Spiritual conditioning

As a chaplain my core business is keeping soldiers in the fight, honouring the dead, and comforting the injured. It is not lost on me that the seriousness of the Army Profession and the responsibility of soldiers’ ‘unlimited liability contract’ includes readiness to kill, and to be killed if necessary for the mission. I have been inviting soldiers at 6 RAR to reflect on this reality as part of ‘spiritual conditioning’ – as critically important as physical and mental conditioning.The 1st (Australian) Division Warfighting Directive proclaims: ‘We need tough, and physically, spiritually and mentally resilient solders to meet the demands of war. Disciplined soldiers who can ethically kill our enemy is essential.’ A key question I have been asking myself and soldiers is what sort of conditioning do we need for that kind of readiness? A key background text and conversation partner is Lt. Col Dave Grossman’s On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society.

Grossman’s lessons from history

Grossman joined the US Army as a private and rose to lieutenant colonel, serving as an Army Ranger, paratrooper, and West Point professor of psychology. On Killing (1995) is his landmark book. Its central argument is that most people do not want to kill and so militaries have to develop more realistic training to overcome this resistance. Grossman’s On Combat (2004) expanded on the impacts of violence on people who must use lethal force. His updated On Killing (Little Brown & Company 2009; republished by Open Road Media 2014) adds analysis of 21st century conflict and crime, and argues that violence in media and video games mirrors military desensitisation techniques which has thus escalated violence in society – tragically including suicide bombings and school shootings.

The rationale for this 2026 Cove Competition is that as members of the Profession of Arms we must learn from lessons of different times and contexts for challenges that Army faces today. Grossman’s historical analysis begins with studies that many soldiers, sometimes even a majority, have been loath to kill and not been willing to fire their weapons to kill. Many either did not fire or intentionally missed. This is evidence, Grossman suggests, that there is a psychological cost to killing and a seemingly inbuilt, rational, cultural, hereditary, and instinctive resistance to taking the life of another human.

In response militaries have developed more realistic training (e.g., human shaped not bull’s-eye targets). They have also emphasised camaraderie in training to underline that soldiers fight not for themselves but for the mates by their side, and that soldiers kill not on their own account but as ordered by command which thus justifies their violent actions.

Grossman cites BRIG S L A Marshall’s account that only 15-20% of American soldiers in WWII reported using their weapons. With changes in training and ‘conditioning’ methods, this changed to 55% in Korea and 90-95% in Vietnam. Of course, conditioning must also include training soldiers when it is ethically appropriate to use lethal force. Grossman also quotes Douglas MacArthur who said, ‘The soldier above all other people prays for peace, for they must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war’.

Psychological preparedness for killing

Professional mastery for soldiering must necessarily include psychological (and spiritual) preparedness for killing – so that soldiers can do their jobs, but also so they can come home with their souls as well as bodies intact. These are important lessons to revisit and recontextualise for our contemporary operating environment. Deputy Chief of Army MAJGEN Chris Smith argues that neglecting physical, mental, and spiritual preparedness costs time and lives, and warns against forgetting what Army exists for: ‘I’m not convinced the Australian Army understands, even at a base level, war’s violent nature, let alone the implications of that fact.’

My grandfather, SGT Sidney Humphreys served in Papua New Guinea during WWII. My cousin once asked Pop, ‘Did you kill anyone?’ Nana shushed her saying, ‘We don’t ask that!’ Nana perhaps spoke out of respect for Pop’s privacy and Pop may not have spoken much to Nana about his experience of war. Yet my cousin’s question reminds me that spiritual conditioning must include facing questions of death and killing, and that we need careful attention to how we can best facilitate empathetic understanding of the experience of war in conversations with soldiers and veterans.

I appreciate that Royal Military College – Duntroon (RMC-D) has recently added elements on the neural correlates and emotional dynamics of killing, and psychological and physiological combat effects – taught by psychologists. There is also new spiritual conditioning material on death and loss including psychological processes involved with death, attitudes to death and loss, team grief, and support resources – taught by chaplains. This is extending also to Kapooka and Land Warfare College and across Army which is an important initiative as all soldiers need to be prepared to face death and grief.

Mental health challenges on the horizon

Grossman discusses the fact that in every 20th century war Americans have fought the chance of becoming a mental health casualty and being debilitated because of military stressors was greater than being killed by enemy fire. I do not have evidence of similar Australian statistics. I am cognisant there have been many articles in The Cove and other fora about the expected scalability challenges of mass casualty evacuation during Large Scale Combat Operations (LSCO). I have not yet seen similar discussion of what LSCO will mean for mental health challenges. Grossman explains that forward treatment and fostering expectancy of returning to the fight help overcome what he calls the paradox of evacuation syndrome. In recent years I have seen commanders considering the dilemma of managing soldiers who articulate mental health struggles and whether to return them back to barracks or to retain them in the field during extended field training exercises. These issues will become only more stark during LSCOs when the mental health stressors are far greater and the need for retaining soldiers in the field is also far greater.

Grossman also offers members of today’s Australian Army lessons on the need to recognise the impact of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) related to killing, and reduced decompression time after conflict. Rather than returning home on ships after WWII, Vietnam and later veterans returned home by plane, and then without receiving a warm welcome – not being offered purification rituals. It is critically important for society to recognise their role in welcoming soldiers home and absolving soldiers of the moral costs of what is asked of them by killing.

Value proposition of avoiding atrocities

Another critical issues that Grossman explores is understanding and avoiding atrocities. Leaders need to be able to demand sacrifice and killing from their soldiers but also expect soldiers will uphold ethical standards. Soldiers need conditioning to pull the trigger, when necessary, but also the moral courage to say no I will not kill in certain circumstances. For example, when an adversary is out of the fight because of injury or under capture it is never appropriate to kill, for several reasons. Grossman warns against the moral damage to soldiers when they engage in or witness atrocities. But he also discusses the effect on adversaries. He discusses WWII experience of German soldiers who had been encouraged by families to surrender to Americans, because of their reputation for respect for human life and commitment to decent actions. In contrast, news of a German SS unit who massacred American POWs during the Battle of the Bulge spread like wildfire among the Allies, resulting in increased resolve never to surrender to the Germans.

The issue Grossman raises is echoed in the experience of Ukrainian soldiers and chaplains. Ukrainian chaplains report that maintaining morality and ethics is one of their most important tasks. One Ukrainian Orthodox chaplain commented:

'War deforms people. Both for better and for worse. A person is not the same after the war as they were before. Moreover, one of the main tasks of MCs is to be vigilant so that military personnel do not change in a worse direction, becoming worse people, but remain human. It is very easy to become like an animal in war.'

The Ukrainian experience, and Grossman’s rationale, urges me as a chaplain to prioritise helping soldiers to uphold humanity and dignity in the context of what may be huge death tolls and temptations to engage in atrocities.

Grossman claimed that the Geneva Convention only goes so far to convince soldiers not to engage in atrocities. To maintain respect for POWs, Grossman said he told soldiers who were discussing a POW scenario that any news of a massacre will only increase an adversary’s resolve to fight, and thus he said “if I ever catch any of you heroes killing a POW, I’ll shoot you right on the spot. Because it’s illegal, because it’s wrong, because it’s dumb, and it’s one of the worst things you could do to help us win a war.” Threating to shoot them is of course also illegal, but presumably he was speaking rhetorically to underline the impact of his point. It is too easy for soldiers to make a pragmatic decision that is unethical with a tactical reason, but forget the broader strategic cost of allowing an atrocity.

Recommended readers

On Killing is required reading at the FBI and DEA Academies, West Point, and the USMC Commander’s Reading List, and is now on the Chief of Army's Professional Study Guide. It is an invaluable book offering insights for soldiers and commanders and those who train and support them, including family members.