Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)
By comparison, it takes 10 weeks for a civilian to complete Army basic training. At the end of it you graduate and are officially considered a soldier.
As a former DI. I can tell you if you took those new soldiers out onto a front line battlefield and asked them to put what we showed them to use very few of them would survive for long.

Hi Bob

Would you agree that the motivation to enlist to fight in Iran is no where as strong as the motivation to enlist in WWII? The question is why?

The answer is, I suggest, that the average person in 1940 understood and agreed with the reason for signing up, and why they wanted to part of the war. I cannot imagine many, if any, actually wanting to be there, but the conviction would have helped them become better soldiers.

As I understand, Mark's suggestion is about something similar. It is not intended to create physical skills - that takes time, in the same way that time in the field builds experience and makes one a better soldier. It is intended to prepare one for entering the field - what to expect and what to look out for, basically an orientation to the woodworking field of action.

Regards from Perth

Derek