the id, the ego, & the single misfiring brain cell

company last night, and a welcome home for mark tonight. meanwhile, acsc...

I finally got a school friend to come all the way down here to visit. I've invited a few, but Robert is the first person who took me up on it. We built a fire, sipped wine, talked, then introduced him to the joys of Mystery Science Theater 3000. And there was much rejoicing.

an style="font-size: small;">Shortly, we will deploy for the evening to Mark and Mary's home for his welcoming back from Iraq (and my goodbye to Turkey), where we will stay until morning as we will more than likely have some wine and because it's cold and snowing steadily.

Meanwhile, I'm working on Air Command and Staff College again, with a vengeance.  Concidentally, Jeff is working on Squadron Officer School this weekend. First, here's a sample what I'm wading through (from my notes, but the document this is condensed from reads just like this):

2. Distinguish between the different products, players, and processes of the National-Level Systems.

CJCS: roles are the direct, advice, and assess; (direct) create National Military Strategy (NMS) and Joint Strategic Capabilities Plan (JSCP); (assess/advise) CJCS Risk Assessment (CRA), Chairman's Program Recommendation (CPR), Chairman's Program Assessment (CPA), Joint Strategy Review (JSR), Joint Combat Capability Assessment (JCCA), Capabilities Gap Assessment (CGA); all of these are part of the CJCS's assessment component of the JSPS. (The CPA provides to SecDef the CJCS's personal assessment of the service and defense agencies' Program Objective Memorandums (POMs) and Budget Estimate Submissions (BESs) to influence the Program and Budget Review (PBR). NSS comes from the Pres; QDR from the SecDef; Unified Command Plan (UCP) from Pres; NDS, Guidance for the Development of the Force (GDF) and Guidance for the Employment of the Force (GEF) from SecDef. NMS and JSCP from the CJCS.

Clear, right? Engaging, too.

Here's what he's reading:

As a cadet and later as an instructor at Sandhurst, Colonel Hutchinson well  knew the usefulness of the anecdote in catching and holding the attention of the  young. Who could forget the lesson in this, related at Gondrecourt:

"In my youth I was a dashing ignoramus with clearer ideas than I now have on the line of demarcation between the officer and his men. They sent me out to South Africa during the trouble and I brought a detachment into a country village. It seemed quite unpromising but I was told of a sort of place 3 miles in  the country that you would call a chateau in France. So I cantered out and spent  the night, turning my men over to a sergeant-major. After a refreshing breakfast - long in the middle of the morning - the late middle of the morning - I rode  back into town, but try as I might I could not locate a single one of my men.

"Now nothing, you know, is as ineffective in a war as an officer without his men.  Well, I spent the day in agony and it was not until along at dusk that the first of   the blighters straggled in - quite drunk, all of them, and swearing to a man that  they had engaged in five ferocious battles. It seems that about 2 miles away, in a  barn, they had come on a hogshead of ginger brandy, and had stayed with it to  the bitter end. Need I say that it was a great lesson to me, and that from then on  I was never billeted farther than 15 rods from my men.

"As a matter of fact, I love ginger brandy."

What I want to know is this: What happened to whoever was preparing this stuff between SOS and ACSC? Frontal lobotomy?

Ok. Back to work.

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