Of history, warfare, leadership, and alcohol
Today's post is by guest author, SoonerGrunt. He is a retired Army non-commissioned officer with twenty-two years of experience in both the Regular Army and the Army National Guard. My Twitter friend Angry Staff Officer had a response from a junior officer’s perspective to a blog post entitled “31 Things Your Senior Rater Wants You …
Continue reading "Get Out of the Way and Let Us Do Our Jobs: A NCO’s Perspective"
Since 2014 and their declaration of the Caliphate, this thing called ISIS has been dominating the news cycle. From destruction of antiquities to the massacre of civilians, ISIS has been losing friends and influencing people in negative ways for quite some time. But even as politicians call for carpet bombing of this non-state pretender-state actor, …
Continue reading "And Then? What Happens After Victory Over Daesh"
Last week, one of my favorite blogs - From the Green Notebook - ran a guest piece called, 31 Things Your Senior Rater Would Like You to Know That He Probably Won’t Tell You. Quite a mouthful. While I disagreed with nearly everything that the author said, he did start a good conversation on leadership styles that has bloomed …
Continue reading "18 Things I Look For in a Senior Rater"
I've been to a lot of battlefields: from the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the Civil War. Most are neatly marked with "this thing happened here" or "Robert E. Lee's horse drank from a puddle here." I've even been to a few from the Soviet-Afghan War and Operation Enduring Freedom, although I saw …
Continue reading "Walking a World War I Battlefield"
If you've been in the military longer than a day, you are bound to have heard your fair share of quotes about war that leaders like to drag out to show their book-learnin'. If I had nickel for the times I've heard that war is merely a continuation of politics by other means, I'd have …
Continue reading "Timeless Maxims of War"
Back in 1941, the Army did something extreme: it tested its doctrine. Not on tabletop wargames, not in a computer simulation, not with an invasion of a small Latin American country. No, the Army mobilized over 400,000 Regular and National Guard troops, spent a year training them up, and then let them fight each other …
Continue reading "It’s Time for Another Louisiana Maneuvers"
I’ve been mulling over this idea of going back and revisiting old favorites, both in literature and film. If you’re like me, you read a lot of books growing up and probably had your favorites that you revisited time and again. Same with movies, TV shows, and documentaries. As we’ve gotten older – and our …
Continue reading "Tolkien and Combat Stress: Writing as a Release"
One Friday night, dark and dreary, At my desk I slumped, weak and weary. A late-night tasker, come my way, Too “urgent” to wait just one more day. “See here, LT,” the S-3 had said, “This suspense can’t wait, don’t mark as read, “Write WARNO, write FRAGO, pen the order, And ensure your slides have …
Continue reading "Ballad of a Young Staff Officer"
Today's guest post comes from @maxplaysmusic. Max was born in Brooklyn, moved, grew up, went to college, resides in and celebrates all the crazy that is South Florida where he teaches Government at the High School level trying his best not to become "Florida Man." You can email him at max@lookaround.miami or on the tweet machine …
Continue reading "Guest Post: The Federal Holiday System"
The Gettysburg Address, as it might have been delivered by Donald Trump. You're welcome. It was a long time ago – I don’t think anyone can even remember, but I can remember, I have a great memory, I’ve got the best memory ever. These guys, they made the most special thing, really, really special. Where …
Continue reading "The Gettysburg Address – the Donald Trump Version"
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