On Wed, Mar 16, 2016 at 11:07 AM, Grimmund <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:

That model also implies that the officers are *politically reliable* and at least part of their job is to ensure the draftee troops follow orders and don't mutiny.  

IE, during a charge, the officer walks behind the unit with a pistol to shoot stragglers and deserters, while the NCOs take care of the more immediately battle-relevant issues.


That's why I was careful to say "Soviet army" rather than "Red Army." I think the WWII-era institution of having a political commissar in even very small units is what started the Soviet army down the path of only officers having effective small-unit training. But I rather doubt that "shoot the stragglers" was still a part of their official job description in the modern era. Although perhaps it remained (remains?) part of unofficial tradition . . . 

--
Richard Aiken

"Never insult anyone by accident."  Robert A. Heinlein
"I studied the Koran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as Muhammed." Alexis de Tocqueville (1843)
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"It has been my experience that a gun doesn't care who pulls its trigger." Newton Knight (as portrayed by Matthew McConaughey), to a scoffing Confederate tax collector facing the weapons held by Knight's young children and wife.