Well your father has a point. Its worrysome if soliders are being trained exclusively on high technology when they may need to use low tech methods to fight or survive. There are things, some that are hundreds or thousands of years old, that are just as important to learn in terms of survival training as is modern technology.
As for the usage of actual weapons of war. The new HK M4 Carbine is a bazillion times more reliable than the old M1 Rifle or the BAR. The M1 Abrams is a power hungry hog but there are a couple of other tanks in the world that are much more efficient and far more reliable than any of the WWII tanks.
In terms of jet aircraft, the reliability has gone way up and the numbers have come down. Fly by wire seems to work just fine and there aren't too many disadvantages of computer controlled designs...the F-16 is in use by a multitude of countries and is plenty unstable and yet there haven't been any serious drawbacks.
The next generation of warship will probably once again be much more successful and reliable than previous designs and its not all computers and electronics there either. Its just good design.
Now what worries me is if someone detonates a EMP style weapon and wipes out
of electronics, communications, and messes up the GPS systems. You better hope that your jets weren't affected because they don't fly without a computer system (i.e. a F/A-22 with EMP damage is going to be next to useless).
I'm all for the use of technology...but we need to have the ability to integrate the throwbacks just incase something goes seriously wrong. Lessons in sci-fi series sometimes teach us these things. The new Battlestar Galactica mini-series highlights how theoretically vulnerable a computer network may be.
