Pros and Cons of military training for preppers

[Scythe13]

You're right midnitemo. Some are the read deal. But being a squady doesn't teach you to rig up solar panels (some probably could, but I think they'd be the minority), it doesn't teach you farming, crop rotation, plant nutritional needs, and much more.

Having said that, I do see many advantages, as well as disadvantages, and empty gaps where military doesn't even consider other things.

As a prepper (non-military) you have to learn EVERYTHING yourself, and you have to practice it yourself.

In a skill set system you can learn many military skills and practice them, if your pockets are large enough.

I don't know many military guys who have gone off for 6 months alone and survived with nothing but a knife and their whits. There are stories about survivalists doing that though. A training course on how to survive, even a week long course, does not guarantee you have the skills to survive. This is what I have issues with. Many military folk believe that the military shows them how to survive ad infinitum. When the truth is, for survival skills, it's not about how you learned them, it's about how often you use them. This is one of the issues I see with military training. It instills a base over confidence that is not necessarily based on well practiced skills.

A friend said he wanted to come out and learn survival skills with me because he'd not learned enough in the military. He didn't have to practice making fire or rope, until he could do it perfectly. He just needed to be shown and not practice EVERYTHING. Those are his words (not exactly, but paraphrased).