So book smart (aka, intelligent) soldiers are more likely to die in battle, compare to street smart soldiers (aka, kids who grew up and had to learn how to survive on the street). Makes sense.
The biggest problem intelligent solders have is that they do not rely on their intuition, on their gut instinct. A bomb have just exploded. The dumb macho soldier instinctively dive into the group. The logical intelligent soldier is still thinking: "Hmm... A bomb have just exploded. In this scenarios, there are 512 possible outcomes. Now, by calculating..." Ops. Out of time. Now he's dead.
Well, it's not exactly like this. But that's about the gist of it.
On the other hand, the US forces in Vietnam found that soldiers of low intelligence had a bad survival rate. The military had started accepting recruits it previously would not have, and they fared badly.
The biggest problem intelligent solders have is that they do not rely on their intuition, on their gut instinct. A bomb have just exploded. The dumb macho soldier instinctively dive into the group. The logical intelligent soldier is still thinking: "Hmm... A bomb have just exploded. In this scenarios, there are 512 possible outcomes. Now, by calculating..." Ops. Out of time. Now he's dead.
Well, it's not exactly like this. But that's about the gist of it.