Patterns of Conflict
| The works of |
| Works of John Boyd |
|---|
OODA WIKI Edition
Quantico Transcription
Knowing that then, it raises a question, and this is— but how do the German concepts of mission, schwerpunkt fit into it? In other words, how do they shape this whole thing? So let’s get to that. Firstly—
[Cross talking]
Audience: Colonel Boyd? Does the German army still have the same concept today?
Boyd: Mike may know that better. I’m not too sure.
Wyly: What’s the question?
Boyd: That’s a good question. I don’t know that answer.
Audience: Does the German army today have the same concept that we’re talking about?
Boyd: I think some of them do.
Wyly: They’re trying to get it back. There’s been kind of a controversy in the Bundeswehr, very much like the same one we’ve had here. And I would say they’re closer to this than they were five years ago.
Boyd: They’re trying to get it back.
Wyly: They’re having a very similar debate to what we’ve had. They lost a lot of it.
Boyd: Yeah, we won World War II, so they want to do it our way. You know how that goes. Wyly: That’s right. And now they’re gaining it back. So I’d be reluctant to comment and say yes, it’s exactly like it. In fact, no, they don’t have this whole thing thought out as Colonel Boyd’s thought it out, by any means.
They’re somewhere in between us and the old World War II German Army, in a word. There’s a big—
[Cross talking]
Boyd: I wish I would’ve given it.
Wyly: Some things you do notice. Let me tell you one thing I have noticed, talking to German officers and getting [unintelligible]. This is why I’m interested in this. One thing that they have not done, it appears to me to the extent we have, is put this extreme emphasis on rank and seniority that we have.
That is, their juniors seem to be much more willing to enter into debates with their seniors, and their seniors don’t think it’s strange. Now we do it, but you watch the human dynamics, and we put, I think, an inordinate amount of importance on rank and seniority. That’s one thing I don’t notice that they’ve done.
But that’s— as I say, I don’t want to get off on— it’s a good question. It deserves a long answer and probably some trips over there but—
Boyd: Yeah, and I haven’t talked to Von Lousar [PH]. I know that they were trying to get it back. I just didn’t know where they were. But I haven't talked to Von Lousar for a few years, because he was back in Germany. And then, of course, I had some problems last year so I didn’t get to get [unintelligible]. So that’s why I said to let Mike answer the question. I just don’t know right now.
Wyly: But the general staffers, they had to go underground again. The general staff was— [Cross talking]
Audience: —and all that.