Nah, I have it on good authority that gnomes wouldn't have been good training material at all; their little legs just wouldn't carry them fast enough on the straightaways, and they don't corner very well, either.
And the potheads ... well, at least as far as those that were in my unit back in the day, they were barely able to get out of their own way, much less a 45- to 50-mph APC.
lol .. ya got to jab ‘em in the rear with a bayonet