Army looks at extending basic training for new soldiers

As a Senior NCO, I do believe that a longer and more battle focused BCT would help in the development and transition of trainees graduating.

At first thought this seems like a no-brainer, but then reason sets in and I ask, 'to what end?" I'm all for adding time if there is a valid reason.

If that reason is physical fitness, I'd argue that no length of added time will make much of a difference, as our problem is a culture one, not a timeliness one. We have established standards which permit and tolerate people being less than their potential. Unless we can change that culture (start with the normal 60 points in each event regardless of status) then additional time will only improve those who already push themselves.

This article was from back in March. Nothing's changed thus far, despite the usual Army Times writing style of making it sound imminent.

There would need to be very specific training requirements to fill this theoretical extra space. As it stands, BCT does the job just fine-- it trains soldiers on basic soldier tasks, which can only go so far before they're unnecessary for most soldiers. Does a Lab Tech really need to be thoroughly proficient in battle drill 1A, or learn combatives?

So what, precisely, would fill this extra space on the training calendar? What are these goals that aren't being met?