This is your brain on war

Great read MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D..

|“As the blood drains from the face, blood drains from the forebrain, and there’s no rational
|thought,” Grossman explains. “I call that ‘condition black.’ And at condition black, the midbrain
|is in charge, and you’ll do what you’ve been trained to do — no more, no less. You will do
|what you’ve been programmed to do — no more, no less.”
|
|Thus, if a soldier reaches condition black and lacks adequate training, there’s a good chance
|he or she will freeze up. A well-trained soldier, on the other hand, will likely take action to
|neutralize the threat.

As we tell our troops, the reason we train 'Battle Drills' over and over again is so they can be executed without thinking because in combat you often won't have time to think.

“The generals thought it was crazy,” Grossman tells Task & Purpose. “They said, ‘Just because it works in some stupid game doesn’t mean it works when someone is trying to kill you.’ We were looking at a fundamental question: Is the fear that you feel in the Super Bowl the same fear as the fear you feel in combat? The answer, it turns out, is yes. That’s huge. Anything that we can use in the athletic world we can use in combat. That’s one of the greatest revolutions of our time in improving performance on the battlefield.”

No thinking just automatic reactions.