of use. It’s been long skinny storage for decades.
In 1995, there was a huge celebration in Moscow to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of the war.
Almost every country in Europe sent delegations.
Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia were noticeably absent from the celebration. When asked why, they answered that as far as they were concerned, the war didn’t end until 1991, when the last Soviet troops left their countries.
Just one question, How does one become an “indoor” RPG champion?
Once.
Stretcher, thanks. Will drop in occasionally.
Commander:
Do you (or any of your readers) know if a “History and Moral Philosophy” course based on Heinlein’s was ever compiled?
I suspect it would be enlightening.
Ceejay
If you were involved with Ukraine pre-war – you’d know there was a civilian militia movement – just about all Ukraine had – and – The GOV did little to promote & assist the militia …..
interesting – just one thing that Trump 1.0 did early on – Obammy wouldn’t authorize much more than white sheets for a surrender >>> Trump sent Barrett sniper rifles – direct intended insult reply to all of Putin’s threats & blustering >>> we’ll be taking a shot at your officer buddies ……
militia members joining up had to bring their own weapon – you can just imagine the hodgepodge – primary effort of members was to improve their weaponry – hand down that initial weapon to a newbie – get to an AK series level …..
Does it have something to do with a former KGB agent with delusions of grandeur. Good old Vladimir. He’s quite the cut up isnt he.
i was one of the people involved in the test exercise for Lativa to join NATO. I really liked the country and it’s people. After the curtain fells everyone over the rank of Captain was fired, the entire new chain of command was people of Latvian ethnicity who had served in western militaries. When you walked down the hallway at the Army HQ it was S1 Admin, S2 Intel, ect. When we invaded Iraq, the Latvian military went with us and to a man made sure they knew we broke the Soviet Union and would always have our backs in thanx.