Content area
Full Text
Many company grade infantry officers have probably never heard of Retired Air Force Colonel John Boyd, his way of thinking, or his contribution to the art of warfare. COL Boyd was a fighter pilot who fought in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam and was instrumental in developing the F-16. Today's battlefield is constantly changing, based more in urban terrain that ever before, and requires a canny ability to deal with civilian populace, command and control decentralized Soldiers, and fight a tough enemy at the same time. Faced with new tactical problems set in the environment of Army transformation, what would an old fighter pilot have to teach us? Simply put, what John Boyd can teach you is how the enemy thinks, how you and your Soldiers think, how to train more effectively, and how to control your tactical environment.
The first time I heard about an O-O-D-A loop was during a war-game, when a major talked about, "getting inside the enemy's O-O-D-A loop." My interest was peaked, and I asked the S-2 and a couple of fellow commanders what he was talking about. No one had a clue. With a little research, I found articles on how John Boyd was the next Sun-Tzu, how many businesses have adapted the O-O-D-A loop to marketing and dealing with competition, and how it has revolutionized Marine Corps tactics. So what was this great idea that had done so much, and how did it apply to me as a company commander? This is what I found: The O-O-D-A loop is the constant revolving decision cycle that the mind goes though every second of every day in dealing with all tasks from mundane to the most complicated. The cycle follows the pattern of Observe-Orient-Decide-Act (Figure 1). This cycle applies to friendly forces, enemy forces, and noncombatants alike. It is how the mind deals with its outside environment and translates what it sees to action.
Let us use one infantry Soldier in Iraq as an example. This Soldier is the number three man of a fire team that is lining up in a four-man stack to clear a room. He is observing his team leader, he checks to see if his weapon is on safe and that his thumb is...