BOYD 2007 WAS A BLAST!
Just returned from the Boyd 2007 conference at Quantico and I have to say that I felt the conference was immensely rewarding on both an intellectual as well as a social level. Dr. Chet Richards and Mr. Bob Howard are to be commended for their organizational efforts in putting Boyd 2007 together with additional thanks to the United States Marine Corps for allowing the use of the Gray Center for the event, which seemed to have been enjoyed by all. If you missed out this year, I highly recommend trying to reserve a slot for Boyd 2008. It’s well worth it.
I thought I would give a review of the conference in two parts and, to paraphrase Colonel John Boyd, ” People and ideas…in that order!”. First the people.
The official conference presenters were outstanding; they included noted authorities on John Boyd, 4GW , COIN and defense policy, such as Colonel Dr. Frans Osinga (Science, Strategy and War), Dr. Chet Richards ( Certain to Win), Colonel T.X. Hammes (The Sling and the Stone), Colonel Eric Walters, William Lind (Manuver Warfare Handbook), Frank Hoffman (Decisive Force: The New American Way of War ), Don Vandergriff (Raising the Bar) and Bruce I. Gudmundsson (Stormtroop Tactics). Robert Coram, the biographer of Colonel John Boyd, was also on hand throughout, signing many copies of Boyd and talking to his readers.
The conference also featured a discussion panel of very distinguished retired generals, General Anthony C. Zinni , Lieutenant General Paul K. Van Riper and General Alfred M. Gray, Jr., the former Commandant of the Marine Corps after whom the Gray Center was named. General Van Riper in particular, impressed me with the acuity of his intellect, though each managed to project some of their formidible personalities that made them influential senior leaders of the American military. Dan of tdaxp saw some of these generals in action up close during a break-out session while I watched William Lind and T.X. Hammes debate 4GW/5GW.
The audience was, as one might expect, heavily populated by military personnel (active, former, retired and SOF in mufti), especially Marines, along with some defense scholars, military contractors, academics from nearby universities, grad students and a scattering of bloggers. Everyone seemed friendly and deeply engaged in the topics at hand; books were signed and business cards and email addresses flew fast and furious in the corridor inbetween the sessions.
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