Of history, warfare, leadership, and alcohol
Army leadership is based on principled discipline. Officers and NCOs each contribute to the maintenance and to the efficacy of the organization in different ways (NCOs own the discipline part, officers the principle). The contribution of each is made according to well-understood and internalized principles. For the most part, these principles do not need to …
Continue reading "Service does not Require Silence"
In a recent prepared statement by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth in which he cut the War Department’s ties and affiliation with his alma mater, Harvard University, he made several references that should make all American citizens—especially those in uniform—cringe with concern. His assertion that for decades the U.S. military sent its “best and …
Continue reading "Citizen-Soldiers – not “Warriors”"
Civil discourse requires a shared allegiance to civil society “If every time you play chess, your opponent punches you in the face, getting better at chess is not the solution.” – Andrew Thomas An important life lesson came out of my early career as a civil litigator. I practiced law in Canada for eleven years; …
Continue reading "Don’t bother improving your chess"
Much has been written elsewhere regarding the unforgivable sin of failing to plan for known contingencies. Whatever one thinks of the current changes undergoing our Army here in the United States, the least controversial thing to be said about them is that they certainly represent a change from what has come before. And regardless of one what thinks, or refuses to …
Continue reading "“After me, the flood:” recovering the Army’s accountability"
Spaceballs (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / Brooksfilms) Editor's note (with apology built in): Reader, if as you peruse the following, you wonder whether the author is sick in the head or does not understand FM 6-22 but at all, rest easy. This, but for the negligence and oversight of the editor, should have run on the 1st …
Continue reading "All I Really Need to Know about Leadership I Learned from Spaceballs"
I was in Hawaii for the first time earlier this year. Expecting a sunny beach vacation, it was actually more of a profound learning experience. I was not expecting to be provoked in thought as much as I was. For our purposes, the thing that stayed with me most was the state motto, formerly the …
Continue reading "What are the Obligations of Leadership?"
While doing some reading about the early American Revolution, I came across a famous sentence I’ve read a dozen times over the years in a variety of contexts. This time, though, it was as if I were reading it for the first time. The words belonged to famous patriot pamphleteer Thomas Paine: These are the times that try men's souls: The …
Continue reading "Did You Mean It?"
(pro-government militias) While most regimes and governments rely on traditional bases of power - democratic legitimacy, hereditary monarchy, etc. - all rely to some extent on the potential for violence to keep their authority intact. Regimes employ a variety of military and police forces for external defense and internal order/repression. In some countries these various …
Continue reading "The Dynamics of Regime-Supporting Irregular Paramilitary Forces "
You’re all trapped here at my retirement ceremony and now I’m going to inflict some last scraps of wisdom on you.
Game of Thrones, Battle of the Bastards (Home Box Office) I am not going to bury the lead in this article: fantasy armies are simply terrible when it comes to conducting security operations. It certainly builds tension with the audience when one side is on the cusp of losing a battle, quickly followed by a …
The Angry Staff Officer 
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