Doctrine 2015 Update from the USACAC Commander

The U.S. Army Combined Arms Center (USACAC) commander, Lt. Gen. David Perkins, discusses the Doctrine 2015 concept at last week's winter meeting of the Association of the United States Army in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.



For more on Doctrine 2015, go here, here, and here.

The Mexican-American War as Told by General Winfield Scott ... Sort of

Winfield Scott led the southern thrust in the
Mexican-American War

At the start of the Mexican campaign of 1847, our—the president’s—objectives were to apply economic pressure to Mexico to force them to yield to the president’s territorial demands.  Essentially, these were that Mexico recognize the Rio Grande as the southern border of Texas and agree to sell to the United States the territories of New Mexico and California.  We began with a naval blockade of the Mexican Gulf coast, to put immediate pressure upon the Mexican economy.  I knew however that, in order to accomplish our objectives, sooner or later we would have to essentially repeat Cortes’ march to the valley of Mexico before we could ever hope to force the Mexican government’s capitulation.

Given that we faced no enemy on the open seas, the president sent Matthew Perry’s forces to set up the blockade.  The blockade was successful and the navy even had some success on land, taking the towns of Frontera and Tampico.  General Taylor advanced to the mouth of the Rio Grande and soon he was able to move against Monterrey which was defended by General Pedro de Ampudia.

Connecting Soldiers to Digital Applications

Connecting Soldiers to Digital Applications (CSDA) is something that started a few years ago when Lt. Gen. Sorenson was the Army's chief information officer (CIO/G-6).  It's not really a program, just an idea.  But it's a very big idea that's getting bigger.  Like a snowball rolling downhill.  What started back in 2008 or 2009 as an Army-wide contest for who could develop the best app, is now an effort led by the Mission Command Center of Excellence that just recently opened the Army Software Marketplace.  I am privileged to work with some of the Army's CSDA experts at the U.S. Army Signal Center of Excellence who are working to contribute signal-relevant apps, some of which will be posted to this marketplace.  Apps are also being developed that will be used by future Soldiers under actual operating conditions.  So this really is big stuff.

One of the things we are working on now is putting together an entire issue of the Army Communicator magazine which is published quarterly by the Signal Center.  This year's summer issue will focus almost exclusively on mobile applications for the Army.

In the video, Lt. Col. James McGhee, from the Mission Command Center of Excellence, is briefing an audience at the Association of the United States Army winter symposium in Fort Lauderdale, which is going on this week.  One of the things he is emphasizing is how the Army wants to use CSDA to expand the "Doctrine 2015" initiative begun last year.  Watch for the e-book demonstration in Lt. Col. McGhee's briefing.

Favorite TV Shows of the Past: Lost in Space

My favorite character was the Robot.  "Warning! Warning!"  "That does not compute."  Danger, Will Robinson!"  And that stupid ninny, Dr. Smith!

Favorite TV Shows of the Past: Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

I think this show had a lot to with me deciding to join the Army.

British Literature: The Early Modern Era

It seems to me that the transition from the Victorian to the Modern era was essentially a change in point of view.  Whereas the Victorian point of view prevailed at least up until the last decade or so of the 1800s, now you had the prevalence of modern opinion.  This sort of A/B comparison I think is well represented in Siegfried Sassoon’s They. (Greenblatt, 1960)  In the poem’s first stanza you have the voice of the bishop, whom I take to represent the personification of the old, Victorian order.  In the second or last stanza, you have the voice of “the boys,” that is, the soldiers returned from the Great War.  Taken together, the two stanzas provide, in microcosm, the two eras, Victorian and modern, in conversation with each other.

Incidentally, They is a war poem and Sassoon is considered a war poet. (Greenblatt, 1830)  In other words, there is a substrata of modern era writers whose works was either directly or indirectly (but either way, rather heavily) by the war.  Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, Rupert Brooke, Edward Thomas, Isaac Rosenberg, May Wedderman Cannan, Robert Graves and David Jones belong to this category.

According to the lecture notes, one of the characteristics of the modern era is the tendency to see the world as neatly divided between "civilized" and "savage" peoples. (Froisy)  Sassoon’s lines in the first stanza about sending the boys out to destroy “Anti-Christ” and, in his place “breed an honourable race,” seem to reflect this line of thinking.

Soldiers of the Great War

Another essential element of modernism is the questioning of received truths of Christian tradition. (Froisy)  Christian tradition, in Sassoon’s poem, is represented by the words of the bishop in the first stanza.  But “the boys” (representing modern, i.e., “realistic” thought) contradict the words of the bishop.  While the bishop speaks in platitudes and in the abstract, the boys answer back in terms of stark reality.  Yes, the boys aren’t same, like the bishop said, but not in the same way.  This may be taken as the elevation of rationality over other sources of truth, another essential element of modernism. (Froisy)

Modernists challenged the idea that God played an active role in the world, which led them to challenge the Victorian assumption that there was meaning and purpose behind world events. (Froisy)  A hint of this is seen in the bishops weak acknowledgement, in the end, that “the ways of God are strange!” (Greenblatt, 1961)

Another Modernist tendency is that modern writing is predominantly cosmopolitan, and often expresses  a sense of urban cultural dislocation, along with an awareness of new anthropological and psychological theories. Its favored techniques of juxtaposition and multiple point of view challenge the reader to re-establish a coherence of meaning from fragmentary forms." (Froisy)  I found no correlation between this essential tenet of modernism and Sassoon’s poem, but it did suggest to me that, had the modern era’s rapid technological advances delivered computers and Microsoft to the early modernist writers, they might perhaps have produced their poems on PowerPoint, a present day example of a fragmentary form from which readers struggle to piece together a coherent meaning.

Works Cited.

Froisy, Carol.  Lecture Notes, Week 8.  Literature 211.  American Public University. 

Greenblatt, Stephen and M.H. Abrams.  Eds.   The Norton Anthology to English Literature.  8^th Ed., Vol. 2.  New York: W. W. Norton, 2006.

1863-1864 and Events upon which the Civil War Turned

From the start of the Civil War, disparities between the North and South in terms of capabilities and resources gave the North a sizeable advantage.  Yet for about the first two years of fighting that advantage had not yielded much.  Though the scales had always been weighted in favor of the North, in 1863 they began tipping more and more in that direction.  There are several reasons for this.

President Lincoln visits his commanders in the field

First, President Lincoln issued the second (final) Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.  The net effect of this was increased black recruitment and the organization of black regiments in the Union Army.  Henceforth, about nine percent of Union forces were black.[1]  This represented a significant manpower drain away from the Confederacy and to the Union.  Given the disparity in manpower strength at the beginning of the war, this was a huge factor in tipping the scales more in favor of the North.

National conscription became necessary for both the North and the South, and both sides instituted this practice, the South in 1862[2] and the North on March 3, 1863[3].  Given the much larger manpower base from which to draw on in the North, universal (compulsory) military service further weighted the manpower advantage to the North.

As the war entered its third year, anti-war sentiment in the North increased.  This was a political problem for President Lincoln who in 1863 began suppressing civil liberties, including suspension of the writ of habeas corpus.  These three things, the emancipation, national conscription, and suspension of the writ of habeas corpus intensified Northern opposition to the war, but when Congress in March of 1863 passed the Habeas Corpus Act,[4] it strengthened the president’s hand and sapped much of the strength of the anti-war movement.  This drag upon the North’s war-making ability removed, the president was freed to prosecute the war even more vigorously.

"Christianity" in the Workplace

Lt. Gen. Ronnie Hawkins, DISA Director

Yesterday the Army Times carried a story with this headline: 3-star ripped for presentation referencing God.  The 3-star in question is Lt. Gen. Ronnie Hawkins, the recently appointed director of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA).  The references to God—which brought down the wrath of those who worship only at the altar of political correctness—were two slides in Hawkins’ presentation: one said, “Always put God first, and stay within His will”; the other said, “Always remember God is good — all the time!”  As new directors and commanders are wont to do, Hawkins’ presentation, which came at an “all hands” meeting—sort of like a town hall meeting within the organization—was about communicating his “command philosophy” to the DISA staff.  These kinds of presentations are meant to set the tone, establish the command climate, introduce the new director, establish communication, all those good things.

Some jerk in the audience took offense at the fact that the new director dared to mention God in the workplace and found a sympathetic ear in the media and complained.  Following that, some high up muckety-muck in an organization called the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, opined that Hawkins should be court martialed.  Hence the story.

Factors Contributing to the Outcome of the Revolutionary War

There are many reasons why the British lost and the Patriots won the Revolutionary War: near the top of the list is money, specifically the lack thereof.  Wars are expensive and as the 1700s drew to a close, Britain was up to her neck in them.  The Revolutionary War was but the American theater of a much wider war in which Britain was involved and the Brits were simply overextended.  In 1778, France formed a formal alliance with the American colonies.[1]  French naval pressure upon British shipping prohibitively increased the cost to Britain of maintaining its already expensive trans-Atlantic lines of communication to the American continent.  Moreover, in 1779 Spain entered the war against Britain and, the following year, so did the Dutch.[2]  By this time, Britain simply had too many irons in the fire and began to adjust its national strategy to focus upon the more immediate threats to its national security—the Spanish, the French, and the Dutch—which meant that it had no choice but to curtail its efforts to put down the rebellious American colonies.  Besides, by the early 1780s, Britain had little to show for its campaign against the colonies despite substantial investment in terms of men and resources.  Economic pressure fell much more severely upon the patriots, however.  Their only way through was to print money and rely upon foreign loans—primarily from France.[3]  Moreover, they held the home field advantage.

CSA's Reading List: Where's the Doctrine?

CSA Raymond T. Odierno

Army Chief of Staff, Raymond T. Odierno has just released his professional reading list.  This list was previewed back in early December, when Gen. Odierno invited comments from readers.  My comments to that first list are posted here.

With the issuance of the current list, one notes that there are still no doctrinal materials listed.  This suggests to me two things.  One is that the CSA has just telegraphed to the field that doctrine is not important.  The other is that maybe we should just scrap doctrine and, in its place, publish the annual CSA reading list to the field.  The books the CSA recommends would become the Army's doctrine.  In addition to providing the troops with better reading, this would also save a ton money in this era of constrained resources ... no doctrine writers, editors, or publishers, and fewer website managers.  Just publish a list.  Make it required reading.  Shape promotion board questions from books on the list.  You don't read the books, you don't get promoted.  Plus, you'd have the additional benefit of a force that was much more doctrinally literate.

For those purists out there that insist we must have field manuals, hey, we'd still have the joint pubs.  It's a win-win-win proposal.

Oscar Wilde: Victorian or Not?

Up to this point, we have examined two periods, the Romantic and the Victorian, each of which was defined primarily in terms of time.  The Romantic period, we said ran basically from 1789 to 1832. (Froisy)  The Victorian period which immediately followed ran on until the death of Queen Victoria in 1901.  There were some general trends associated with each period and, by and large, the writers who wrote during those eras tended to follow them.  The thing, however, that classified a writer as Romantic or Victorian was not whether he was a trend follower, but when did he/she actually write.

Oscar Wilde

Now we must answer the question about whether a certain writer, namely, Oscar Wilde, was or was not a Victorian.  Of course, the immediate answer is that he was without question a Victorian writer; his heyday was the late 19^th Century, the Victorian era.  But we know the question cannot be answered so simply because we are asked to answer in a way that tells us that the basis of the question had nothing to do with time but with things like style, and technique, and the writer’s willingness to publish things that did not exactly run true to the Victorian ideal. 

The suggestion is that Oscar Wilde was not a Victorian writer because he satirized Victorian morals, Victorian attitudes, especially toward sex, and Victorian manners and thinking in general.  Two of Wilde’s poems, Impression du Matin and The Harlot’s House, touch on the theme of prostitution, the whole idea behind these two satirical poems being that:  Hark! here, in the heart of prim and proper, Victorian England, there are prostitutes and men who frequent them.  These are the real Victorian virtues.  That is what he was saying.

Phil Mickelson

I like to watch a big-time golf tournament when Phil Mickelson wins and beats Tiger Woods.  I just wish it would happen more often.

The Lords of British Literature: Byron and Tennyson and their Times

A comparison of the lives and works of Byron and Tennyson opens to readers the Romantic and Victorian periods of British Literature.  These two poets, both Lords, are emblematic of their respective eras.  George Gordon, Lord Byron has been described as the most “flamboyant” and “notorious” of the major Romantics (Poetry Foundation) while Alfred, Lord Tennyson, shy and withdrawn though he was, is said to be “the defining English poet of the Victorian era.” (Poetry Archive)  A reader may study but these two men and come away with well-founded impressions of British literature during the times in which these men lived and wrote, as well as a greater appreciation of their poetic works.

The respective ancestries of these two men provide early clues not only about the lives of the poets themselves, but also give hints as to the eventual character of the Romantic and Victorian eras.  Take first Lord Byron.  According to the editors of the Norton Anthology of English Literature, “Byron was descended from two aristocratic families, both of them colorful, violent, and dissolute.” (Greenblatt, 608)   This foreshadowed the notorious Byronic lifestyle, but it also prefigures the Romantic Period itself with its crime, madness, and rebellion against authority (Froisy, Week 3)  Mental illness, drug addiction, and some drunkenness were characteristics of Tennyson’s family, observable deviances in any age, but perhaps a bit more noticeable during the Victorian era as they contrasted so severely with the times.

On Rick Santorum

Rick Santorum

Quote of the day -

After sweeping all three Republican primary contests on February 7, Senator Rick Santorum had this to say  ...

"I am not the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney.  I am the conservative alternative to Barack Obama."

People like Donald Trump can't figure this out.

Reagan vs. Obama

President Reagan was wrong about one thing.  He did not live to see the end of communism. Communism succeeded him into office four administrations later ...

Boykin and Black Hawk Down

Lt. Gen. William G.  "Jerry" Boykin

Ken Blackwell and Ken Klukowski, writing for Big Peace, have published an article about Lieutenant General William G. (“Jerry”) Boykin.  The purpose of their piece was to counter some of the prevailing media bias against General Boykin because of his religious beliefs.  General Boykin is in the news because he has declined, under pressure from the controversial organization known as CAIR, or the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an invitation from West Point to speak at a prayer breakfast.

Ken Blackwell is a conservative writer.  Ken Klukowski is an attorney.  Neither man served in the military and their bios show nothing that would qualify either of them as military historians.

This is relevant because, in their Big Peace article, attempting to burnish the image of General Boykin, they write that Boykin was "the commanding officer of the mission in the Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia forever memorialized in the movie Black Hawk Down."

Author Mark Bowden, author of the book Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War, never mentions Boykin.  Neither does retired colonel David H. Hackworth in his book, Hazardous Duty.  Hackworth covered U.S. operations in Somalia during the time of the Black Hawk Down incident as a correspondent for Newsweek.  Both of these men name Major General William F. Garrison as the commanding officer during the Battle of Mogadishu. [1]

Writing Tips from a Recovering Doctrine Writer

Some writer I know

Came across this piece on writing tips today and it put me in sort of a nostalgic mood.  Readers of this page will recall that yours truly was once a doctrine writer.  A rather frustrated one, but still a writer.  Here, for what they're worth, are my tips -- at least the first twenty that come to mind.

1.  Outside of getting her help with the template and a few of the basic rules, ignore your editor when starting out.
2.  The reason for #1 is that, in doctrine, content is everything; unless your editor is a subject matter expert in what you are writing, she cannot help you.  It doesn't matter how finely crafted your sentences are if the content in them is wanting.
3.  Doctrine writing is a team sport; if there is no writing team, there will be no resulting doctrine.  The editor is a key player on that team, but she is not a starter.  Her best contributions are off the bench.
4.  The chain of command likes for you to write your doctrine then bring it to them so they can tell you what's wrong with it.  This masks the fact that most times they are clueless as to what the content should be and is totally unproductive.  It is a complete waste of government time and money to begin writing if you haven't received clear guidance from your boss, and his boss, and your boss's boss's boss.
5.  If you are writing your center of excellence's flagship field manual, and this manual was last revised more than 20 years ago, expect trouble.  If, in 20 years, the chain of command hasn't figured out what the revision should look like, they probably won't solve this problem on your watch.  It's no use to try to write when the basic content issues have not been resolved.