Home
FruFru FourOne's Library tagged → View Popular
Defense and the National Interest " To Be Or To Do?
-
Col John R. Boyd, USAF
[July 1, 2007 - Of all the things Boyd wrote or said, we probably get the most requests for his “To be or to do?” invitation. Although Boyd associated with many junior officers during his Air Force career, there were a few, perhaps half a dozen, that he had such respect for that he invited them to join him on his quest for change. Each one would be offered the choice: Be someone - be recognized by the system and promoted - or do something that would last for the Air Force and the country. It was unfortunate, and says something about the state of American’s armed forces, that it was rarely possible to do both.
Boyd’s biographer, Robert Coram, collected the invitation from an officer who got it and selected the “to do” option, and he confirmed its essence from several others. CR]
-
“Tiger, one day you will come to a fork in the road,” he said. “And you’re going to have to make a decision about which direction you want to go.” He raised his hand and pointed. “If you go that way you can be somebody. You will have to make compromises and you will have to turn your back on your friends. But you will be a member of the club and you will get promoted and you will get good assignments.” Then Boyd raised his other hand and pointed another direction. “Or you can go that way and you can do something - something for your country and for your Air Force and for yourself. If you decide you want to do something, you may not get promoted and you may not get the good assignments and you certainly will not be a favorite of your superiors. But you won’t have to compromise yourself. You will be true to your friends and to yourself. And your work might make a difference.” He paused and stared into the officer’s eyes and heart. “To be somebody or to do something. In life there is often a roll call. That’s when you will have to make a decision. To be or to do. Which way will you go?
Re: Who is the sheriff?
-
As a person who's pretty new to the whole concept of 4th generation
warfare, this sounds to me a little like Ender's Dragon army in
_Ender's Game_ by Orson Scott Card, especially the last part about
quickly seizing unforseen opportunities and total battlespace
awareness. Is it reasonably fair to say that Ender's strategies might
be described as 4GW? My background includes very little history of
military tactics, and I'm just trying to get a handle on 4GW using any
comparison that I can get my hands on and understand pretty easily...
Reggie Bautista
The OODA “Loop” Sketch
This is a very good powerpoint presentation of ooda.
Selected Tags
Related Tags
Sponsored Links
Top Contributors
Highlighter, Sticky notes, Tagging, Groups and Network: integrated suite dramatically boosting research productivity. Learn more »
Join Diigo