Good Article on USAF Colonel John Boyd

Maritime Topics Maritime Training & Licensing
1

Col Boyd is known to some only for his OODA loop model to the point where it has become just a buzzword for many. The OODA loop was mentioned briefly in the leadership class I took.

This article is a short summary of Boyd and his work and is one of the best ones I’ve read.

John Boyd: The Subversive Strategist by Kevin Batcho
From the article:

“Creative, reformist, intellectual yet grounded in reality, Boyd disdained incompetent leadership.”

I’ve also found this interesting. The Personal Papers of Colonel John R. Boyd (USAF).

Boyd called himself a retired pilot that read a lot and he wasn’t kidding. The list includes books on political theory, philosophy, math and science, the Cold War, military hardware, etc.

Some books on Boyd:

The Mind of War: John Boyd and American Security - Grant T Hammond

Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War - Robert Coram

Science, Strategy and War (Strategy and History) - Frans Osinga

Here’s a photo of my dog-eared copy of “The Mind of War”

image
image415×277 32.5 KB

3 Likes
2

THX.

Have already grabbed above.

3

Good stuff KC, I only had time to read the first link but will get to the others when I have time. The first article said Boyd built on the von Schlieffen Plan & I can see that. But his OOAD Loop idea sounds similar to Erich Hartmanns, (the most successful fighter pilot of WW2) “See-Decide-Attack-Break” strategy. I’m curious to see if the others articles also give credit to Hartmann as they did von Schlieffen?

1 Like
4

A very interesting biography indeed. On one hand absolutely brilliant, on the other a disaster.

On personal level, Boyd was described as, “* ill-mannered, he was unkempt, loud, opinionated, intolerant of anyone who disagreed with him, he had the table manners of a five-year old, he was profane, abrasive, he was a terrible father and a worse husband.* ”

1 Like
5

As much as Boyd read it’s certainly possible, maybe even likely.

Unlike Hartmann’s however Boyd’s loop is more like Double-loop learning in that the “orientation” is modified with each loop as the situation changes.

1 Like
6

This is true. And I don’t think Hartmann ever modified his, “See-Decide-Attack-Break” strategy for anything except for aerial combat while Boyd seemed to spread his out to encompass war strategy, business, leadership etc.. From what I read of Hartmann, he always broke & started back over when safely out of the battle zone so that was kind of a loop? He always went after the low fruit the same as the lion goes after the slowest gazelle then run away. He said he never engaged unless he was near certain he could get a victory. He wasn’t known for dogfighting, more for shooting bad or unfortunate Allied pilots out of the air.

An odd thing about Hartmann & his strategy. I don’t remember the first time I read about him but the last time was overhearing about him on a random YouTube/Podcast my kid was listening to about video gaming? Those video gamming nerds are using WW2 strategies to rack up points & stay a live in video games?