Is this the setting factor and ability for a fighting Mindset

[Bill MO]

What are your thoughts on this statement...is there truth in it or is it hogwash.

Is this fact what starts and sets the ability for a fighting Mindset?

Several senior U.S. Air Force officers have told me that when the U.S. Air Force tried to preselect fighter pilots after World War II, the only common denominator they could find among their World War II aces was that they had been involved in a lot of fights as children. Not bullies - for most true bullies avoid fights with anyone who is reasonably capable of fighting them - but fighters. If you can recapture or imagine the anger and indignity a child feels in a school yard fight and magnify that into a way of life, then you can begin to understand these individuals and their capacity for violence.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[Luis50]

There might've been some truth to that back then.

Today getting in a lot of fights as a kid will get you in the court system and probably eliminate you from being a candidate for this type training.

[Mike1956]

Personally, I would take the guy who can shoot and kill an innocent animal over a brawler.

[Hopyard]

Mike, I wouldn't want either one. Both are trouble or potential trouble. Both lack self discipline.
A fighting mindset isn't about being a mindless brute (animal killer) or a trouble maker/finder--- brawler.

A fighting spirit comes from rectitude and righteousness. I think both Glockman and Hot Guns have
addressed that here many times.

[WHEC724]

I'm also of the belief that the proper mindset is a disciplined individual that is not ruled by their emotions. The individual that judiciously chooses their fight.

[Betty]

I think there's a lot of factors that determine a fighting mindset, and I think "schoolyard fighting" is a bit overgeneralized and simplistic. A kid can get into a lot of fights and end up losing all the time and never grow a fighting mindset - he may have been the one forced to defend himself, but self-defense was a necessity for the immediate situation and not a lifestyle like many of us choose.

[Mike1956]

Mike, I wouldn't want either one. Both are trouble or potential trouble. Both lack self discipline.
A fighting mindset isn't about being a mindless brute (animal killer) or a trouble maker/finder--- brawler.

A fighting spirit comes from rectitude and righteousness. I think both Glockman and Hot Guns have
addressed that here many times.

I kill innocent animals every time I shoot a deer, and am very self-disciplined.

[Bill MO]

I am seeing some very interesting comments so far. Hope to see more on just what people here think makes and is Mindset.

[Hopyard]

I kill innocent animals every time I shoot a deer, and am very self-disciplined.

Just curious, did you edit your original post? Somehow I go the idea that you made a reference to killing animals
as part of the fighting spirit. Maybe when I read your post 3 I thought "dog" as opposed to a game animal.

I don't see an ability to hunt or shoot game as having a thing to do with a fighting spirit. I see that as irrelevant.

Folks fight when they are convinced they are right, or when they are given no choice.

I have recently read of generals complaining that new recruits these days come to boot camp without ever
having been in a fight at school, and that this fact was causing them to rethink how to train new recruits.
I can't comment more because I don't recall if the news story had any more. And, I don't advocate
allowing kids to really fight at school. But, there is a role for play fighting, and that has disappeared.

My mom used to comment that when school let out the boys would exit rolling on the ground in "fights." Today,
that would not be applauded, and that is putting it mildly.

[Mike1956]

Just curious, did you edit your original post? Somehow I go the idea that you made a reference to killing animals
as part of the fighting spirit. Maybe when I read your post 3 I thought "dog" as opposed to a game animal.

I don't see an ability to hunt or shoot game as having a thing to do with a fighting spirit. I see that as irrelevant.

Folks fight when they are convinced they are right, or when they are given no choice.

I have recently read of generals complaining that new recruits these days come to boot camp without ever
having been in a fight at school, and that this fact was causing them to rethink how to train new recruits.
I can't comment more because I don't recall if the news story had any more. And, I don't advocate
allowing kids to really fight at school. But, there is a role for play fighting, and that has disappeared.

My mom used to comment that when school let out the boys would exit rolling on the ground in "fights." Today,
that would not be applauded, and that is putting it mildly.

No, I didn't edit anything. If someone can't shoot Bambi, he will probably flinch when the jihadist or mugger is coming at him, as well. We obviously disagree on relevance, which doesn't make either of us a bad guy.

[jeepzilla]

Too much psychology here. Any individual has to make up his/her mind about being a victim BEFORE THE EVENT. Then Jeff Cooper becomes understandable. The rage that comes as a result of/during the attack becomes the motivator. We shoot to stop. If the attacker dies as a result of being stopped, so be it.

[OldVet]

I think that's a stretch for any shrink to come up with that conclusion. I used to fight a lot as a kid, but that doesn't mean I could be an ace. I would think being a white male would be a much more common "common demonimnator" for WWII aces..

[Cold Shot]

How much do you really know about yourself if you've never been in a fight?

[dangerranger]

My father tested for the Air Corp in 1945. He said they put you in trucks and shot clay pigeons out of moving trucks. If you were good at it you trained to be a machine gunner. Then they spun you in a ball, And those that could always tell which way was north went to training as navigators, those that always knew which way was up were trained as pilots. Those that could do all three went to training as fighter pilots.

I do think that people who have never been in a fight are an unknown. Even they don't know what they will do. With new cops you never really know who will wade into a fight, and who will stand there helpless, until the first time it happens. DR

[blanco64]

Seems to be somewhat a chicken-and-egg thing. Did they have the fighting mindset first, or did it develop as a result of participating in lots of fights? I think that would be the tough part to figure out.