[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We want to avoid this type of engagement. This type of engagement, okay, from a combat situation, obviously we understand what that is, we don't want it. From an individual dealing with another individual, from a leadership perspective,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they don't understand how negative it is. All they're doing, they win! And this is the sad thing, like when you charge that German line and you take 4,000 casualties and you move 50 yards forward and you raise your hands and you say, I won.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Come through with a victory and you stand up and you raise your arms and you say, I won. Look underneath your feet and see what you're standing on, cause you're standing upon your reputation, you're standing on your dead, your dying reputation, you're standing on your, your expended leadership capital, you're standing on top of a, of a wounded relationship. So don't do that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] By enveloping an exposed enemy flank or by denying enemy terrain critical to his goals. We may maneuver by threatening the enemy's lines of communication and forcing him to withdraw. We may maneuver by seizing a position which allows us to bring effective fire to bear against the enemy but which protests, protects us against enemy fires.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We may maneuver in other dimensions as well. For instance, we may also maneuver in time by increasing relative speed and operating at a faster tempo than the enemy. Normally we maneuver both in time and space to gain advantage and ultimately victory at the least possible cost.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And people are just absolutely blind to these ways. And the only way that they feel, it's like they can't recognize


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Anything other than, I'm going to attack you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If I, if I'm not attacking you, then, then how can I win? They don't understand that there's so many other different ways to win. And again, I'm talking about a leadership.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Leadership up or down the chain of command, peer, relationship, whatever. The only way I feel like I can beat Dave is by imposing my will upon him and that's how I'm gonna win. When the reality is that's actually the worst way to win.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's a little, it's a disconnected subject, but I'm going to bring it up anyways, just to make sure it doesn't slip away. One of the things of dealing with another company.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And people talk about, well, how do you, how do you, how do you make someone happy, right? And what lea, what levers can you pull, right? You can pay them more, you can give them less work, you can give them more rewarding, you can give them ownership of things, right? Like that's, so there's, there's like the money and then there's everything else, right? Everything else.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Give people ownership of things, but, and I wrote down the word fate.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because one of the best possible ways you can compensate a human being is by giving them more control over their own fate.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so often this is not used as a lever. And it's a powerful lever. It's not like, it's not like, okay, you know what, I'm gonna manipulate Dave into wanting to do good work.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Again, I guess the reason I thought of this is it's a maneuver that you can use as a leader. It's instead of me barking and crippling my relationship and wounding my subordinate, why not lift them up, improve the relationship, and get them to do what I want them to do? By giving them more control over their own fate.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's one of the hardest things to explain about all this stuff is that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It works when you make a maneuver like that. When I say, Dave, you know, you take more control of your own fate. It works. And the person will do, do step up and do better.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the, and it will be much, much, much better for Dave.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The complete bonus is, is that it'll be much, much, much better for me. And I'm gonna win because Dave is happy. And when Dave's happy, Dave does better work. And when Dave does better work, we do better as a team. And when we do better as a team, I win. Meanwhile, the converse of that is me thinking, nope.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is me, I'm gonna take care of me, and Dave therefore needs to do what I say, and now, guess what? Dave doesn't do as good of work, he doesn't put out as much effort, and Dave and the team doesn't do as well, and now I look bad!


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Next section, exploiting the environment. The use of the efficient, the use of the environment offers tremendous opportunities to gain advantage over the enemy. We must understand the characteristics of any environment where we may have to operate. Jungle, desert, mountain, arctic, riverine, urban.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] More importantly, we must understand how the effects of terrain, weather, and periods of darkness or reduced visibility impact our own


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And our adversaries ability to fight. So this is another one of those statements like we heard on the last podcast where


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You wouldn't think that somebody needs to tell you, you must understand the characteristics of the environment where you're going to operate. Seems like that's super real obvious. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And yet, there it is, in plain English, broken down for all of us idiots. Because so often, we overlook the fact that we're in a different environment or a new environment or an environment that's shifting or an environment that we never even took a good look at in the first place.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Next, terrain. Our objective is to employ tactics that make terrain


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] detect or engage us. We must be aware that the enemy also seeks advantage from terrain.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We must understand that terrain shapes the enemy's maneuver and dispositions as well as our own.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is for, you know how I'm always saying, hey, for the business world, this is not for the business world, I'm about to say. When you're a young leader and you're going to be on the ground fighting army, special operations, Marine Corps, whatever unit you're with.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's, it brings you to the next level. Understanding terrain brings you to the next level. If you don't understand terrain and how to use it and how the enemy's gonna use it, you are a baby.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is like, this brings you into your teenage years. But without, and I believe me, I met, I've met commanders or leaders at every level.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That were babies when it came to terrain. They didn't understand these incredible-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, I'm saying it's like teenage, but at the same time, it's also like masters. If you are good at terrain, if you're good at understanding terrain, it's night and day.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, and it's like what they say about counterinsurgency, right? The decisive terrain in a counterinsurgency is not an airfield and it's not a mountain and it's not a beachhead, it's the people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well guess what the decisive terrain is in an organization, in a business? It's the people. All day long.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's the decisive terrain. So what you have to do is you have to get those people on board with the program. So in a counterinsurgency, what you have to do is you have to get the local populace to support what you're doing. What do you have to do in a business? You have to get the local populace, the people that work for you on board with what you're doing. That's the decisive terrain. So you've got to know what that terrain consists of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it is equally important as the terrain, the high ground that you might see on the battlefield. The other part of this is the moral terrain.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where are you at morally? And I had this conversation with the CEO that was complaining to me that there was bad, that actually this was two CEOs in a row. They were both complaining about


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Competitors that were very good at lying about them and their products.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, there's, there's, you know, this other company which is slightly bigger than ours, and every time we do something, they're, they're putting out bad propaganda, they're lying about us, and it, but it gets traction.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then I saw the same, another company, same thing. And you know, it gets brutal.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It gets brutal and you know you can watch the news and you can watch politicians on the news and you listen to what the two sides of, of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of the two different parties are saying and they're completely like there's no possible way that that they


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That there's, that they're even close to any middle ground, right? They're saying completely opposite things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that's what these companies deal with. Companies do the same things. They will straight up lie about what another company is doing. And


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What's the defense against that? Well, the defense is that you have the truth. And if you have the truth and you don't weaponize it, you need to weaponize it. That's what I ended up telling both these CEOs. You need to weaponize the truth. You need to get the truth out there. You need to go on the offense with the truth. You have the high ground, but you're sitting there letting someone drop


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Drop lie bombs on you, that you're gonna sit there and you're gonna be in the combined arm dilemma, cause you're gonna come out looking, looking bad.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh wait a second, you might not lose, you might not lose immediately. You might win the big, you might win the tactical battle. You might win that with some lies and some cover up for sure. You can win that way. That long term.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Gives a little example here. Lieutenant Harold Kaiser of 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment knew how to use terrain to gain an advantage. In November 1950, his company was ordered to seize a key piece of terrain at Tok Tong Pass during the march out of the chosen reservoir area.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Lieutenant Kaiser had only 20 marines left in his platoon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Weather. Adverse weather. Heat. Cold. Rain. Impedes combat operations. Actually, I...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'll say this. You know what we used to say when it was raining?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We'd say good operating weather. Cause it is. Cause guess what? When it's cold and it's raining, guess what your sentries are doing?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The sentries that you're trying to sneak by, they're inside their little guard hut, they got their hood pulled over their head. So, impedes combat operation, sometimes you can use it to, you can often use it to your advantage. The military unit that is best prepared to operate in these conditions will gain advantage over its opponent.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] During the breakout from Trojan Reservoir in November 1950, Marines demonstrated time and time again the ability to use harsh weather to their advantage over a deter- determined enemy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The assault of Abel Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, on Hale,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is such an example. Despite visibility of only 25 yards, the company was able to coordinate a combined arms attack and envelop this key piece of terrain that blocked the breakout of the 1st Marine Regiment. Using a snowstorm to mask its movement, Abell Company surprised and annihilated the Chinese defenders, thereby opening a route for the rest of the division.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If we are to use weather to our advantage, we must train and prepare rigorously to operate in all climatic conditions. We must be able to operate our equipment and employ our weapons effectively in hot, cold and wet environments, literally in every climb and place.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know what I like about weather when it comes to comparing these leadership principles is that it's just unpredictable. Unpredictable, and you can't control it, and it's this random thing that you know, which, which, which hits every, you know, every company, every business, every leadership situation, there's things that you, you just, you can't control.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So what do you do? You figure out how to mitigate, you plan, you...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You have contingencies for these situations, and as you can see here, you train to be prepared for them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Darkness or reduced visibility. Units that can operate effectively during hours of darkness or periods of reduced visibility often gain significant advantage over their opponent. Reduced visibility can make the simplest of tasks difficult to accomplish. This obvious disadvantage can be turned on its head and used to our advantage


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Great gains against a force that cannot or will not operate at night. Operating during periods of reduced visibility creates tempo by adding another 10 to 12 hours to the day for fighting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The psychological impact of night fighting is also great and can produce significant rewards.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So what does that translate to? That translates to, look at what is hard.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For your competitor and what's hard for you and your competitor and then get good at it. Just get good at it. Suck it up and get good at it. Yeaah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A good example of tactical impact of night attacks was found in the battle for Okinawa during World War II. Marine forces were essentially stalemated by the presence of a strong Japanese defensive line in the coral ridges of southern Okinawa.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] After days of ineffective attacks by the 7th Marine Regiment, the regimental commander elected to attack under cover of darkness. At 0330 on 12 June 1945, the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 7th Marines advanced using a road that intersected the ridge as a guide.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The Japanese defenders were not used to US forces attacking at night. The use of darkness allowed the Marines to occupy positions along the crest of Kunishi Ridge literally without firing a shot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] From these positions, the Marines dislodged the enemy from their entrenched positions and moved onward until the Japanese defenders were annihilated.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So you train to get good at something that the competitor's not good at, and then you execute on it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or you just sack up and execute on something that you, you know, they're not gonna expect this one. So let's bring it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Complimentary forces, complementary forces, the idea of fix and flank are an important way of gaining an advantage.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The idea behind complementary forces is to use our forces as a nutcracker. We seek to crush the enemy between two or more actions. Consider the case of an enemy rifleman firing from behind a tree.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If one marine fires from the front, the enemy rifleman is protected by the tree. If the marine maneuvers and attempts to fire from behind,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The enemy rifleman merely moves to the other side of the tree to maintain his protection. However, two marines can place our opponent in a dilemma. One can fire from the front while the other sneaks around and fires from the enemy, fires at the enemy from the flank or rear.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The opponent is now vulnerable to one or the other of the two Marines. He cannot use the tree for protection against both. Flank, flank, flank, flank. Cover and move. Cover and flank.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The idea, the same idea applies to air to air tactics. Did you just get?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A flight of fighters splits into two or more elements beyond air to air missile range. They approach the enemy aircraft from multiple directions and varying altitudes. No matter how the enemy aircraft moves, dives, climbs, turns, or twists, it is exposed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How often I always, whenever I think of you and Top Gun, I always think of you one on one against one other person. That's not the way the game is played? Occasionally is it played that way?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, large being how many aircraft? On one side.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Would you guys be sitting up there, so you guys every time that carrier air wing came through to do a deployment, they'd come through and fly against you guys?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Did you guys psychologically let them start to do better at the end or would you just destroy them the whole time?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Wait, you say air wing against air wing? Yea, so. Would they go against themselves?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So this is, this is like the exact same thing that I ran, right? It's, hey, I've got some seals, and we have some other role players that aren't quite in trade at, but they're just whatever, and they're gonna come and help out, and it's, it's our, and we simulate enemy tactics, and the, and exactly as you just said, if the seals that were going through the training, if they did what they were supposed to do and they executed the tactics,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They would win. They'd be successful. They would, they would take casualties, it would be hard, but they would win. And as a matter of fact, if they were really good, they would dominate. Yea, they would, right. Like if you had guys that decentralized command and prioritized and executed simple plans, and people covered and moved them, they would actually, they would actually dominate.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That you trained in was you were at least with the wingman, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A little bit disappointed that this is the first time I'm hearing from this for you cause this is like full on covered move as I like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As I say, when I talk about comfort movement, I say, well, once the enemies killed my partner, what are they gonna do to me? Like, it's bad for me. Like, if it's you and me, and once they kill you, like, that really sucks for you, but guess what? It's gonna be just as bad for me, because they're coming for me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Are you voluntarily, is that a guy that goes, oh you know what, I can take this guy over here. Is that what creates the raging


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Did you hear Jim Kunkel talking about being his P38 and he calls break break, which means, Hey, we got to break off and go attack. And there was loss of comms or whatever. So he just breaks by himself. Yeah. And sure enough, I mean, he took out some bad guys, but then he got taken out because he was, you know, got maneuvered on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it can be implemented in a variety of combinations, limited only by our imagination.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Surprise. Achieving surprise can greatly increase leverage. In fact, surprise can often prove decisive. We try to achieve surprise through deception, stealth, and ambiguity. I like that one. Never really thought too much about that. The fact that ambiguity can create surprise. You're not really sure what I'm gonna do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ambiguous. War is based on deception, stated Sun Tzu.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We use deception to mislead our opponents with regard to our real intentions and capabilities. By employing deception, we try to cause our opponents to act in ways that will eventually prove prejudicial for them. We may use... You know what's, you know what's awesome about these books? And this is very interesting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is like the ultimate, uhm, the ultimate in lack of ego. So, you know who wrote this book?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The United States Marine Corps. Some, a marine, yeah. But you know what, there was probably four, seven, I don't know, there was something like that. There was a guy, and there was one of those guys that was really on it. There was one of those guys that he was the old dog, and he was like, hey listen, let me, you know, you can write the chapter, but let me tell you what you need to hit. There was a guy that was like that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you don't, we'll never know who he is because the Marine Corps, he was a Marine. We know that and that's all we need to know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So he wrote that line right there. This eminently qualified Marine wrote eventually that by employing deception, we try to cause our opponents to act in ways that will eventually prove prejudicial for them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We may use deception to mislead the enemy as to the time and location of our pending attack. We may use deception to create the impression that our forces are larger than they really are. We may.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We hope the enemy will realize this deception only when it is too late for them to react. Marines have often relied on deception to mislead an enemy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] State of the situation which necessitated an extensive deception operation. We're taking on 11 Iraqi divisions with two marine divisions. Our force to ratio, our force to ratios are, our force ratios are horrible. We don't want him to know that. The Marines created Task Force Troy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 460 marines imitated the activities of a 16,000 man division using loudspeakers, dummy tanks, and artillery and helicopters conducting simulated resupply.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Surprise can be generated through stealth. Stealth is used to the advantage when maneuvering against the enemy. It provides less chance of detection by the enemy, leaving him vulnerable to surprise action for which he may be unprepared.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Marines may also employ stealth by lying in wait for an approaching enemy, an ambush. The ambush is perhaps the most effective means of surprising opponents, especially at the lower tactical level where surprise through stealth is easiest to achieve.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We also, we can also achieve surprise through ambiguity.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It is usually difficult to conceal all our movements from the enemy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But we can sometimes confuse him as to the meaning of what he sees. Sun Tzu said


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The enemy must not know where I intend to give battle. For if he does not know where I intend to give battle, he must prepare in a great many places. When he prepares in a great many places, those I have to fight in any one place will be few.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ambiguity was central to the tactics of World War II German blitzkrieg.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] An attack in Blitzkrieg involved multiple thrusts with reinforcements following whichever thrust were most successful.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The multitude of thrusts created paralyzing uncertainty because the opponent could not determine which constituted the real attack. There was nothing secret about the German attack, but it was ambiguous on a massive scale.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's like, it starts off with the opposite of the concentration of effort, which is sort of one of the fundamental principles of war. Concentration of effort.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, we're gonna mass our efforts, we're gonna concentrate our efforts, we're gonna focus our efforts. Well, what we're doing with Blitzkrieg is we're actually gonna spread that out, initially, and then once we see a gap,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Delta platoon tasking a bruiser. Seth Stone. JP. The crew.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They, it was like one of the early times that they did, uh, like a deception.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then an overwatch and then a flanking overwatch. It was literally called like the flank overwatch. So they had a main overwatch and they had like a little flanker position. But I remember Seth calling me up and he was so happy because what happened was as they started killing bad guys, the other bad guys


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The guys would set up an Overwatch position and start killing people, then the bad guys would bring it. And eventually you'd get a, not really a clandestine Overwatch position, but a reinforced fighting position is what most of the Overwatches in the Battle of Ramadi turned into.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But, but this, on this one, I remember the first time that they did this, and it was, you know, Seth was all excited, he was like, they gave up, they didn't know what was happening, they didn't know where they were getting shot at from, it was...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They just left the dead and let them bleed out and just got away because they were totally overwhelmed. As you just described, they did not know what was happening.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And same thing with, with Charlie did it too. The first time, well, I don't know if it was the first time, but when they started using boats.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where we're all of a sudden in areas, you know, Charlie Pattoon showing up in areas where the enemy had no freaking idea that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Americans would be in these spots and be able to engage them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What's happening? What can be happening? Why are my friends getting killed right now? How is this possible? It's possible.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Trapping the enemy. Modern tactics is based not on pushing the enemy, but on trapping him. Another excellent way of gaining advantage. Trapping is the desired result of the application of combined arms, fire maneuver, or complementary force tactics. Why do we want to trap the enemy instead of just push him?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A pushing contest is seldom decisive. The side that is pushed out comes back the next day, still full in the fight. We have to fight him again and again. Unfortunately in Vietnam, many of our battles were pushing battles. We were always able to push the enemy off the ground he held and to inflict casualties on him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He just withdrew, regrouped, placed his losses, replaced his losses and came back to fight us again.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The result was a series of indecisive actions and a seemingly endless war.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] However, if we can trap our enemy, we have a better opportunity to win decisively. You know, this is, you know, from a leadership perspective, what we're doing here,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Recall how Roman legions were trapped at Cannae or the German divisions at Stalingrad.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Trapping gains advantage by disrupting the enemy's mental process while he attempts to think through the dilemma we have placed him in. Trapping allows us to gain and maintain our initiative as the enemy is forced to react to our actions. It can also temporarily undermine the enemy's will to resist.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, I would say this, when it comes to, because obviously trapping and destroying from a leadership perspective has a bad connotation. So what am I trying to do by


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, very simple tactic that I use all the time. By trapping someone,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you and I are having a conversation about something and I trap you, when I trap you, my purpose isn't to prove that I'm right. The way I trap you and the way that I win in a leadership situation is when I trap you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Guess what? If we can have a civilized, ego-removed conversation,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That plan will percolate. The good plan, the correct plan will percolate to the surface. And that is what we're looking for.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm being driven by my own insecurities. I wanna prove to you that I'm right, that you're wrong, that my plan is better than your plan. I am completely being driven by my own insecurities. The person that is secure


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And is actually confident and, and understands that they're in a good spot and understands that it's okay. Like, if, if, if I make a mistake that I'm not, it's not the end of the world and I'm a human and I'm not trying to portray the fact that I'm not a human. It's like, oh okay, if we can get there,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In, in, in fluorescent colors. They stand out like Kurt Lee's vest in the Chosen Reservoir battle. Fluorescent orange.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you might as well put a label on your forehead that says, I'm super insecure. That's why I'm trying to force my will upon you because I'm scared and I'm insecure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you think that you can cover that up, you are so wrong. So don't.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A good example of trapping from the Vietnam conflict occurred during Operation Dewey Canyon. North Vietnamese activity along the Loatian- the Loatian- South Vietnamese border increased dramatically in early January 1969.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Large enemy convoys, including armored vehicles, regularly traveled from Laos into South Vietnam, threatening friendly units.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The North Vietnamese forces moving along Route 922 from Laos into the Aisha Valley. We've heard that before.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're trapped between the three battalions. The North Vietnamese were mauled as a result. Their equipment losses were staggering.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] More importantly, Operation Dewey Canyon destroyed a North Vietnamese base area and so disrupted their logistics that it forced them to abandon their planned spring offensive in I-Corps area.


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[Assistant] Developing an ambush mentality. Perhaps the most common tactical tool for gaining advantage is the ambush. All marines are familiar with an ambush as the type of combat patrol. In maneuver warfare, ambush takes on a much broader meaning and the development of ambush mentality is integral to maneuver warfare tactics. The ambush mentality is not new to most of us.


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[Assistant] We may have employed the ambush mentality in sports. In football, the trap block is an ambush.


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[Assistant] movements down the trail. We position our weapons so as to concentrate our fires into a kill zone and to seal off exits, forcing the enemy to remain subject to our fires. The squad in the squad waits in position until signaled when they immediately respond with concentrated sustained fires on enemy forces trapped in the kill zone.


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[Assistant] The enemy, surprised into inaction, unsure of what to do or where to move is annihilated.


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[Assistant] Fires are maintained until all the enemy are killed or until signal to stop. That is the ambush mentality. Pretty straight forward. Unless you're a SOG guy and then you set your claymores up in such a method and you put a block of C4 that will stun the person right in the ambush.


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[Assistant] Because, was it Lynn Black? I think it was Lynn Black that blew himself up over and over again until he found out how much C4 it took to knock him out.


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[Assistant] No you don't. The ambush mentality tries to turn every situation into an ambush.


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[Assistant] The ambush mentality tries to turn every situation into an ambush. In this broader context an ambush has several distinct features. First, in an ambush we try to surprise the enemy.


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[Assistant] Think of a patrol that we ambush. Our enemies are walking through the woods when suddenly out of nowhere they are under fire from multiple directions. They are taking heavy casualties. The psychological impact of a surprise may paralyze their thoughts and actions, leaving them incapable of reacting effectively.


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[Assistant] To have an ambush mentality means we always try to surprise the enemy to do the unexpected surprise is the rule rather than the exception. Rather than the exception.


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[Assistant] Second, we want to draw our enemy unknowingly into a trap. This will often involve deceiving him. We make one course of action appear inviting. When he takes that course of action, we are waiting for him.


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[Assistant] Third, an ambush is invisible. If the ambush is not invisible, it ceases to be an ambush and instead becomes a target for the enemy.


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[Assistant] Whether we are defending or attacking, the enemy must not detect us until it is too late for him to react. Surprise often depends upon invisibility. That invisibility may be provided through stealth and movement or in focusing the enemy's attention elsewhere to allow our forces to maneuver without detection. You know the big, uh, coming home from Ramadi when I, I broke this down.


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[Assistant] Hey, we want to be an office and I would ask these young junior officers that would be coming through the officer training course that late was running at the time. I'd say, Hey,


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[Assistant] Is a direct action mission, an offensive mission, of course they'd all say yeaah. And I'd say, okay, it takes us, and this was a direct action mission, it takes us an hour to get to the target.


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[Assistant] And then we spend 20 minutes on the target, we blast the door open, we clear the target, and then it takes an hour to get back. You know, patrol and then humvees and then we're back. How much of that time was offensive? And then the guys would think about it. The sharp ones would say,


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[Assistant] Three minutes, and they'd be right. Cause when you're patrolling, guess what? You're waiting to get ambushed. And, and believe me, this is when we got to Ramadi.


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[Assistant] I did not like the idea of us waiting to get ambushed.


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[Assistant] Of course you can't avoid them, you have to go on patrol, you have to get out, you have to move through the city, but I couldn't, what I didn't like was the ratio of, hey,


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[Assistant] You know, two hours of patrolling, three minutes of offense. I didn't like that ratio. I like the ratio of an hour patrolling.


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[Assistant] 24 hours on offense and then another hour of joint. That's what I liked. And that's kind of what we shifted to.


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[Assistant] And when you hear it in a business context, in a leadership context, it sounds...


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[Assistant] It sounds like people, uh, echo brings up this example of, well that's just the way I am. You know, and what I hear from, from leaders, you know, uh, you know,


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[Assistant] I gotta have a direct conversation with this person and tell them what's going on. Look, I get it that sometimes there's an occasional point, but most of the time?


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[Assistant] There's a way to maneuver that's gonna make that whole situation infinitely better than you're a direct assault on their brain.


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[Assistant] Again, harder and may expend ammunition and we get a worse relationship. There's two, two things I kind of have to say cause I just, I've said this before, but.


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[Assistant] Cause I just got asked this. I was kinda talking through the exact scenario that we're talking through with the company. And, you know, isn't, you know, the hand went up in the back of the room. Isn't that just manipulation? And, and it's like,


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[Assistant] Well, let me tell you what I think the difference between leadership and manipulation is, because they both use the same tools.


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[Assistant] Manipulation is when I'm doing what I'm doing to benefit me.


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[Assistant] Our life better. The team's life better. And most importantly, I actually want, when I manipulate you, Dave Burke, I'm manipulating you, and everything that I'm doing, every maneuver that I'm making happen to you, I'm doing it, and it's gonna benefit your life way over me. For sure. Way over me. That's exactly right. And when you look up, in my best


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[Assistant] When we have a strong bond we know what that pressure does to us. It makes it even stronger. Get some.


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[Assistant] Back to the book. The reverse slope defense is an example of using invisibility to spring an ambush. The enemy does not know where you are until he comes over the crest of a hill and is hit by our fires.


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[Assistant] His vehicles are hit on their soft underbellies. His troops are exposed to our weapons because he could not see us until the last moment. He could not call in artillery fire on our position. The reverse slope not only protects us from his direct fire, it protects us from his observation and thus his indirect fire.


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[Assistant] That is part of the ambush mentality. Do not let yourself be seen.


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[Assistant] Fourth, in an ambush we want to shock the enemy. Instead of taking him under fire, gradually with a few weapons at long range we wait until he's within easy range of us with every weapon.


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[Assistant] We then open up suddenly all at once with everything we have. He is paralyzed by the shock. He cannot react. Everything was going fine and suddenly he's in a firestorm with people falling all around him. Often he will panic, making his problem worse as he reacts rather than acts.


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[Assistant] Combined arms may be used to ambush the enemy. Artillery raids that reach deeper into his vital areas than expected can produce the same desired shock effect as ground-based ambush. We place him in a dilemma as he attempts to move from the effects of artillery and goes right into attack by the air. Finally, in the ambush mentality, we always focus on the enemy.


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[Assistant] The purpose of an ambush is not to hold a piece of terrain, just to destroy the enemy. We used terrain to effect for the ambush, but the terrain itself is not what we're fighting for. Alright, next section, asymmetry.


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[Assistant] Fighting asymmetrically means gaining advantage through imbalance, applying strength against enemy weakness. Fighting asymmetrically means using dissimilar techniques and capabilities to maximize our own strengths while exploiting enemy weaknesses.


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[Assistant] Fighting asymmetrically means fighting the enemy on your own terms rather than on his. By fighting asymmetrically we do not have to be numerically superior to defeat the enemy. We only have to be able to


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[Assistant] exploit his vulnerabilities. For example, using tanks to fight enemy tanks,


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[Assistant] Infantry to fight enemy infantry and air to fight enemy air is symmetrical. Using attack helicopters to fight tanks and close air support against enemy infantry are examples of fighting asymmetrically. In these examples we gain advantage.


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[Assistant] Ambushing tanks with attack helicopters and terrain which hampers tank maneuvers provides an even


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[Assistant] More effective, even more effective, generates even more advantage. This is the, the,


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[Assistant] So important for people to think about. Okay, jujitsu.


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[Assistant] If we're going against a, or fighting, I should say. If you're going against a boxer, do you box him? No. You take him down. If you're going against a wrestler, what do you do? You strike with him. Cause they're not used to striking.


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[Assistant] If you're going against a jujitsu person, what do you do? You punch them. You stay standing. You don't go into person's, what the person's good at. You don't want to fight them in their own game. If you watch the early UFC's, that's why everyone lost to jujitsu.


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[Assistant] Cause, take down, you didn't see Horace Gracie standing in there and trading blows, no. He went asymmetrical. That's what you do. Obviously it's what you do on the battlefield.


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[Assistant] When we get into leadership, when we get into relationships, if I've got someone that's got a strong, passionate idea about something, I am not going to attack that idea with my passion and my strong feeling.


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[Assistant] Because now all we're doing is creating conflict between us. This is not improving my position.


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[Assistant] It's actually strengthening their position because they're digging in deeper.


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[Assistant] Get them thinking. So often, so, so often, so, so many of my solutions for leadership is all I'm trying to do initially is create, is, like, uh, some, and you've heard me say this, Dave, I say, ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba, and now you've started a conversation.


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[Assistant] Cause that's what I want. Right. Because if I'm not in a conversation with someone, then there's no possible way I can convince them anything. Right? If all I'm doing is attacking them, they're not gonna be convinced of anything. So I, I do this, that, and the other thing, and I make a couple maneuvers, and now I'm in a conversation, and the conversation probably has nothing to do with the subject that I'm eventually going to, going to change their mind on.


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[Assistant] Yeah, where do we end up tactically when we engage in conflict? Sure, we're beating this dead horse. Sure, we might win that conflict. But where do we end up strategically? Because we dove into that conflict head on. We've heard a trustworthy relationship.


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[Assistant] Indeed. Here's the conclusion to that chapter. Combat is a test of wills where the object is to win.


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[Assistant] A skilled commander seeks victory from the situation and does not demand it of his subordinates.


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[Assistant] Yes. And I know you've heard me talk about dictating the situation.


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[Assistant] As opposed to letting the situation dictate. But what?


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[Assistant] What kind of ownership are you taking as a leader if you say, you know what, I'm


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[Assistant] I'm gonna set this situation up in such a way that


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[Assistant] That victory will come not from, not from my troops and what they do, but just by the situation I put them in, they are going to win.


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[Assistant] We are going to win because of the situation I put you in will be guaranteed victory. That's a skilled commander.


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[Assistant] Hit hard and keep right on hitting. Give the enemy no rest, no opportunity to consolidate his forces and hit back at you.


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[Assistant] Called the father of amphibious warfare.


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[Assistant] Fought in World War I and led Task Force 56 in the battle of, little battle called Iwo Jima.


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[Assistant] And again, what's scary about reading quotes like this?


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[Assistant] Hit quickly, hit hard, and keep right on hitting, give the enemy no rest, no opportunity, consolidate his forces, and hit back at you. What does that say to someone that's predisposed to go on the attack? This is the quote they've been waiting to hear.


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[Assistant] You know, you were just talking about conflict avoidance, and the person that, that thinks, hey, you know what, you're just trying to avoid conflict, Dave, I'm gonna roll with Holland Smith, General Smith's outlook, which is I'm gonna hit hard and hit quickly, and I'm gonna keep right on hitting.


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[Assistant] He will have to be as light of foot as he is quick of thought. Mobility.


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[Assistant] Is needed most in all class of arms. So there you go. There's the counter. There's the dichotomy to Holland Smith's. Mobility is needed most of all in a class of arms. Swift and agile movement plus rapidity and intelligent tactical flexibility are its true essentials. Coming from John A. English, who is a Canadian, actually a Canadian army vet. Known for his


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[Assistant] Studies. So here we go into the chapter. Usually to think of weapons means to think of a personal rifle or pistol, the unit's machine guns and mortars or the aircraft's missiles, bombs or guns. A logistician may realize that weapons include trucks, bulldozers and excavators. Some Marines overlook one of their most powerful weapons.


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[Assistant] One that creates advantage for infantrymen, aviators, and logisticians equally. That weapon is speed.


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[Assistant] Speed in combat. How is speed a weapon? Think of sports again. The breakaway in hockey uses speed as a weapon.


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[Assistant] By rapidly passing the puck down the ice, one team denies the other the chance to get set up on defense. Speed circumvents their opponent's ability to respond in an organized manner. The fast break in basketball seeks the same result. In two or three passes, the ball is down the court and the basket is scored, all before the opposition can react.


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[Assistant] The results of speed often reach beyond the immediate goal. How many times have we seen a score, a team score on a fast break, steal a ball as it comes in bounds, immediately score again, and even a third time, unable to regain their composure, the victims of the fast break become the victims of a rally.


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[Assistant] The victims lose confidence, passes go astray, signals become crossed, tempers flare, arguments ensue, the rally becomes a route, the beleaguered players see certain defeat, they virtually give up while still on the court. And you know, as I was thinking about that section, when you, if you watch basketball and like a fast break and then another fast break, what does the coach do?


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[Assistant] The aggressive, hard-hitting tactics of General Holland Smith proved to be singularly successful in defeating


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[Assistant] General Smith, who we just quoted, and what's he doing with those hard points of resistance? He's bypassing it. He's bypassing it. Long indoctrinated.


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[Assistant] With the value of speed in amphibious operations General Smith's bypassing tactics place the Japanese remaining


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[Assistant] The Japanese remaining in their fixed defences at an extreme tactical disadvantage. These tactics proved very effective in isolating and reducing the Japanese defense. General Smith's use of speed served as a force multiplier and it also reduced marine casualties. The British Royal Air Force bested the Germans during the Battle of Britain.


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[Assistant] In World War II, in part because they were able to speedily recover, recover their downed pilots, return them to base, place them in a new aircraft, and have them fighting again in the afternoon.


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[Assistant] Down German pilots were less easily recovered and the Luftwaffe had fewer of the long range aircraft required for replacement. Eventually pilot and aircraft losses forced the Germans to end daylight bombing and resort strictly to relatively ineffective night attacks. Yeah, the Brits were getting shot down over Britain. Right. Or at least close to Britain.


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[Assistant] Like you get shot down and then they're just bringing you back to base, putting you in another aircraft, you're gonna go get some more. Yep. The Brits are a horror grace of people.


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[Assistant] Resilient man. Yeaah. Being out there on an island. Yeaah. Being attacked by the Nazi war machine. Whatever. Bring it. Bring it.


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[Assistant] Nathan Bedford Forrest told his secret of many victories, get there first with the most men. General Patton said in 1943, when the great day of battle comes, remember your training and remember above all else that speed and violence of attack are the sure road to success.


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[Assistant] History's great commander, commanders differed in many ways, but one thing they shared was a sense of the importance of speed.


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[Assistant] When they captured the operations officer of the Grenadian army, he said to them, you appeared so swiftly in so many places where we didn't expect you that it was clear that resistance was hopeless. So I recommended to my superiors that we lay down our arms and go into hiding. That is what speed.


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[Assistant] Used as a weapon can do for you. What is speed?


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[Assistant] What is speed would seem to have a simple answer. Speed is going fast. This is the speed we think of when driving a car. More miles per hour. That's part of the answer.


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[Assistant] That is part of the answer in tactics as well. We use speed to gain initiative and advantage over the enemy.


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[Assistant] Like you just talked about, your plane is faster. For example, when a tank battalion attacks, it goes over ground as fast as it can. General Balkh asked whether the Russian tanks ever used terrain in their attacks against him during World War II. He replied that they had used terrain on occasion, but more often, they used speed.


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[Assistant] The question followed up. Which was harder to defend against? Balk answered. Speed.


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[Assistant] Physical speed, moving more miles per hour is a powerful weapon in itself. On our approach to the enemy, speed and movement reduces reaction time.


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[Assistant] When we are going through him and around him, it changes the situation faster than he can react. Once we are past him, it makes his reaction irrelevant. In all three cases, speed impacts on the enemy.


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[Assistant] Especially his mind causing fear, indecision and helplessness. Remember, attacking the enemy's mind is a central tenet of maneuver warfare. I might even call it the primary tenet.


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[Assistant] And there's a vital difference between acting rapidly and acting recklessly. There's your dichotomy coming at you live.


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[Assistant] Speed and time are closely related. In fact, speed is defined in terms of time, miles or kilometers per hour. In tactics, what this means is always of the utmost importance. Time cannot be spent in action.


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[Assistant] Uhm, cause I'm sure that we push back on that comment. Sometimes you do have to, and I've talked about this before, I've gone on a plane and been like, uh, I'm done. I'm done. My brain is fried. I need to watch the dumbest movie I can watch and rack out. And in fact, I sleep on planes beautifully.


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[Assistant] I can sleep on planes beautifully. If you see me on a plane, guess what? I probably got up at 2 o'clock in the morning to get a workout and before I got on that plane, I'm gonna go to sleep. Come talk to me when we land. But,


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[Assistant] Even when we are engaged with the enemy, we are not always moving fast. Some of the time we are not moving at all. Nonetheless, every moment


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[Assistant] A battalion staff that takes a day to plan an action is obviously slower than one that takes an hour. A tank battalion that takes three hours to refuel is slower than one that takes two hours. Just as one that must refuel every hundred miles is slower than one that must refuel every two hundred.


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[Assistant] A company that sits down to eat once it is taken the objective is slower than


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[Assistant] The company that presses on deeper into the enemy. A fighter squadron that can fly only three sorties per aircraft per day is slower in terms of effect on the enemy than one that flies six. A maintenance repair team that can take two days to fix a damaged vehicle and get it back into action is slower in terms of effect on the enemy than one that can do it overnight.


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[Assistant] Every moment is still of utmost importance. Making maximum use of every hour and every minute is as important to speed and combat as simply going fast when we are moving.


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[Assistant] It is important to remember every, it is important to every member of a military force, whether serving on staffs, in units, aviation, combat, service, support, ground, everyone. A good tactician.


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[Assistant] We are always saying to ourselves and others faster, faster, we know that if speed is a weapon, so is time.


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[Assistant] You and I were with a client and we were talking about this and one of the problems that this particular client had was they felt like they couldn't create a sense of urgency.


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[Assistant] So, so, so like you're saying, some people had it at the point. They said, how do we create a sense of urgency? So for those of you that are wondering how to create a sense of urgency with your people, the way that you do it is by making sure they understand why they're doing what they're doing and why it's important. And the example that I gave was if you have a seal platoon and.


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[Assistant] And I would see this situation unfold in training exercise. You've got a seal platoon and they've got a perimeter set up, meaning they're stagnant there. Maybe they're doing a reorganization of ammunition. Maybe they're getting a head count. Maybe they are working on a wounded guy or something like that. So they're in a stagnant position. They've got their 360 degree security set up.


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[Assistant] And all of a sudden someone sees enemy maneuvering on them. And now the leader.


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[Assistant] And guys, you know, one guy's like, hey man, we just got here, I'm tired, I'm just trying to sort out my ammunition. Someone's else is saying, hey we got this wounded guy, he's unstable, I need to get him stabilized. And someone else is saying, well hey, we're trying to still get a full head count over here, you know, let me, let me just get a, get a handle on my fire team. That's what they're all thinking.


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[Assistant] That seal platoon commander can't understand why no one will move. And so he says it again, hey everyone, we're leaving, we're leaving in 30 seconds. And what happens? Say, everyone thinks the same thing they just thought 30 seconds ago.


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[Assistant] Which is, I'm not going anywhere, I got the, I got my gear out, I'm sorting ammunition, calm down. The lieutenant's freaking out again. Why can't he create a sense of urgency?


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[Assistant] The reason he's not effectively creating a sense of urgency is because he's not explaining to his people why they need to move. So when he says, when a good leader says, hey everyone,


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[Assistant] So when you want to create that sense of urgency, when you want to get people to understand,


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[Assistant] The importance of time and that we never waste time and that we feel guilty if there were, if we're idle and that we have a constant sense of urgency. If you want to make that happen, explain to your people why they're doing what they're doing and why urgency and speed is important in that particular situation.


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[Assistant] We employ speed and use time to create tempo. Tempo is not merely a matter of acting fastest or acting at the earliest opportunity. It is also a matter of timing. Acting at the right time.


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[Assistant] Timing requires an appreciation for the rhythm of combat so we can exploit that rhythm to our advantage. It is physically impossible to always operate at peak tempo, like we just talked about. Sometimes you gotta take a breather.


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[Assistant] Even though we can extend operating cycles through the economical re- use of resources, we cannot operate at top speed indefinitely.


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[Assistant] We must rest our people and replenish our supplies. The test of skill is to be able to generate and maintain a fast pace when the situation calls for it and to recover when it will not hurt us.


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[Assistant] Timing means knowing when to act, and equally important, when NOT to act. You gotta know when you can take a little breather.


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[Assistant] Speed is an important tactical weapon. There are situations in which it is better to bide our time. If our concept of operation involves a diversion, we need to allow time for the diversion to take effect.


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[Assistant] If we have laid an ambush for the enemy, we need to give the enemy time to fall fully into the trap. If the situation is still forming we may not, we may want to develop it further before we commit to a course of action.


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[Assistant] So, this is a big one and I'd see this happen with young seals. Where...


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[Assistant] They would immediately make a decision before, and we would actually say it to them. Say, hey, you gotta let the situation develop. Those are the words that we would use. Let the situation develop. And sometimes you have to do that.


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[Assistant] Yeaah, I mean I always had that problem. But I personally always had that problem. Cause no one wanted to tell me.


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[Assistant] Hey, we need a break. Like, you know how many times Leif Babin came up to me and said, Hey man, I could really use a breather. Or JP, JP came up to me and said, Hey, hey boss, can I get some downtime? Zero. The amount of times JP said that to me is zero. It's zero. So,


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[Assistant] And are there times when he absolutely needs downtime? Oh yeaah. Cause he would burn the candle at both ends. He would, he will do it now. He doesn't care. He's gonna go get some.


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[Assistant] So, yes, as a leader, you need to be able to recognize those things because they're not always going to say it to you.


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[Assistant] A benefit from a decision not to act is that it saves precious resources and energy for later commitment. Some leaders dis- dissipate their units energy on constant, un-prioritized activity.


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[Assistant] Not all, not all activities support the mission. A unit's energy is not easily replenished and should be treated as a precious resource to be expended only toward decisive goals.


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[Assistant] Relative speed. Going fast and making efficient use of time are both parts of the answer to the question, what is speed? However, something else must be considered. The enemy.


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[Assistant] As with all things in war, speed is relative. Speed is meaningful militarily, only if we are acting faster than the enemy. We can do that either by slowing the enemy, or by increasing our own speed.


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[Assistant] In the battle for the Falkland Islands in 1982, the British Army moved slowly. The terrain was difficult. The weather was abominable.


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[Assistant] Nevertheless, the British still had the advantage in speed because they moved faster than the Argentines, who, once they had made their initial dispositions, essentially did not move.


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[Assistant] To be consistent, superiority in relative speed must continue over time. It is not enough to move faster only, faster than the enemy only now and then. Because when we're not moving faster, the advantage of the initiative passes to him.


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[Assistant] Most forces can manage an intermittent burst of speed but must then halt for a considerable period to recover between bursts. During that halt, they are likely to lose their advantage.


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[Assistant] One way to sustain speed is to use the effects of combined arms when the infantry or mounted troops must break contact temporarily to maneuver, resupply, or recover. Air and artillery can keep the pressure on.


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[Assistant] Maneuver cannot be sustained indefinitely, but the momentum can be maintained through skillful planning, combined armed effects, keeping the enemy always at a disadvantage.


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[Assistant] What's interesting and what's cool is, you know, as American military people,


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[Assistant] We always were the biggest and the strongest and the most powerful, right?


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[Assistant] What's cool about Echelon Front is that we work with, like,


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[Assistant] Paranoid. The one that is thinking, you know what, I'm an insurgent, if I don't, if I don't attack that big company, they're gonna put me under. I'm not gonna let it happen. Those are the ones that step up.


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[Assistant] It's a, it's a tough feeling to live with. And I say that speaking from personal experience, like, you know, and I've, no, I've told you and the team that's like, Hey, you guys want to know why I don't sleep? Because I'm paranoid of what's going to happen. We need to bring our a game every day, the day that we take a step back, the day that we're not putting, putting, putting forth absolute best.


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[Assistant] Is the day someone else out there is gonna get a little foothold. I will not allow that to happen. It will not happen. Cause we're on the war path over here.


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[Assistant] Speed and change in order to act consistently faster, consistently faster than the enemy. It is necessary to do more than move quickly. It is also necessary to make rapid transitions from one action to another. While there are many types of transitions in combat, it's important to remember that the transition


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[Assistant] Transitions produce friction. Reduction of friction minimizes the loss of tempo that the friction generates at the point of transition.


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[Assistant] A unit that can make transitions faster and more smoothly than another can be said to have greater relative speed.


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[Assistant] In Jujitsu, I know that I learned one of the, one of the really powerful lessons that I learned. I learned from watching my old coach, Fabio Santos.


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[Assistant] I was watching him train, this was when I was probably a white belt or a blue belt, but I was watching him train with one of the, you know, one of his purple belts, one of our purple belts that we had at the time. And I was watching him and, like for instance,


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[Assistant] As the guy put him to guard, he was passing the guard. So he did not allow, he was just ahead on tempo. He was just slightly ahead. Like, I'm not waiting for you to settle in position. No, that's not happening. I'm actually going right now.


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[Assistant] So that is a good attitude to have in everything.


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[Assistant] In the 18th century the importance of fast transitions, sometimes called agility, was displayed when shifting from column formation into line. If an army could not rapidly deploy into line,


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[Assistant] Rapidly. The faster these transitions can be made, the more effective the force becomes.


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[Assistant] From patrol movement formation to ambush posture. From defensive posture to attack. From one maneuver to another and so forth. The transition involves simply positional changes and drills.


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[Assistant] But also changes of attitude in the minds of marines. We must shift our mental focus from one movement to another.


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[Assistant] So here's, here's one of the things that I did with my platoons, with my task units that was super effective. When it came time to do an assault,


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[Assistant] And, and some guys would really set up a specialized assault formation. Okay, since we're doing assault, okay, we're gonna put the, they would make these changes to their formation. And I would...


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[Assistant] This whole change in the way we're gonna form. So we're gonna do an assault. Okay, cool. Charlie Pattoon, you're on assault. And you got one squad from Delta. Everyone's in the same, same patrol formation. Everything's the same. But you, but you're gonna do the assault.


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[Assistant] Okay, cool. I'm not saying, okay, we're gonna take these breachers and we're gonna put these, we're gonna set up these special overloads. No, no, no, no. Everything's the same. And by the way, what happens when we get hit and, you know, things start falling apart? Everyone's with the unit, the little element that they're used to working with.


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[Assistant] And we're, we got unit integrity all the time. That being said, because you can't guarantee that, I would always rehearse and train like we would go out on the beach and do


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[Assistant] Blender drills, what we call them, blender drills on a, on my platoons. Like we'd run blender drills, no one, it'd be just every, it'd be every person would be in a different position. So everyone got used to, okay, what do you do? What's the protocol that you do when you're all jumbled up? Here's the protocol, you look around, if you look around and there's no one making a call, grab four guys, you're a fireteam leader, make something happen. Go.


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[Assistant] So between those two things, between being ready for the chaos and the disorganization, because we train that way, and always


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[Assistant] To the best of the, the best that I could possibly pull it off, hey, we're gonna keep our normal formations. Like when this talks about


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[Assistant] Patrol formation, ambush posture, defensive posture, all those postures for me.


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[Assistant] In my task unit, in my seal platoon, they were the same. There's no confusion. Like this is what's happening. Occasionally would you have to, would you have to take a little sniper helmet and pull him out or you'd have to do something? Occasionally, yes.


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[Assistant] I would train to the point that they could handle it if it happened, but the thing is it just wouldn't happen when you're that, when you're that used to being in that position. So, the weird thing about this,


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[Assistant] Is you might, is this gave us total freedom? Because we could assault from a totally different direction.


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[Assistant] I can say, oh yea, by the way, that looks like it's a secure, uh, looks like there's a guard up there. So we're gonna go in from the other, we're gonna go in from the south. And nothing changes. Everyone's, everyone's fine. We're still in platoon integrity. This is just, no changes. So that's a little trick that I used.


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[Assistant] It was, and I'm trying to think, imagine in my mind right now.


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[Assistant] What the driving force that makes people want to.


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[Assistant] Specialize for a particular part of an operation. The reason that I think we want to do it is because it seems from a broad perspective. No, no.


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[Assistant] And there's a chance that they're right in that particular smooth operation where nothing goes wrong.


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[Assistant] You remember what you were saying earlier about the stealth fighter, about how you used, even though you had the stealth fighter, you had all this advantage, you still, like, did the fundamental things correctly. And that's...


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[Assistant] Exactly what I did, so I would have my guys trained up where it didn't matter what person from TU, you take four guys from TU Bruiser, five guys from TU Bruiser, one of them was gonna step up as a fireteam leader and start making something happen. That's the way it was gonna be.


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[Assistant] So I had the capability, really, to mix and match people and set up a target assault however I wanted to. But...


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[Assistant] Aviators achieved a high kill ratio of about 10 to 1 over their North Korean and Chinese opponents. At first glance, this is somewhat surprising. The main enemy fighter, the MiG-15, was superior to the American F-86 in a number of key respects. It could climb and accelerate faster, and it had better sustained turn rate.


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[Assistant] The F-86, however, was superior to the MiG in two critical, though less obvious, respects. First, because it had high-powered hydraulic controls, the F-86 could shift from one maneuver to another faster than the MiG.


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[Assistant] Second, because of its bubble canopy, the F-86 had better visibility. The F-86 better field of view provided better situational awareness and also contributed to the fast transitions because it allowed its pilot to understand changing situations more quickly.


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[Assistant] Because of its bubble canopy, the F-86 pilot had better visibility.


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[Assistant] The better field of view provided better situational awareness and contributed to the fast transition because it allowed the pilot to understand changing situations more quickly.


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[Assistant] What, the way that translates when you're not in a cockpit?


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[Assistant] Is it translates into detaching from the situation, taking a look at what's going on and actually being able to see what's happening. What do you see? What do you actually see? And if you see what's happening, then you can react faster.


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[Assistant] You can make those transitions happen quicker. That's this massive advantage that you can have. And the amount of people that I know that do a good job of detaching and taking a step back is a very small number.


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[Assistant] Another thing, so the other thing that you had is these high-powered hydraulic controls. Okay?


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[Assistant] Which allowed you to transition quicker. You know what stops people from transitioning mentally from one thing to something else? It's... What it is, is it's there you go.


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[Assistant] It's their ego thinking, hey, I actually know what's happening and I'm not looking at, I'm not seeing anything else because what I think is happening is what's happening. I have so much confidence in myself and I think I'm right, so this is what, hey, I think the enemy's coming in from over there. Okay, cool. And I'm not thinking that I could be wrong.


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[Assistant] So those are the two kind of advantages that we can have.


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[Assistant] In, in the F-86, in our, you know, you might not be as smart as your other, someone else. You might not, you might not have the cognitive capacity, you might not have the charisma that someone else has, but if you can detach, and you can actually be humble enough to assess honestly what's going on, void of your own ego clouding your, your vision,


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[Assistant] Yes, that's a tough combo to come up with. The person that can- has the vision and then that can- can-


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[Assistant] Impart that division, that vision, but, and that means implicitly that you have to translate that vision to various types of people that are inside your organization.


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[Assistant] And it is definitely a challenge. And, of course, the dichotomy to all of this is, if...


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[Assistant] You know, strategically in jiu-jitsu, we want to get the top position and we want to dominate that position and we want to


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[Assistant] Submit the person. If we don't defend the choke, we're getting choked. If you don't make it through this quarter, you're right, that's good. You had a good strategic vision and you, can you lose tactically and lose strategically in doing so? Yes, you absolutely can. You absolutely can.


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[Assistant] You can not pay attention to what's going on right in front of you and you can, you can end up getting destroyed.


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[Assistant] There was a 10 to 1 ratio. It wasn't a 10 to 0 ratio. No, that's right.


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[Assistant] Back to the book. American pilot developed new tactics based on these two advantages. When they engaged the MiGs, they sought to put them through a series of maneuvers. The F-86 faster transitions between maneuvers gave it time advantage.


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[Assistant] The pilot transformed into a position advantage. Often when the MiG pilots realized what was happening, they panicked and thereby made the American's job even easier.


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[Assistant] These tactics illustrate the fast, the way fast transitions contribute to overall speed and to a time advantage. The importance of the time and speed in a broader sense has been brought out in the work of John Boyd, a former Colonel in the US Air Force.


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[Assistant] That where numerically inferior forces had defeated their opponents, they often did so by presenting the other side with a sudden unexpected change or series of changes. The superior forces fell victim because they could not adjust to the changes in a timely manner. Generally defeat came at a relatively small cost to the victor. This research led to the Boyd theory,


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[Assistant] Which states that conflict may be viewed as a time, as time competitive cycles.


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[Assistant] Of observation, orientation, decision, action, the OODA loop.


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[Assistant] First, each party to a conflict enters the fray by observing himself, his surroundings, and his enemy in tactics that equates to the adaptation


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[Assistant] The adoption of a hunting instinct, searching, actively looking, hunting for the enemy, and seeing what is he, what he is doing or about to do.


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[Assistant] It also includes anticipating the enemy's next move, getting inside of his mind. Second, based upon these observations, the combatant orients.


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[Assistant] To the situation that is produces a mental image of the situation and gains situational awareness. This awareness becomes the foundation of which to erect a plan. Generally, better the orientation, the better the plan.


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[Assistant] Next, based on this orientation, the combatant decides upon a course of action. The decision is developed into a plan that can be disseminated among subordinates for their planning and execution. Last, the combatant acts.


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[Assistant] Or puts the decision into effect. In tactics, this is the execution phase where the decision or plan is implemented.


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[Assistant] Since this action has changed the situation, the combatant again observes beginning the cycle anew. This is called the utero.


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[Assistant] The Boyd theory helps to define the word maneuver. It means being consistently faster than our opponent.


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[Assistant] As our enemy observes and orients on our initial action, we must be observing, orienting, deciding and acting upon our second action as we enact our third, fourth and fifth mood by the time


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[Assistant] But the time gap between our actions and our enemy actions increases, increasingly widens. The, our enemy falls behind in a panicked game of catch up. He tries to respond to our penetration. We attack his reserves and his command and control. He counterattacks with his mobile reserve. We bypass with helicopter-borne forces. Everything he does is too late.


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[Assistant] Thus, the military answer to this question, what is speed, is not simple. Nonetheless,


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[Assistant] It is central to every aspect of tactics. As General George Patton said, in small operations, as in large, speed is the essential element of success. We should also exercise caution so as to not confuse


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[Assistant] Here comes the dichotomy. We should also exercise caution so as to not confuse speed with haste.


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[Assistant] General Patton made this observation. Haste and speed. There is a great difference between these two words. Haste exists when troops are committed without proper reconnaissance, without the arrangement for proper supporting fire, and before every available man has been brought up.


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[Assistant] The result of such an attack will be to get the troops into early action, but to complete the action very slowly.


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[Assistant] Speed is acquired by making the necessary reconnaissance, providing the proper artillery support, bringing up every available man and then launching the attack with a predetermined plan so that the time under fire will be reduced to a minimum. So there's a dichotomy. Always there's a dichotomy.


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[Assistant] Check. Becoming faster. Now we see clearly the importance of speed. We want to be fast. How do we do it?


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[Assistant] We start by recognizing the importance of time.


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[Assistant] As leaders of marines, we have a responsibility to make things happen fast. Our sense...


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[Assistant] We must work to create and build that sense within ourselves.


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[Assistant] Once we have it there are a number of things we can do to increase speed. First,


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[Assistant] Simplicity promotes speed. Complexity slows things down.


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[Assistant] Our staffs, large staffs may be one of war's greatest consumers of time. Our command and control and our own actions.


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[Assistant] So this is why, if you saw my task unit going to assault something, they were in the same formation, they were always in. Or damn close to it.


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[Assistant] Second speed is increased through decentralization.


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[Assistant] Decentralization is an important concept in the execution of maneuver warfare. How do we achieve decentralization


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[Assistant] While still maintaining control, we use two main tools.


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[Assistant] To provide that required, to provide the required control of the effort and the decentralization of its execution. These tools are mission tactics and commander's intent.


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[Assistant] Mission tactics is the assignment of a mission to a subordinate without specifying how the mission must be accomplished. It is a key tenet of maneuver warfare. In mission tactics, the higher commander describes the mission and explains its purpose. The subordinate commander determines the tactics needed to accomplish the task based on the mission and the higher commander's intent.


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[Assistant] In this way, each leader can act quickly as the situation changes without passing information up the chain of command and waiting for orders to come back down. Speed is greatly increased by this decentralization process. According to John A. English and his work on infantry, decentralization has been one of the most significant features of modern war.


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[Assistant] English wrote, in the confused and often chaotic battlefield environment of today, only the smallest groups are likely to keep together, particularly during critical moments. In such circumstances, individuals rally around their leader who, armed with the knowledge of the purpose or intent behind their task, can lead them toward success.


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[Assistant] Decentralized command. The fourth law of combat. And I often describe it, even though it's last, it's certainly not least. You need to have the others in place to effectively execute decentralized command. There has to be a simple plan. You have to have a team that's gonna cover and move for each other. You have to know what the priorities are.


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[Assistant] And the way you get decentralized command is not by explicitly giving ev- You know, there's a-


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[Assistant] Decentralized command and maneuver warfare in America. What we started doing was we started adding the commander's intent to like the last slide of a brief.


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[Assistant] And so, commander's intent, going back to the book and then I'll wrap back to that. The commander's intent provides an overall purpose for accomplishing the task assigned through mission tactics. Although the situation may change, subordinates who clearly understand the purpose


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[Assistant] So in this, this German was looking at the way that we're planning and the Germans, you know, they're the ones that kind of pushed forward with this idea of


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[Assistant] Mission, mission tactics and commander's intent and really decentralized command. But he, he would see the commander's intent at the end of a brief. There'd be th-


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[Assistant] A hundred slides, a hundred PowerPoint slides in a brief, and then the last slide would say, hey, the commander's intent of this operation is to blah blah blah. And this German said,


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[Assistant] That last slide can actually replace this entire brief.


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[Assistant] What is it that you want me to do? You just spent a hundred, you just spent an hour telling me all the different ways you want me to do something. All I need to know is what is it you want me to do? Why do you want me to do it? And I'll go make it happen.


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[Assistant] You know, it's a good converse to that question when you ask the subordinates, Hey, do you want your subordinate? Do you want your boss to, to, to fix your problems for you? And of course they all say yes. Another way you could broach that question with an equally


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[Assistant] How to actually accomplish what it is that they envision. They have no idea how to operate that piece of equipment. They have no idea how to program that piece of software. They have no idea of any of those things. And so, same answer.


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[Assistant] It's like, yeah, that seems like a good, it seems like what I want, but that's not what you want. What you want is subordinates, you want decentralized command where everybody leads, everyone solves problems, everyone's moving towards the unified vision that has been clearly stated by the boss of what the commander's intent is. That's what you want, that's how you run an organization.


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[Assistant] You would think that that would be what everyone would be striving for and you would think that in striving for it, it would come to


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[Assistant] Go and run the operation. Let Seth Stone go and make it happen.


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[Assistant] And yes, do I train them to get ready for that? Absolutely. Do I build a relationship so I trust them? Yes. Do they understand where I stand? What the parameters are? Do they know how much they're allowed to maneuver? Do they know what line they should never cross? Yes, they do.


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[Assistant] And that allows me to say, yeaah, go get some. You go, you know what you need to get done. Go make it happen.


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[Assistant] And by the way, it's not just Leif and Seth. There's other elements. It's Andrew Paul. Andrew Paul, go run operations. The other assistant platoon commanders, Mike Cerelli, go run, go make it happen. Can't run. How am I gonna run five operations at the same time? I can't.


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[Assistant] So that's what you do. That's decentralized command. Back to the book, a third way to become faster is through experience. Experience breeds speed. Experience gives units advantages over less experienced units. This is why veteran units are usually much faster than green, untried units. If we


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[Assistant] Are familiar with the situation or at least know generally what to expect. We can think, act, and move faster. Little overlay.


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[Assistant] In peace time, our marines are not likely to be combat veterans. Still, we can give them experience through tactical decision games and sand table exercises, war games, field exercises, and rehearsals. These and other forms of training help reduce the stress and confusion of combat.


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[Assistant] Another way in which experience helps us become faster is through the use of implicit communications. Implicit communications are mutual understandings that require little or no actual talking or writing.


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[Assistant] For example, two company commanders know each other well. They think alike because their battalion commander has established standard operating procedures and has schooled subordinate commanders in approach to war. This is exactly what I was talking about. Seth and Leif. Those guys know there's implicit communication. They don't need to ask me. They know. Thus the company


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[Assistant] Trying to pass words or messages back and forth over telephone radios. There are so many things that


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[Assistant] From the way that they behaved on the battlefield, the way they behaved on liberty, everything. It was like, okay, well there's a lot, like when I just said there's a line that they know, they knew what that line was. They knew what that line was.


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[Assistant] We were at one of the musters. We were done. I think it was the San Francisco muster. Maybe. But anyways, we were having our debrief.


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[Assistant] Jamie, who is our director of operations, who is the logistician behind the muster who handles everything that's happening and it's completely decentralized. But we get done with the muster and of course everything was just impeccably run from


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[Assistant] You know, if someone has to wait in line for 15 seconds to register, we get, like that's a failure, right? So,


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[Assistant] So when we got done, we're in this room and I, like, I could see and, you know, people were coming up to me saying, this, I've never been in an event that was run this smoothly. They're not even talking about what they learned. They're just saying, how is this thing run so smoothly? And how is everything so professional? And how is every little thing that, that occurs


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[Assistant] Perfect. You know, so, so we get in this debrief room and, and you know, and what I said was, I said,


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[Assistant] To Jamie and Jen, who, and Lin, the kind of, the powerhouse of Trio.


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[Assistant] Everything that happens at the muster is a complete reflection of our company of Echelon Front. If we can't run a smooth check-in, then who are we to be advising people, you know, as to how to run an organization?


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[Assistant] And the fact of the matter is, so I never said that to them, and yet they, the, the team, the Echelon front team, the volunteers as well, everyone that shows up, they go to the nth degree to make sure that everything is smooth, to make sure that everyone, and,


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[Assistant] Is like, oh, this will be the best thing that everyone, anyone ever goes to. That is the standard. Now, I never said that to her. She knew 100% in her soul, that's how we roll. If there was a question between, hey, you know what, we can, we can save, we can make this a little easier on the volunteers or we, or on the, on the, uh,


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[Assistant] The thing that she knows that the team knows that the rest of her, which she implied that right down to her whole team. Cause you know, she's got 20 people there that are working for her. And they all have the same mindset, which is,


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[Assistant] We will do everything to the nth degree. Hey, will we make mistakes? Absolutely. Will we drop the ball sometimes? Yes, we will. But when we drop that ball, we will pick it up, we will recover it, and we will run that thing for a touchdown.


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[Assistant] And make it up to the person that, you know, whoever was affected. So that's like a classic example of...


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[Assistant] Implied communication. I don't need to tell you.


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[Assistant] Hey, we're gonna show up early for the, for the people that we're working with tomorrow. You don't need to hear that, right? Like this is just a known thing. That's the way it is. Like you said earlier, you're not showing up saying, you know what? I don't really have time to prepare, so I'm just gonna kinda wing it today. Like that's not happening. That's not what we're doing.


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[Assistant] And so those kind of implied things, and Leif has great examples where he was making decisions and making calls, and I never said to.


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[Assistant] But you know, you come back and say, hey, this was happening, this is what I did. But I'd be like, yeaah. And he'd say, well yeaah. I didn't need to call you and say, hey, what do you think we should do here?


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[Assistant] You know, and this is because the trust, the relationship, then you're right, that does take time to build. And what's really scary is when people


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[Assistant] When the trust isn't there, when the relationship isn't there, and people start trying to guess what the implied communication was, I thought you would've wanted me to do that.


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[Assistant] And that's something that I did. So, so I would have guys that would come, let's say roll through.


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[Assistant] When I was a platoon commander, I was a task unit commander, someone might roll through and go out on an operation here or there. And they didn't, they thought they knew me. Or they thought they knew Leif. And all of a sudden they'd make a move out there on the battlefield and you go, oh man.


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[Assistant] That was not a good move, and clearly I did a failure to let them know that this was not what we're doing.


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[Assistant] Our fault as leaders because we didn't make it explicitly clear. Hey, here's what's going on. Here's how we, here's why we don't do that. Here's why we don't.


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[Assistant] Fire warning shots from, from an Sniper Overwatch. This seems like a, this seems like a obvious thing. You know? And Leif sitting in a platoon brief.


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[Assistant] You're warning people that don't know we're there. This doesn't make sense. But you know what happens. And that particular thing happened. And again.