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| Hot off the press and trimmed: Soldier Training Publication STP 21-1-SMCT, 2 MAY 2011 |
"I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient in my warrior tasks and drills."
It is right there in the U.S. Army Soldier's Creed. But where can a Soldier find these warrior tasks and which ones are the ones they should know?
Army Warrior Tasks are selected common individual Soldier skills deemed critical to a Soldier's basic competency and survival on the battlefield. Examples include weapons training, tactical communications and lifesaving. Everyone in the Army is expected to know level one tasks. Battle Drills are group skills such as react to an ambush.
The ALARACT 078/2012, 2012 'Best Warrior' Competition and Army G-3 specifies using the online manuals (http://armypubs.army.mil/doctrine/smct_1.html) as they "are the most current." These are the digital copies of the fat brown book you where handed in basic training that fell apart almost immediately.
If you look at the current manual, there are a lot of tasks missing from years past. Gone are tasks for the MK19, and M18A1 Claymore Mine. Why?
Referencing the 2009 Army Posture Statement, "The Army conducts an annual review of WTBD to maintain relevance to current operations. Army Warrior Training, the program that replaced common task testing, focuses on WTBD training for all military personnel throughout the Army."
In effect, they review tasks annually, add some and remove some in reaction to current operations.
Because of this review, even the manual may not be the most up-to-date resource available. In the Introduction to the SMCT, it says, "If a task identified in the SMCT is not current refer to AKO “my training” or “DTMS”, identify the individual task or task number. All tasks are reviewed annually and may change before the SMCT is updated."
So, if you have been ordered to teach how to perform safety checks on a hand grenade, don't reference your October 2006 Warrior Skills 1 book, but see if Task Number 071-325-4401 is in the current brown book. Then check the Army Training Network, ATN Task Search (https://atn.army.mil/) to get the most current task information.
NOTE: Don't throw those old books away. They are a solid, printed resource for weapons instruction on the crew-serve weapons. Great for hip pocket training when you have to teach a detail how to disassemble an MK19 and use LSA and not CLP.