Comments on: Teaching culture to the USMC http://marctyrrell.com/2010/01/10/teaching-culture-to-the-usmc/ Being in the main the musings of a Symbolic Anthropologist Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:34:46 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Marc http://marctyrrell.com/2010/01/10/teaching-culture-to-the-usmc/comment-page-1/#comment-13671 Marc Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:23:49 +0000 http://marctyrrell.com/?p=368#comment-13671 It's a really good summary of what Paula (and others) are doing there. If you get a chance, you might want to try and track down "Operational Culture for Warfighters", which is the text they are using; it's pretty good! It’s a really good summary of what Paula (and others) are doing there. If you get a chance, you might want to try and track down “Operational Culture for Warfighters”, which is the text they are using; it’s pretty good!

]]> By: Schmedlap http://marctyrrell.com/2010/01/10/teaching-culture-to-the-usmc/comment-page-1/#comment-13670 Schmedlap Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:13:44 +0000 http://marctyrrell.com/?p=368#comment-13670 Missed this when you first posted it. This is awesome. This is exactly what we need to be teaching troops. I hope that something similar is being done with the enlisted ranks. This is a bit of an extreme example, but after we rolled into Baghdad in 2003, pointing a weapon at someone was as casual as waving. Soldiers were doing it way too often, not realizing the impact it had on the people. I caught myself doing it early on and had to consciously stop myself from doing it. Going from high intensity combat to police work is like going from a knife fight in an alley one moment, to chatting with your grandmother the next. In addition to what Holmes-Eber is doing, we need to spend more time educating troops on the unspoken messages that they send with their posture, body language, facial expressions, and so on - and help them to understand how the specific culture that they will be interacting with will interpret this. It can often mean the difference between a neutral man on the street giving you critical intel or him being unreasonably detained because you spooked him and misinterpreted his actions. Missed this when you first posted it. This is awesome. This is exactly what we need to be teaching troops. I hope that something similar is being done with the enlisted ranks. This is a bit of an extreme example, but after we rolled into Baghdad in 2003, pointing a weapon at someone was as casual as waving. Soldiers were doing it way too often, not realizing the impact it had on the people. I caught myself doing it early on and had to consciously stop myself from doing it. Going from high intensity combat to police work is like going from a knife fight in an alley one moment, to chatting with your grandmother the next.

In addition to what Holmes-Eber is doing, we need to spend more time educating troops on the unspoken messages that they send with their posture, body language, facial expressions, and so on – and help them to understand how the specific culture that they will be interacting with will interpret this. It can often mean the difference between a neutral man on the street giving you critical intel or him being unreasonably detained because you spooked him and misinterpreted his actions.

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