Teamnelson;
Exactly what I have been driving at in this thread. I had some counterinsurgency training when it was in it's infancy, still that was rudimentary to what the troops are learning now. My grandson is heading out towards the end of April to "Sergeant's school" as it is termed, even though he has been a Sgt for some time. In the Army I attended such, and it was called NCO (non-commissioned officers) school. Today the same school goes far beyond what we were taught, Along with academics, he will be doing more advanced martial arts...He is a qualified instructor, but will advance from his green belt to a black belt there. He will study counter-insurgency, advanced weapons & techniques, taking over command in case of casualties to superiors, self-suffiicency for small units and many other subjects. Later, he will attend a new school the military has developed (all spec ops attend) called "combat hunter" school, wherein he will be trained to stalk & hunt the enemy one-on-one. Rather a cross between infantry, sniper, detective and big game hunter all rolled into one. His being an avid hunter I believe gives him a "leg up" in that school.
The training he has recieved is as advanced from what most of us knew, as 12th grade is from 2nd grade. Today's troops are truly professional in comparison to where we were.
Perhaps I am of a bit higher opinion because my two main contacts are "elites:", my grandson being Marine Spec Ops and the other, a young man from my church who is a member of the 1st Ranger Battalion. still, the others I know personally, even the NG troops are far ahead (IMO) of their contemporaries of 30-40 years ago.