“When you are commanding, leading men under conditions where physical exhaustion and privations must be ignored, where the lives of men may be sacrificed, then, the efficiency of your leadership will depend only to a minor degree on your tactical ability.” General George C. Marshall (1880 to 1959) Speaking to the first graduating class of… Read More
“Though the old military maxim that ‘the weakest point always follows success’ applies with especial emphasis to the operations of minor tactical forces, it might more sensibly be rewritten that the weakest point is when the leaders relaxes. This being the natural reaction of troops, there is no safeguard against it other than double vigilance… Read More
“The intelligent leadership of troops, and the ability to appreciate and predict the way operations develop call for firm and precise direction of forces. Any suggestion of the exercise of independent command by junior commanders is unacceptable. Not knowing the general situation, junior commanders are likely to take decisions incompatible with it; and this may… Read More
“It was indeed seldom that [Southern] officers were guilty of cowardice upon the field of battle; but they were often in the wrong place, fighting as common soldiers, when they should have been directing others.” Stonewall Jackson (1824 to 1863) Thomas Jonathan Jackson was a Confederate general in the American Civil War, and one of… Read More
“On occasion a hobnailed kick can advance a faltering skirmish line far better than a stirring appeal to a man’s higher nature.” R.M. Sandusky
“The general must know how to get his men their rations and every other kind of stores needed for war. He must have imagination to originate plans- practical sense and energy to carry them through. He must be: observant, untiring, shrewd, kindly and cruel, simple, and crafty, a watchman and a robber, lavish and miserly,… Read More
“Our means of studying war have increased as much as have our tools for waging it, but it is an essential detail, namely, the necessity for personal leadership.” George S. Patton Jr (1885 to 1945) (as a Major in 1931) George Smith Patton Junior was a US Army officer. He was an outstanding practitioner of… Read More
Boot Camp & Military Fitness Institute 