[March 11, 2022] Alexander the Great once said that “I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.” Of course, he was talking about inspiration. Indeed, it must have been an inspirational speech that day; I only wish I’d been there to… Read More »
[March 10, 2022] With war raging in Ukraine, now is an excellent time to remind ourselves of the 5 essentials for victory. Sun Tzu, whom I’ve written about many times (see links here, here, and here), has condensed for us what is needed for victory in war. In a future article, I will address whether the Russian military… Read More »
[April 3, 2022] New developments show the Russian attacks slowing down and shifting their main effort to eastern Ukraine and away from the Ukraine capital. Furthermore, there are reports of the killing of innocent civilians by Russian troops. If this is correct, it will be another instance of war crimes. See tomorrow’s article that discusses war crimes. [March… Read More »
[March 7, 2022] It was a dark September night at Fort Benning, GA, as our platoon of new lieutenants moved out on a new training mission. We were headed deep into the bush to test our newly acquired leadership skills and measure our resilience. I was paired with a lieutenant from Chicago; he had the worst traits a… Read More »
[March 4, 2022] As many daily readers have noticed, I took time out from my leadership blog for the past few days. This is rare, but in this case, necessary, as I needed special medical care requiring several days of attention. I did have time to catch up on the news and think about the conflict in Ukraine. … Read More »
[February 25, 2022] Sometimes, I find something that just interests me. An archeological article came out last year that suggested that during the A.D. 79 Mount Vesuvius eruption, a Roman Soldier was on the Herculaneum beach as part of a major rescue effort. We know that a rescue mission was undertaken by naval commander Pliny, the Elder. Pliny’s… Read More »
[February 21, 2022] U.S. Army Drill Sergeant Bryant stood like a statue looking over the simulated battlefield on the west side of Fort Polk, LA. We were about to charge into the open fields to attack the enemy. “Stand ready!” he said with great anticipation, “Charge!” And we went, willy-nilly running like the highly motivated newbie recruits we… Read More »
[February 14, 2022] When I became an Infantry Battalion commander (with approximately 700 Soldiers), I instituted a policy of wearing our Class A uniform (similar to a suit and tie) to daily work, unless we were in the field. Before that, their commander had “dress down” days and “come as you are weekends.” I stopped this dressing down… Read More »
[February 13, 2022] My school years were often punctuated by teachers asking me, ‘Doug, why can’t you follow the rules?’ I was never really that good at it. After joining the U.S. Army, I struggled to follow their rules and would suffer as a consequence. Understanding why there were rules (regulations, policies, directives, orders, etc.) was helpful but… Read More »
[February 12, 2022] In 1986, I took command of a line U.S. Army Infantry Company. Nearly 200 men were members of my unit, mainly Infantry, but a few support soldiers. We had medics, communications specialists, clerks, and a couple of mechanics. It took a continued effort from the command team to point all our people in the right… Read More »