Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnews!military
From: rcm@mtuxo.att.com (R Craig Montero)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Quality of Saudi Soldier/Pilot?
Summary: information about training the Saudi Navy
Message-ID: <1990Sep14.042713.1544@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 14 Sep 90 04:27:13 GMT
References: <1990Sep13.012400.16916@cbnews.att.com>
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 36
Approved: military@att.att.com



From: rcm@mtuxo.att.com (R Craig Montero)
In article <1990Sep13.012400.16916@cbnews.att.com>, dana@walt.cc.utexas.edu (Daniel Schneider) writes:
> 
> 
> From: dana@walt.cc.utexas.edu (Daniel Schneider)
> 
> What's the conventional wisdom regarding the quality of the Saudi soldier
> and the Saudi fighter pilot?
> 
> -Dan
> 

I can not speak for the Saudi soldier or aviator, but I was involved in the
training of the Saudi Navy officer corps (as part of the Saudi Navy Expansion
Program). The naval officers were well educated and professionally trained
(many had been to the Royal Naval Academy or naval academies such as
Pakistan which were established by the British). The one factor that was
very different from Western standards was the integration of their 
religious beliefs with tactical doctrine.

As one small example, in teaching shiphandling techniques, there was 
never a discussion of how to get underway with the wind blowing the ship
(gunboat) against the pier. Such a condition was considered a sign that the
ship should not get underway from Allah. We were specifically instructed not
to mention this possibility.

Overall, I think they were a solid group.       

Craig Montero
AT&T Bell Labs
ex-ShipDriver, USN

Views expressed are mine, AT&T owns everything else.