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"Three things the US Army Chief of Staff Wants You to Know"

No.2 has always been needed -- think of Nelson breaking away without orders from the sacred Line at the Battle of Cape St Vincent (1797). Or Codrington* sinking the Turkish Fleet at the Battle of Navarino (1826).


* which I suppose is why he achieved the ultimate British recognition, having a pub named after him (in Mossop St, Chelsea).
 
Funny about the Kandahar quote.....the Boardwalk as he alludes to is long gone, due to the rumblings of previous US 1* who said that "having a Tim Hortons and Burger King just isnt War"!
But he mentions untethering themselves from the Logisitc umbilical cord.....having been worked closely recently on this with them, no one wants to deploy a US soldier on the ground without the "comfort" of the Medevac helicopter, the deployable small UAV's, ISTAR assets which all need that Logistical chain to support. And harking back to the Iwo Jima comment, body bags were accepted back then but since Vietnam for the US especially, they get a bit uptight about a repeat of that in recent times. So where theUS Inf soldier goes, there will always be 10 soldiers supporting with the daily C17/130 runs bringing in the spares!
 
having a pub named after him (in Mossop St, Chelsea)

Where my parents first met in the 60s :grin: Had a few afternoon lock ins in there in the 80s:drunken:

On a more serious point his third point is a serious issue for all democracies that have reduced their forces to minimal levels. Those who are inherently brought up by their parents to be used to the armed forces are more likely to join. There is also a potential contempt for the "civilian" population, although I see this as more of a US problem; but then again the lady shouting at the gates of Downing Street doesn't mean that we aren't going to have it too.
 
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I must have been in a different type of army as I seem to have spent many periods out on a limb in some sh1thole with little support and no comms. Even in UK
 
Three Things the Army Chief of Staff Wants You to Know

Picked up via warontherocks - boils down to 'embrace the suck', 'disobey orders - smartly' and 'break out of your bubble'.

All three points are salient and well argued, and I would suggest apply as equally to the British Army as they do the US Army.
Lets not get exited, he'll be gone in three years, sadly from my perspective but probably not from that of the average career soldier.
 
'US 4* feels the need to explain the basics of mission command and that soldiering can be uncomfortable sometimes'. It's not especially encouraging...
 
Meanwhile back in the UK, we had a brief experiment with forward thinking and ended up with sleeves up or sleeves down, tuck it in or let it hang, is it a shirt or a jacket, stable belt must be on show, belt must be worn over smocks.......
 
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