Of history, warfare, leadership, and alcohol
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"
Note: This post originally appeared in the Duffel Blog. It has been somewhat modified from its original version. It is presented here with all due apologies to poor Jane Austen, who has done nothing to deserve this. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single Company in possession of a good four day pass, …
Continue reading "Neither Sense nor Sensibility: A Weekend Safety Brief from Jane Austen"
One of my mentors dropped this quote on me a few years back: "The United States military is obsessed with tactical solutions to strategic problems." After I picked my jaw off the floor because it was such an apt description of the last 20 years, I began to chew on the meaning of what they'd …
Continue reading "What Barbie Teaches Us About Tactics versus Strategy"
While attending a Working Group during my deployment to Romania, my fellow Field Grade Officers and I were discussing the Initial Operating Capabilities (IOC) and Full Operating Capabilities (FOC) for our Tactical Command Posts (TAC) within the context of Large-Scale Combat Operations (LSCO). As we discussed these capabilities, we briefly touched on the criteria to begin breaking down our TAC …
With all due apologies to Charles Dickens. Marley was dead: to begin with. There was no doubt ever about that. Marley and Scrooge had been buddies ever since basic training. They’d shared a bunk together. But now, Marley was dead. As dead as a door-nail. Okay, not actually dead-dead, just dead on social media, where …
Continue reading "A Veterans Day Carol: Being a Ghost Story of Veterans Day"
It’s not the Generals and Admirals, resplendent in their perfectly pressed uniforms or artfully crafted Rebel style, who write strategy. No, it’s some poor neglected Rebel equivalent of a staff weenie making best guesses in the back of an Empire cubical farm of Rebel hangar deck.
Most people think of the military as a no-nonsense place, where everyone is filled with rigid discipline and chock-full of common sense. And while that might be the image that we often like to have portrayed of ourselves, there's a lot more that goes on that would definitely elicit a few, "WTFs" if they were …
Continue reading "5 Ways the Military is an Absurdist Organization"
Sure, at first glance, you wouldn't think that a TV show about a doctors, nurses, and a crazy janitor at teaching hospital would have anything to do with the military. However, both the military and the medical professions have a lot in common: life and death decisions, long periods of boredom punctuated with brief moments …
Continue reading "How “Scrubs” Characters are Basically Your Military Unit"
Scene: Stormtrooper barracks in Nevarro City, as seen in "The Mandalorian." Sergeant TK-7831 walks in to address his squad. TK-7831: "Quiet down, this is an Imperial facility, not a Bantha-breeding ground." TK-9938: "Wait, how would you know what that is, sergeant?" TK-7831: "When you've been wearing armor as long as I have - wait, shut …
Continue reading "Stormtrooper Safety Brief"
Author's Note: This is a satirical article meant to highlight the absurdity of Russia’s reportedly low COVID-19 infection rate and it’s continued use of hybrid warfare in conflicts with its neighbors. After a frenzied 24 hours of military activity, President Vladimir Putin announced that the Russian military has sent assistance to the Baltic countries of …
Continue reading "Russian Military to Occupy Baltics to Prevent COVID-19 Infections"
The Angry Staff Officer 
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