Bill Swanson reviews Robert Coram's book "Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War." The review describes Boyd well, and also has some interesting details about Boyd being a consultant in the shadows to Dick Cheney during Gulf War I. See also H. Lee Dixon's outstanding review at Amazon.com, which adds a lot of background Coram missed.
Boyd and his "OODA Loop" have been a regular topic of coverage on this blog, and so have disciples of his like Maj. Vandergriff et. al. If reading about him interests you, I also recommend this article from Fast Company Magazine very, very highly. It may be the best layman's exposition of Boyd's ideas to date, and it relates them to a business context as well. Our coverage includes:
Here's another good excerpt from the review:
"If the U.S. Air Force was conspicuous by its absence, the U.S. Marines were conspicuous by their presence," Coram writes. "In fact, had anyone passed by who knew military culture but did not know John Boyd, they would have been bewildered to see so many Marines at the memorial service of an Air Force pilot. Particularly noticeable was a group of young lieutenants - rigid, close-cropped, and hard young men from the Basic School at Marine Base Quantico. ... Then there was a senior Marine colonel who wore the ribbons and decorations of a man who had seen combat in many places. ...The Marine colonel took from his pocket a Marine Corps insignia, the eagle globe and anchor. He marched out of the crowd, kneeled, and placed the insignia near the urn containing Boyd's ashes. ... As one, the young lieutenants snapped to attention. Placing the symbol of the U.S. Marine Corps on a grave is the highest honor a Marine can bestow. It is rarely seen, even at the funeral of decorated combat Marines, and it may have been the first time in history an Air Force pilot received the honor."Boyd was one of the most important unknown men of his time. As Coram notes: "He did what so few men are privileged to do: he changed the world."Even more remarkable is the new Marine Corps Research Center at Quantico, where the large lobby is decorated, as you might well expect, with pictures of Marine generals and battle scenes galore, dating back to the beginning of the Corps. And in the lobby the most prominent display is a statue of a fighter pilot in a blue flight suit offering up in his outstretched arms a thick briefing book. It is John Boyd.
Who was this guy?"
Which is, of course, why the Sea Harrier has been such an (unexpected) success in air to air. You can't do better in changing energy state than actually going backwards. No wonder the mad USMC liked it. No wonder the mad Fleet Air Arm liked it. No wonder, then, that the Govt have decided to get rid of the FA2s before the new carriers and the F35 come into service....
Instead of Col. Boyd's OODA loop of "Observe, Orient, Decide, Act," we are now operating under the doctrine of Rumsfeld's TWIIBAR loop: "Think Wishfully, Ignore Intelligence, Blunder Ahead, Repeat."