President Rumen Radev's call to think about providing “some initial military training of the young generation” is completely relevant in the context of global geopolitical upheavals and conflicts raging a few hundred kilometers from Bulgaria. With a personnel strength of around 30,000, our armed forces have never been so small, and a decade of complacency and the deceptive security of NATO membership has left our troops operating with obsolete equipment – transport, combat and communication.
On this background, even if the call for initial military training is adequate, the question arises, what can our armed forces prepare the young for? For more than a century, theoretical literature has shown that a professional army is more effective than a conscript army. It is far easier to work with motivated people than with young people who feel that their lives are undeservedly cut short and robbed of their best years. Professionals train for years, gain experience, work together in morale and thinking and achieve what specialists call cohesion. The feeling of wasting time can demotivate a person throughout the preparation period and haunt him for the rest of his life, fueling nihilism. And let him materialize in the worst times, when there is really some threat, and the otherwise decent person runs away because they once worked with him wrongly.
There are certain things that military training should impart to the young. These are skills and knowledge to instill in them the self-confidence that they can adequately perform at least the most basic military duties. And a sense of pride that they participated in something meaningful, so that they would be ready to return if it happened like in the march “destiny decided for us”.
As a native of Sofia, a graduate of an elite high school, with the physique of a professional athlete (as I hoped to become in those days), I left an impression on the colonel of the last military commission that I should be trained as a commander of a motorized rifle squad. As a result, I received the best training an enlisted soldier could receive in the last years before our army became fully professional. This meant theoretical pursuits in classrooms and classrooms, in addition to practical ones. We were taught by senior officers (majors) and despite the general feeling of cashmere, there were moments when there was a faint whiff of academicism. Instead of the standard 40 days of training allotted to ordinary recruits, we spent a whole three months at the school in Pleven. And instead of the wretched fate of our colleagues to thunder between six rounds and one magazine for their entire service, we had the privilege of training in – AK, PK, PKT, RPG.
Due to the declared specific civilian skills on the first day of my admission, at some point I was sent for a civilian interview, probably by military counterintelligence. At the end of our meeting, I was warned that I would serve with my head, and not go to the Karlovskaya Brigade, where I hoped to resemble some of my favorite movie characters. I got the job everyone would dream of – I worked in an international environment (the only recruiter with a high school education), measuring abilities and strengths with militaries from six countries. The top liaisons in one of the city's most liaison divisions wondered which general was my uncle. In one conversation, even our colonel was interested in my background, I don't know whether out of empathy or out of consideration what forces are behind me. In a moment of male conversation, the platoon lieutenant asked me what my connection was, and realizing that connection status earned points in a twisted environment, I promised to tell him on the day of my discharge. And I kept my word. He had forgotten, but when I reminded him and explained how random I was, the lieutenant slapped his head.
The above paragraphs, in addition to the traditional boast of a proud veteran, should show that a better barracks than the one the public imagines is possible. What I got because of my better education should be provided to everyone. Fire, physical, structural and specific training must be at a modern, contemporary level. I came in inspired, left twice as inspired to serve, and to this day I remember absolutely every lesson I received simply because I had the motivation. And it is precisely these memories that allow me today to appreciate that I am ready for military action of the type of the second world war. Today this is grossly insufficient.
Fellow corporals and specialists (E4 according to the NATO classification) from the more advanced armies we trained with operated equipment worth millions, although they had far less than my education. This was possible, first, because the greatest minds seldom choose military service as a profession, but also because each of the fellows was subjected to a series of tests which showed where and with what he was most likely to be useful.< /p>
I love Bulgaria, my fundamental respect for the armed forces is boundless and I do not want to instill nihilism towards the institution that is the backbone of our statehood. But visits to the arms exhibition “Hemus” clearly show our enormous backwardness both in terms of armament and training. Interceptor missiles, radar stations, fighter pilot simulators, interactive operation and maintenance tutorials, in a virtual or augmented reality environment have been a given for years for other armed forces. Even the simple aiming devices and charges that modern weapon systems operated by rank-and-file mushers have been technologically advanced to the point that our RPGs look like slingshots.
All this outlines a wide range of activities in which young and talented Bulgarians can be engaged not only as low-motivated executive staff, but also as developers in industrial cooperation between the armed forces and our military-industrial complex.
One of the most successful Bulgarian entrepreneurs and managers I know, the creator of patents sold for tens of millions, during his military service at the end of socialism, managed to automate the calculation activity in the aiming of artillery systems in the Assenovgrad division. Its commanders, as typical artillerymen, considered to be intelligent people and friends of mathematics, adapted the preparation and even created a standard for launching and field deployment of the then "Pravets" computers, on which the program was written and with which it was operated.
Times of threat and scarcity such as today can also become times of fruitful work to create a valuable legacy. If we look at the issue from a state and strategic point of view. Young people with programming knowledge can participate in the development of technological solutions. Those with cybersecurity skills can serve as cyber attack defense units, and why not attack teams against adversary systems.
Of course, the Kalashnikov is something without which military training is unthinkable. The classic break during the weeks of basic training, which aims to build mentally resilient individuals with a resilient spirit, remains a necessity. What I got away with in basic training broke me later. Being the senior of the platoon, the old corporal, who selected only Romas and Sofians as washers, could not push me into the kitchen. But when I was sent to wash dishes as a replacement in the middle of my service, something broke in me in just three days that neither the miles nor all the push-ups and pull-ups could break.
The dream of some to be close to the kitchen and food, for me it was suffocation from hot water fumes and a feeling that I was not only wasting my skills being a service staff to people I was trained to lead. Only then did I doubt whether my joining the army instead of the university was for the best. The compromise of my dignity and ego that I was forced to make then was the hardest and most useful lesson I learned from the barracks. And a soldier cannot be brought to this key point without exposing himself to what in civilian life is called hatter's stupidity.
In a conversation with a lieutenant colonel, we commented on de Gaulle's crushing in the two decades before the Second World War. The tenacity with which he tolerated the complacency of the French generals, who were blind to the maneuverable tank troops, is the same which today gives strength to our soldiers, sergeants and officers to stand at their posts, despite the awareness of all the weaknesses of the system, the low pay and prestige of the profession.
Deciding that young people should go through basic military training is easy. Putting together a program to maximize the talents of trainees so that we have a modern and prepared armed force will be very difficult, but not impossible. As long as it is approached in a statesmanlike and responsible manner. And if those resources are allocated that are needed.