Sigh...it was Colonel Boyd with the bathroom thing, but as the story goes, he only threatened it, didn’t follow through. Apparently, the threat was enough...:)
>Sigh...it was Colonel Boyd with the bathroom thing,<
Yes, it was. John Boyd, “Forty Second Boyd,” got behind the tails of all pilots who challenged him in forty seconds or less. Boyd flew wing on only one or two missions in Korea before the war ended. He came home, and because he was the best pilot in the Air Force, he was sent to the AF Top Gun School as an instructor.
Like Robin Olds, Boyd was a maverick. Despite his bucking the system he was sent to the Pentagon to fly a desk. He led the Fighter Mafia that overcame the USAF bureaucracy to design the F-16, which was the best plane of the time. In fact foreign air forces bought and still use it in combat.
Boyd also wrote the text book on air combat that virtually all the world’s air forces use.
But, to me, his crowning achievement was to teach the US Marines how to fight irregular, asymmetrical Fourth Generation warfare.
Boyd retired a colonel. He should have been a general.
Finally, at his funeral only one high ranking USAF officer came to pay his respects. But, the place was packed with Marine officers who understood Boyd’s warrior mentality and achievements. Between Colonel John Boyd and William S. Lind the US Marines know how to fight irregular asymmetrical warfare that conquered Nationalist China, Cuba, and is used by the Muslims worldwide.
Promotion to flag rank is very difficult for a warrior. I’m glad Robin Olds retired as a general, and I wish John
Boyd, who is our greatest military theorist didn’t.