>>64016268Thank you for sharing this, very interesting, though not entirely unsurprising.
>The Ukrainian soldiers early on had a fair few incidents were they would try to steal various things from the PX (smokes, liquor, sandals)...Yeah... It's a hard road to weed out the very entrenched corrupt mindset that is prevalent in the old USSR and especially closer to Russia. In Finland, we have a saying "the opportunity makes the thief", and this is especially true for those who come from a low trust society into a higher one because it's hard to resist the temptation of taking advantage of that. I truly hope the Ukies can change, and I think the large amount of them having gotten training abroad might have a good influence.
>Also the Abrams crews had a recalcitrant problem of thinking the MILES force on force training against our...This one is weirder, but not entirely unsurprising either considering how important face saving is in their & especially in Russia. Relics of hazing in the military perhaps? Or maybe just frustration about not getting better faster, as their comrades were dying in Ukraine.
>Last thing is the crews had the very eastern-euro, former Warsaw Pact problem of completely shutting down when their CO/platoon leaders die...I suppose when all you initiative has been beaten away in previous training, it's hard to instill it back. Changing the culture of an institution is basically a task that takes a generation or very intensive immersion training in a different culture.
Interesting tidbit about the Bradley crews getting better consider the feats those crazy motherfuckers have pulled in Ukraine, from shooting drones down with the Bushmaster & taking out a fucking T-90, while the Abrams teams haven't really done anything of note, though armor in general hasn't been as widely publicized as the Bradleys. Wonder if there's a fundamental difference in their indigenous training for IFV's and armor.
Thanks again for the insight.