So as I am sitting here reading an article in the New York
Times about “Qaeda Militants Seeking Syria Bases” enjoying my subpar Chinese
food in a stereotypical box with stereotypical Chinese architecture plastered
on the front and back, and Starburst Jelly Beans, I suddenly remembered that my
friend and Task Force Kilo XO, Drew Kazanis, has recently posted a blog about
some topic I found interesting but just couldn’t find the time to read. It was scandalous.
His “Kit versus Skill” post was not good read and not eye opening. It was full
of the standard arguments that any other “speedsofter” has. I apologize for the
derogatory and offensive term but I am just livid. He dare questions the majestic
nature of the Crye CAGE Plate Carrier (CPC) and the godliness of Project: Odin,
a “tricked out” m4 as Drew would put it. Everyone knows that you perform as
well as your gear and he dare question that logic that has been standing for
thousands of years. Wood beat the fist. Stone beat wood. Bronze beat stone.
Iron beat bronze. Steel beat Iron. Gun beat steel and Drew is beaten by high
grade polymer from a KWA.
If you couldn’t tell, most of the above was sarcastic. In fact, the only thing that wasn’t sarcastic was the beginning involving the stomach turning Chinese and Drew writing a post about “Kit versus Skill”. You can find the blog post here:
Most of his points are valid. In the end, a $100 dollar Crye
Precision vertical 5.56 magazine pouch is a pouch that holds magazines. A CPC
is a carrier that is designed to hold plates. However, what I will be doing is
defending and justifying the “kit” perspective of the argument just to provide
a more holistic perspective.
The “hardcore” milsim world can be categorized to be known
as impressionism. Impressionists attempt to recreate actual military kits based
on reference pictures. These kits can span any decade or era and any military
unit around the world. Some of the most popular kits are modern United States
Special Forces, including but not limited to Parajumpers, Rangers, Army Special
Forces, Combat Applications Group (CAG), Devgru (Seal Team 6), Navy Seals, etc.
Other kits span from Russian kits including FSB based kits, as well as SASR,
and UKSF. Hardcore impressionists, attempt to recreate the most realistic kits
possible regardless of time and money. This includes getting details right down
to the pack and the IFAK.
Drew’s argument focuses on the “gearwhoring” portion of an
impressionist. Its true, there are people who collect gear and never play or
play so poorly that they are routed by six year olds playing cops and robbers
with finger pistols. However, that’s mostly not the case. Impressionists are
typically motivated to not only creating the most realistic kit possible but
they are also motivated to perform in a very organized and militaristic
fashion. This motivation spawns from them performing well above average at
various large events that require militaristic organization in order to
maintain event integrity. I can attest to this with my experience from Milsim
West: Crimean Crisis. Our platoon was all extremely motivated Impressionists
who drilled during our “off-time” in order to better ourselves for the event. We,
then became an extremely effective platoon that was an asset for the Company
and before you even argue that impressionists wear pointless gear, all of my “pointless”
gear such cobra cuffs and chemlights were used at Crimean Crisis.
This can also be measured with psychology. The behavioral
model (the basis of all behavior) argues that there are two routes to
determining a person’s behavior, nature and nurture. Nature is more of the “I’m
born with it” aspect where behavior is thought to be genetic and there is
Nurture where people believe that behavior spawns from “influences and
experiences” throughout a person’s life. Both routes do have a motivation
factor. No matter if you are “born” with an attitude or you developed an
attitude over time, motivation equates to an amplified amount of desire. This
desire, then, amplifies the behavior’s quantity and quality. This means that
the behavior from impressionists are amplified from motivation and they tend to
be the ones who push themselves the hardest on the field and the ones who
listens to orders the most.
This off-time drilling did come off at elitist, which is
what I think, is the problem with impressionism. Although most are good people,
some do come off as elitist and full of themselves. This could be the reason
why perception of performance is skewed. The kit, coupled with the typical type
A personality, can give the appearance that the person is cocky and elitist.
As much as I debate with Drew, I realize that he does have a
point. Impressionism does have weak points. However, comparing kit and skill is
like comparing apple and oranges. You can’t really compare them, you can only
find a time and a place for them. Milsim type events every weekend would be
dull while always having speedsofting games would be very dull as well. No one
ever said that having kit and skill was mutually exclusive. You can have kit
and the motivation as well as the skill and the tenacity. If you don't agree... well the picture below just says it all.
