I decided to wait until after we got through with our OCA sims to really have a good grasp on how we thought about conducting a full air war. Turns out, there’s not much actual thinking involved. It’s still the same 2nd generation attritionist mindset: destroy everything the enemy has and he’ll stop fighting you. There’s little to no discussion at the tactical level as to what the best course of action may be, and if there is, it doesn’t really matter since the ATO comes out long before the mission takes place anyways.
Granted these were only sims, and designed to give us just an idea of what an actual OCA mission would be like, but I’m still irritated by the lack of consideration of the mental and moral aspects of war. It’s all about getting bombs on target on time, hey diddle diddle straight up the middle. The worst indication that our OODA loops are consumed by the ATO was on the last day, where in this particular scenario, our “intel report” declared our communications compromised and that the enemy was aware of our incoming strike. In my head, this was a great opportunity to be unpredictable (heck, maybe we leaked the info to make the enemy think we were striking) and do exactly the opposite of what the enemy thought we were up to. Hey, we could throw up all kinds of feints and deceptions to make them react inappropriately and then take advantage! Unfortunately, I found myself once again correct about our mentality. The word from above was basically, “deal with it, we’re not changing anything.”
…
I wanted to pull a Boyd and start poking people in the chest and yelling my lungs out about how stupid this was. We had the knowledge of what the enemy was expecting, what they were planning to do about it, and we did nothing about it! I calmed myself down for a short while thinking that this may have been a sim-ism and they were just using this as an excuse to challenge us until our instructor informed us that this sometimes happens in the real world.
I just don’t know what to say anymore.
I have to imagine that secretly “they” (instructors) couldn’t agree with you more, but there is no way they are going to let an O-1 think he can change the AF via normal chains of command. You have so much more to learn, as do we all. ;-\ I mean this to be encouraging, not patronly. Let us know when you start smoking cigars though. Wouldn’t that be required for full Boyd effect?
By the way, how is Boyd theory generally received in the AF today, among both junior and senior officers? I casually know a few more senior officers (no stars), and whenever I mention or ask about Boyd, they go glassy and/or silent.
I certainly hope that the idea of charging headlong into a prepared enemy position seemed ridiculous to someone other than me, if not we’ve got a lot farther to go than I originally thought. As far as changing the Air Force, I like to be realistic, so I’ll settle for discussion with people that disagree (easy enough, I’m surrounded by them, and it helps me get into their heads better
). One thing I’m sure to do: keep reading until my eyes fall out.
I actually do enjoy the occasional cigar, though not the Dutch Masters so much. I’ve got a Rocky Patel from my fiance’s dad waiting for me over here…
I’ve met a few officers that have heard of him, though they’re all CGO’s, and none of them really grasp fully how significant his work is. Our outgoing intelligence officer knew about his contributions to E/M but I’m not sure if he knew much more. I’ve gotten a few of my classmates to read his biography but like I said, they kind of dismiss it and go about doing things like before.
The best story I’ve got about that is from a course we took on JTIDS taught by a Marine Gunnery Sgt. He started talking about how the system allowed for the military to be able to perform faster OODA loops. He stopped for a second (more than likely due to blank stares from the crowd) and asked, “you guys know what I’m talking about, right? OODA? Observe, Orient, Decide and Act? John Boyd? Colonel in the Air Force? He was a fighter pilot? OK, nevermind.” Meanwhile all the Marines in the class laughed as all the Air Force personnel in the room looked back like deer in the headlights. Oh well.
That’s a fabulous anecdote. Popular perception says that it’s the jarhead Marines who would be all business and not break task, while the swaggering, engineer-trained AF fighter jocks would be the ones cracking jokes and enjoying themselves too much while on duty. Sounds like another cheng / ch’i inversion. ;-\
I’ve enjoyed a cigar or two as well, though I was on active duty during Clinton so I never inhaled.