THE PROBLEM WITH ISRAEL’S MILITARY
Israel has enjoyed an undeserved reputation as an exceptional military power. The reality of Israel’s military readiness is being exposed as it struggles to gain control of Gaza. Israel is relying on its air force to carry out relentless bombing of civilian areas while its ground forces are meeting stiff resistance from Palestinian fighters. Israel’s big problem is that it relies heavily on reserve forces. Please take a look at the ages and ranks of some recent Israeli Occupation Force soldiers killed in action in Gaza. It is quite revealing:
☠️ Staff Sgt. David Bogdanovskyi, 19, of the Combat Engineering Corps’s 603rd Battalion.
☠️ Staff Sgt. Orel Bashan, 20, of the Combat Engineering Corps’s 603rd Battalion.
☠️ Staff Sgt. Gal Hershko, 20, a squad commander in the Combat Engineering Corps’s 603rd Battalion.
☠️ Staff Sgt. Itamar Shemen, 21, a paramedic in the 36th Division.
☠️ Master Sgt. (res.) Nadav Issachar Farhi, 30, a combat medic in the Yiftah Brigade’s 7810th Battalion.
☠️ Master Sgt. (res.) Eliyahu Meir Ohana, 28, of the Yiftah Brigade’s 7810th Battalion.
☠️ Sgt. First Class (res.) Elyassaf Shoshan, 23, of the 646th Brigade’s 6646th Battalion.
☠️ Sgt. First Class (res.) Ohad Ashur, 23, of the 646th Brigade’s 6646th Battalion.
☠️ Staff Sgt. Roy Elias, 21, of the Combat Engineering Corps’s 603rd Battalion.
I count five STAFF SERGEANTS who are 21 years of age and younger. What???!!!! Consider this. To achieve the rank of Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Army an enlisted soldier is not promoted to this rank until having served 6 to 8 years.
A staff sergeant in the army is a non-commissioned officer who supervises and leads a team of soldiers. They are responsible for ensuring that their team is trained, equipped, and ready to carry out their assigned missions. Staff sergeants also provide guidance and mentorship to their subordinates, and may be responsible for administrative tasks such as maintaining personnel records and managing equipment. They are expected to be highly skilled in their area of expertise, and to be able to make quick decisions under pressure. Staff sergeants may also be called upon to serve as advisors to higher-ranking officers.
There is no way in hell that a guy between the ages of 19 and 21 is qualified to train, equip and lead a team of soldiers into combat. This is not a joke. Developing competent non-commissioned officers (aka NCOs), e.g. a Staff Sergeant, requires time in service. You start out doing the job of a private and then progress to corporal. As a corporal you learn how to lead a small group of privates. If you do well at that job you can get promoted to Sergeant, where you take on the job of leading privates and corporals. At least that is how the U.S. Army, with all of its faults and shortcomings, develops combat leaders.
As you can see from the list above, Israel is giving people titles without having the requisite experience to actually do the job. This is one reason that the Israeli military is struggling on the ground. They have Staff Sergeants with only one or two years experience, and much of the experience consists of weekend drills or a week or two of concentrated training. These are young men totally unprepared for ground combat operations.
One of the strengths of an army with a solid, experienced crew of Sergeants, especially Master Sergeants and First Sergeants, is that they are men (or women) with at least 15 years of military experience. The senior Sergeants also play an important role in training newly minted Lieutenants and Captains. Just because a guy is commissioned as a Second Lieutenant after graduating from West Point or the Virginia Military Institute does not mean that new officer has a clue about how to lead men in combat. That comes with experience from following senior NCOs and Officers that are experienced. All nine of the Israeli casualties listed above would not be eligible to hold those ranks if they were in any NATO army unit.
Master Sgt. (res.) Eliyahu Meir Ohana, age 28, is holding a rank that, in the U.S. Army, is held by a soldier with at least 20 years experience. The youth and inexperience of the Israeli NCOs helps explain why the reports that Israeli soldiers are shooting and killing unarmed civilians. They are young, inexperienced and lacking in the maturity one normally expects from a Staff Sergeant or Master Sergeant.