Of history, warfare, leadership, and alcohol
A lot has been written about the great Civil War general and 18th President of the United States. But the what many do not have is a glimpse into the mind of the great man from Ohio. Therefore, I give you the Life and Times of U.S. Grant, an unfiltered view. Enjoy what you just …
Continue reading "The Life and Times of Ulysses S. Grant"
Hey you. Yeah, you, over there in the corner of the internet, looking behind you to see who I'm talking to. I'm talking to you, lonely awkward kid who always feels out-of-place and unable to "fit in." I'm here to tell you it's going to be okay. There is indeed life out there for all …
Continue reading "Lessons for the Awkward Kid"
This is a response to the CCLKOW post by Gary M. Klein on Social Media and the Military Leader. Read the post and join the discussion on Twitter #CCLKOW. Last week I was privileged to take part in a Military-Twitter Exchange Summit hosted at Twitter headquarters in San Francisco, which brought leaders from across the …
Continue reading "The Birds of War: Twitter as a Professional Development Tool"
As I boarded my flight yesterday morning I realized that it was my first since my trip home from Afghanistan. As we took off, I looked at the New England countryside disappearing below me and I stared, captivated, at the glorious panorama that is America. It was similar to the way that I would stare out …
Continue reading "Thoughts On Beauty"
Two years ago, I was sitting in a conference room inside a dusty tent. HVAC systems and passing helos drowned out the voice of the briefer, but the map that was displayed was enough to get the point across: our footprint in Afghanistan was shrinking. And we were there to make it shrink more. Walking …
Continue reading "Closure is Hard to Find"
In 2010, as the popular uprisings that comprised the Arab Spring were flaring across the Middle East, more than one commentator must have looked back in time to make comparisons to other democratic revolutions. And as the Arab Spring became drenched in blood, heartache, and divisiveness, that same commentator might have noted with sadness the …
Continue reading "What Do the Revolutions of 1848 Tell us About Modern Politics?"
This post first appeared on the blog Point of Decision. It is no secret that the U.S. Army is in a time of change and disruption. It is desperately seeking to emerge from an era unprecedented in Army history: fourteen uninterrupted years of direct conflict in a counter-insurgency (COIN) environment in two theaters, with mobilizations …
Continue reading "All Things Old are New Again The U.S. Army and the Changing Operating Environment"
Napoleon Bonaparte is credited with the saying, "Soldiers generally win battles; generals get credit for them." This would generally seem to be the case, as while many may have heard of General Walter Krueger, commander of U.S. Sixth Army in the Pacific, very few have ever heard of Walter E. Pottle, the first sergeant for …
Continue reading "The Fighting First Sergeant: Walter Pottle and World War II"
Way back in the hazy days of Army history (1905), there existed a mythical bird: the Oozlefinch. First sighted by inebriated denizens of the Coast Artillery Corps Officer’s Club at Fort Monroe, Virginia, the Oozlefinch was quickly adopted by that corps as their mascot. Allegedly featherless but with large eyes with which to see the …
Continue reading "A Socratic Dialogue with a Staff Officer"
