We spend a lot of time conducting training on SHARP, Suicide Prevention, Resilience, etc. Do you think we are spending too much time on them?

As usual, I normally think of policies in a business sense. How much time (expense) are we investing? How effective has the policies been? Standard cost/benefit analysis. Based on the results of those questions, you have my opinion as to whether it is worthwhile.

Personally, I can't keep track of all the training we need to complete. I don't think there is value in online training. If the the military wants to maximize the value in the training, it needs to be face to face.

While all this training may be good and proper, has anyone ever added up all the required training hours a SM is required to attend which is other than field training, professional technical training etc? Even in the distant past it always seemed like there was always a training quota to be met every day of the week for seemingly worthwhile subjects outside the scope of basic infantry field exercises such as honing skills in fire and maneuver, live fire, tactical exercises, etc.. In keeping track of everyone every day we often found that out of a rifle company of 150+ Marines, we could barely scrape together 90 to take to the field.

Time spent on producing expertise in this arena saves lives. It is the loss of a life that constitutes a diminishing return. Not a letter you want to write I feel sure.

What I have observed over the years is a reliance on "checking the block" by doing the training more and more online so reports can show that "we did our job" when in fact FLLs are forgetting what it means to know your soldiers.

I believe that if FLLs were doing their job, they would recognize the indicators and head off many of the problems.

Would it make more sense to spend time screening the soldiers?