Of history, warfare, leadership, and alcohol
Just recently, the National Guard Bureau (NGB) released the news that it now had its own official song! Now, this was not something that the Soldiers and Airmen of the National Guard had ever asked for, or even desired, but like most things coming out of NGB, we got it anyways. And, like most things …
Continue reading "Army Branch Songs: Where Did They Come From?"
Ok, listen up. Yeah, I know, this is what's standing in between you and your freedom, but the tips laid out here could save your life. First off, don't drink and drive. That's just basic. Watch out for slips, trips, and falls. Next, if you get stuck between your violently right wing uncle and your …
Continue reading "Thanksgiving Safety Brief"
WASHINGTON, DC. New reports have come to light that throws the much-publicized “Army National Guard 4.0” into near chaos. An unnamed officer inside of the National Guard Bureau, the head agency for the National Guard, revealed how Guard 4.0 was brought into existence.
"This is the great reward of service, to live, far out and on, in the life of others." - Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain I came upon this quote about four years ago - near the 100th anniversary of Chamberlain's death - and right around the time that France, Germany, the UK (and the Commonwealth Countries) were …
Continue reading "Armistice and After: The Legacy of the WWI Generation in the U.S."
By A Deployed Advisor Advising is a dangerous job. Indeed, it seems to be rapidly becoming the most treacherous combat occupation, because unlike a normal "fighting" role, advising requires long, patient, and intentionally vulnerable periods in close proximity to foreign and, unfortunately, sometimes hostile individuals. It necessitates a relaxation of the traditional reflexes of self …
Continue reading "The Killing of Major Taylor"
So we’ve all written – or read, or heard – a plethora of operations orders, so much so that we can probably recite them in our sleep. This short post isn’t meant to be an operational primer but rather to help redirect order writers back to the single most important part of the order – …
Continue reading "Wait, Whose Intent? The Role of Commander’s Intent in Army Order Writing"
Okay, so can we all admit that as military officers, we’re actually just another category of gigantic nerds? I mean, military society itself can basically be broken down as a cosplaying socialist death cult, but that’s another story. Suffice it to say, the officer corps contains its own special levels of nerdiness. This is to …
Continue reading "If Military Commissioning Sources were Hogwarts Houses"
We talk a lot about mentorship in the military, but for most of us, we don’t have a good example of what that even looks like. It’s not as though there are mentors dropping from the sky to deliver words of wisdom whenever we need them. No, we’re more likely to end up Googling our …
Continue reading "When the Force is Not With You: Mentorship and Star Wars"
By Jared James The Rebel Alliance is going to lose, not because they are outnumbered, but because they have no model on which to base plans for their campaign. There are essentially two kinds of insurgent campaigns: city-out or countryside-in; Leningrad, or Yorktown. The Rebel Alliance is fighting both of them wrongly, and has few …
Continue reading "Rebel Insurgency: Without Hope or Method"
As we move through the centenary of the U.S. experience in World War I, I've had several people ask me for book recommendations on the topic. Which is tough, because when someone generally asks me for recommendations my head goes blank and I mutter something about "Good Omens" (seriously, phenomenal book, nothing to do with …
Continue reading "Reading List for the U.S. in World War I"
The Angry Staff Officer 
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