No, it wasn’t just hospital or combat, this stuff was across the board in II Corps, and though there may have been some value to it at one time, by the time Bradley took over II Corps was a veteran outfit no longer in need of Pattons disciplinary shock treatment.
But thats not the point - the lesson here is that the acting Corps commander saw fit to use his good judgement to override the standing orders of a superior officer. This happens way more often than one would think, indeed it often has to happen in order to keep things going.
The bigger lesson is that rules do not exist in a vacuum. There are tradeoffs, costs vs benefits, and there are multiple goals we are trying to achieve. To take a regulation as an end in itself is short-sighted. Someone concerned with things like national strategy (which we civilians are priveleged to do) should think more broadly.
“The bigger lesson is that rules do not exist in a vacuum. There are tradeoffs, costs vs benefits, and there are multiple goals we are trying to achieve. To take a regulation as an end in itself is short-sighted. Someone concerned with things like national strategy (which we civilians are priveleged to do) should think more broadly.”
I simply do not agree rules are for everyone OR nobody this is not some PC game.