Of history, warfare, leadership, and alcohol
Enemy forces in depth. Mass over maneuver. As an engineer officer, I care passionately about just a few things: castles, engineer buttons, and combined arms breaching. And while there were no engineer buttons at Helm's Deep - a simple oversight, I'm sure - that engagement encompasses a wide swathe of engineer lessons learned. Yes, this …
Continue reading "Warfighter: Helm’s Deep"
“He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared.” - Sun Tzu In war, timing and will are two of the intangibles that are hard to train for. A battle can be all but won when suddenly the unforeseen takes place: Jackson arrives at Antietam; Sheridan rides back to Cedar Creek; the …
Continue reading "Warfighter: Battle of Endor"
When trying to understand Army doctrine, we tend to get too tied up in the gritty little details of doctrine itself. An example of this would be any number of the required briefings that come with with Military Decision Making Process (MDMP). Staffs spend more time formatting the briefing products - whether on PowerPoint or …
Continue reading "Warfighter: Bunker Hill"
Strap yourselves in, folks, it's time to ruin yet another timely classic by giving it the old "analyze it to death" treatment. And this time, we're going back a ways. A long time ago, to be exact, in a galaxy far, far away. More precisely, we're going to the ice planet of Hoth. If you've …
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How Wind in the Willows can teach us about small unit actions in warfare. That sound? Oh, that’s just the clunking of heads hitting desks, as people react to their beloved childhood book being brought under the scrutiny of the military microscope. But really, we’d be doing an injustice to that mighty asymmetric warfighter, the …
Continue reading "Warfighter: Toad Hall"
When I think of the six warfighting functions I always think of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. What, you don't? Let’s be honest, one does not immediately think of fantasy or science fiction when conversations turn to Army doctrine. Most vignettes that are used to make the subject understandable to the lowly minds of …
Continue reading "Warfighter: Middle Earth"
The Angry Staff Officer 
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