It will be a day long remembered. It has seen the advent of two Star Wars-themed professional military journal articles, it will soon see the end of the Insurgency. Rebellion. Whatever.
The first is from Armed Forces Journal, and it’s entitled “Return of the Jedi”. (I’m telling you, AFJ is really tapping in to the nerd market, with a previous article named “Let’s Do This! Leeroy Jenkins and the American Way of Advising). The article goes into the training and selection of scholar-warriors into positions of leadership, and echoes many of the sentiments expressed by Lt. Col. Paul Yingling in “A Failure of Generalship”.
We have met the archetype strategic warrior, and his name is David Petraeus. He is joined by a remarkably successful cadre of leaders who have demonstrated exceptional talent in the chaotic environments in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some names are familiar because they reached three or four stars: Chiarelli, Stavridis, Dempsey, Ward, Dubik, Eikenberry. Others are equally successful but less well known because of their lesser rank and profile. These are behind-the-scenes officers who have offered advice and insight to their flag officer bosses: Nagl, Yingling, McMaster and Mansoor, among a few others.
The second was sent to me from Greg in Mexico, and it’s called “Redeployment of the Jedi” (also published as a book, “Living on Tatooine”), which is a chronicle of US Army Reservist adjusting to life back in the US after a year in the middle of the desert (Tatooine). Filled with lots of Star Wars metaphors, as well.
With so many good Star Wars links today, I think it's time for a little award. Ahem, attention to orders:
For exceptionally meritorious service, and making a tremendous positive impact (why do we say positive impact in award citations? It’s an award, of course it’s positive!) on my morale, I hereby present my contributors with this video of a dancing stormtrooper. The efforts of my milblog buddies reflect great credit upon the US Army, the Department of Defense, and the Rebel Alliance. Even if the Rebels are insurgents who blew up the Death Star…
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