The Strategy of the Fighter Pilot

Fast Company ^ | June 2002 | Keith H. Hammonds

[Colorado Cowgirl]

You have got to read his book, by Robert Coram. It will give a warm feeling.

The coming assault on Baghdad already has its first hero: Colonel John Boyd, a foul-mouthed, insubordinate fighter pilot who has been in his grave at Arlington National Cemetery for almost five years.

When Iraq’s tyrant is brought down, that inevitable victory will be Boyd’s doing. You won’t hear Boyd’s name being cited in Rose Garden speeches, however. Nor will the Pentagon be authorising any posthumous decorations for the man who, through 30 years of bureaucratic guerilla warfare, transformed America’s military.

Even though he gave them many of the tools that made Operation Desert Storm such a sweeping success in 1991, the brass continued to hate Boyd with such a passion that, as a final sign of contempt, they sent only a single general as their official representative at his funeral.

[Enchante]

"it weighs about half as much as its U.S. Air Force predecessor, the F-15"

Boyd is deservedly a legend with people who know about his ideas, but I can't trust an author who describes the F-15 as the 'predecessor' to the F-16..... they were developed in the same time-period for distinct cost and mission profiles (i.e., F-16 was judged necessary to have a single-engine multi-role fighter that would cost a lot less than the F-15).

[Erik Latranyi]

However, at this point, we intend to get a little turnabout.

So true. On September 11th, the Fundamentalists tried to decapitate our nation.

They hoped we would react with typical disarray, trying to hunt down specific individuals all over the world. That would leave them to focus their resources on further attacks against the west.

Instead, we went straight into the heart of their religion, the Middle East, and began to transform the region from turmoil to organized democracy.

Now, the Fundamentalists have to expend manpower, resources and materials in a hopeless effort to thwart our plans.

That is the teachings of Boyd.