Savagery, Survival and the Bell Curve

Savagery, Survival, and the Bell Curve.

Freud had it backwards

Fig 001

Sigmund Freud’s quest to understand abnormal behavior missed the part about normal behavior.   Freud also established the myth that all human behavior is death oriented.  IMHO says that life is.  His “wish world” is the Real World.  Religion of his day is ideology of today.

Normality Defined.  What the hell do you mean by normal? 

The exact measure of what is normal, consider all the people you have met in family reunions, marriages, funerals, Thanksgiving and Christmas, may including the office party.  Choose a value or standard you feel applies and arrange all of them into rank ordering depending on the measure you chose.  The Middle Two Thirds is Normal. The statistical term used is the normal “bell” curve. 

Fig 002

If the value you measured could be assigned to each and everyone in the group, the sum of those values (income, weight, IQ, or EQ) divided by the number of individuals is the Mean (also called arithmetic average).   The normal “range” of what was measured can be measured by how tight the shot group is, and this value is called a Standard Deviation, which in management speak is Sigma.  They give “Black Belts” in Six Sigma which six accounts for 99.72% of the cases.

IMHO uses two Sigma or two Standard Deviations in the middle to define “normal”. That equates to 62.68% on the chart above.    Four Sigma gets you 95.44% of the total.  Six Sigma (Black Belt) gets 99.72% of the cases. 

Simply put, there are two thirds in the middle and one sixth at each end.  Saints at one end, Sinners at the other. .

Fig 003

Pareto’s Law

Normal Curves as above are called “two tailed” distributions.  Pareto’s Law deals with “one tailed” distribution which holds that 80% of the results come from 20% of the causes.  Thus 80% of the hours come from 20% of the causes.  80% of the crimes are committed by 20% of the criminals. 

The “normal” curve applied to everyone in the middle two thirds (Two Sigma) commit 20% of the crimes. One Sixth commits 80% of the Crimes (Sinners) and one Sixth commit no crimes (Saints).

Fig 004

Normal people don’t run for President, nor even any work that takes time and effort away from survival (Food & Family, Roles, Rules and Tools) and a normal way of life.  They are neither Saints nor Sinners.  In any group focused on a problem, only one in six gives a damn.  Of them, only one in six will read the mail. Of them, only one is six will go to the meetings, and one sixth of them will run for office.

Statistical Significance.

This goes to the “so what” category.

Fig005

 It doesn’t matter what is being measured, so long as it is statistically significant (it’s not a accident of collection or errant definition).  In short, small samples don’t mean much like four out of five hitmen prefer 9mm if only five hitmen were asked.  Then there is the definition of what is a hitman.

One and one equal two only if one and one are equal.  The sum of one banana and one apple is two fruits?  If matters what to who how high the water is, or how deep?  Bridges and boats differ. 

Circular Error Probability (CEP)

For those in the Field Artillery or combat aviation the CEP or Circular Error Probability is given as the odds of a target getting hit by a round or its fragments. Also known as a shot group. 

Fig006

 Likewise, it is of fair importance that one knows the CEP of incoming rounds.   The German 88 Flak gun in an anti-tank role was a deadly threat to whomever rode in the valley of the deathly open space. The 88 had a very tight CEP and the MG 42 too for a light machinegun.

Images from the East Front

Fig007

What is Normal Habitual Behavior?

The term “culture” is too politically correct for the warrior or wannabe warrior when killing the bastards is all that matters.  The tricky part is making the bastards out of habit do something stupid.  Sometime you want to corner them, other times to split them up.  Sometimes you want to make them charge, and sometimes you want to make them run, and sometimes you want them to quit.   Sometimes you want them to switch sides. 

Sun Tsu said that wining without fighting is the best.  Given that fighting without winning appears to be more often than not, perhaps this knot should be untied.

It all goes to the normal spread (middle two thirds) which may include the middle stamp out the ends.  The sum of our behavior goes back to the very first cell division back whenever.

From the Movie "Pulp Fiction" opening scene

Fig008

Pareto’s Law and the Alpha.

The one sixth that does eighty percent of the results themselves fall under a smaller normal curve either one or two tailed.  In nature there are animals called “alpha” who get the eighty percent of the attention, food and/or sex.  They are more aggressive, more territorial, and more jealous of perks. It is the Alpha that drives action.

Mind Over Body

Ontogeny recapitulates Phylogeny on Purpose:  The choices made at each bifurcation of the genealogical tree are, so says IMHO, neither random nor mutation.  Life, instinctively is for living, not dying.  The attractiveness of the alpha who gets the food, gets laid.  The will of the giraffe resulted in making a longer neck to reach the top branches.  This, of course, takes a continuity of effort. 

The behavior of trained animals can be through selective breeding produce breeds of very different characteristics.  Natural selection leverages that capacity to change as applied by the will of the bred.   

Likewise, the adaptation to a high level of trauma also marks the DNA with reactive action.  Most warm blooded species hate the cold blooded.  The horse that shies from a bitty snake, is a reflection of the time when they weren’t so bitty.

PLAY as Survival Training

The young of most species often display the record of choices made in the genealogical past as the individual grows.  Consequently, Play is training for roles to come. 

Fig009

 In vertebrates the decision to mate in made by the female of the species based on an evaluation of the suitability of the male’s probability of producing viable and competitive offspring.  

The “suitability factor” as analyzed by the female often defies analysis, which any of my three ex-wives can note, that IMHO is clueless. Normally it is the male of the species that sports extra visual cues, while the female is often camouflaged to fit in the normal back ground.   The song and dance that males have to do is often quite extraordinary, but some mating rituals are synchronized.

Fig010

Often the attractiveness of the male is through demonstration of attractive skill sets as often demonstrated during “rutting season” when the males compete for attention and for dominance a proof of a need to breed.

Fig011

The males in some species meet the rest of the herd, flock, or gang only during mating season, then they go off and do “guy things”.   Some animals are really strange about that.  This showing off of the mating ability of the male often extends to combat, mock or not. 

Fig012

One of the basic rituals to show competitiveness or suitability goes to showing the ability to Feed. The Dinner and a Date also extends to “doing lunch” and the meal prepared for guest of honor or on the occasion of a big meeting.  Such is often the sum and substance of a day well spent.

 

From the UPORFA Conference in Buenos Aires

Fig013

The Psychological Roles necessary to demonstrate the capacity to Feed and Breed, goes to that of the Mother, Father, and Child.  The mother nurtures, the father protects, and the child is dependent on both.  In some species, the statistical probability of infant survivability is achieved by long gestation, by redundancy (lots of kids), and by effective combat skills, attitudes, procedures, tactics, and techniques.

Fig014

Fig015

Habits and Habitual Behavior.

 Normal behavior (two Sigma) then should be called “habits” of any given group set.  In sex, war and politics.   There is a resistance within the Warrior and Bellicose Creed that utterly hates any reference to culture as too politically Correct, Homo, and/or Coffee Break poppycock.

 If, however the Warrior is also a Hunter, then the concept of the habitual behavior becomes important.  One needs to know when and where the prey feeds, breeds, and/or hides out.  The study of enemy doctrine and task organization is exactly the same as studying where fish, fowl or reindeer are so they can be your lunch or trophy.   

This goes to what IMHO calls F4F and consists of the basic structure of habitual behavior aka culture: Food and Family, Roles, Rules, and Tools.

Fig016

Tools include techniques, skills, equipment and so forth. The selection of Tactical Imperatives in a physical confrontation is a way of analyzing survival behavior, human and/or animal. The Vertical axis of the Tactical Imperative menu is the parts of the being or groups anatomy that is used in combat. This includes the brain, nervous systems, vision, hearing, voice, lungs, guts, legs, arms and fists.  The horizontal axis is a simplified set of modes, stimulus and response which when activated is like a four dimensional Pachinko game.

Fig017

Normal hunting behaviors involve both offensive and defensive (stimuli and response) in a single maneuver.  The lion is evading detection by lowing the profile in the grass.  The Impala in the second frame has successfully evaded the clutch of this old one eyed lion.

Fig018

The social value of being able to bring in the dinner enhances the image of the hunter in the soul of the diner.  Symbolically, the human species is still tied to the dinner-date ritual, but other features that add to the attractiveness of the male to the female.  As for female wiles, a wink and a wiggle turns the hero into a blank dot. 

Group behavior of many species have collective as well as individual skill sets for the purposes of being the diner instead of the dinner.  Or at least avoiding being lunch.

 

Fig019

METT-TH

The Military Decision Making Process (MDMP) should include Technology and Habits to make it METT-TH.  Time belongs under terrain as weather is already there including BMNT and time to do the mission is already in the Mission Statement.  Habitual behavior applies to all the other factors including Mission.  The enemy’s doctrine and doctrinal templates are in fact a study of enemy habits. 

This changes the old acronym by adding technology, and expanding civilian considerations to include all habitual behavior, even ours

Body Over Mind, Usually

In the normal course of living, it is habitually Body Over Mind that drives everyday choices.  Reason only interferes with habit when there is a choice or decision that can be consciously noted, identified, and/or measured.  This goes to steak vs chicken, regular vs unleaded, beer vs wine, buy or to buy which is the question. The rest is run by habits coded within the DNA that also cues behaviors at selected points in the growth and experience of the individual.  Like puberty and senility.

Central to understanding habits of one or many includes an understanding of the Roles necessary to nurture and protect the young.  These, in vertebrates include Father, Mother and Child. Since the child is not up to speed, they become the favorite food for predators.  The psychological habitual roles play are summed up in Transactional Analysis as the urges to Rescue and Protect the Victim (child).

Thus the psychological drama triangle developed by Dr. Karpman is the rotation of roles even when there is neither victim nor villain.     

Fig020

The dramatic roles two pairs of three, defense and offense can be played by a single person with neither villain nor victim.  It is only necessary to create the illusion of a villain or a victim.  This is the heart and soul of politics of the one and of the many.  

Stamp Collecting – Victim to Victimizer

Each time a role is switched with another player, the player gets an emotional “Stamp” certifying the proper buzz (high or low).  Charlie as player gets 3 victim stamps while Lucy gets a Manipulator stamp. Charlie then trades the 3 victim stamps for one dump stamp which can be traded in for depression stamps, rage stamps, and murder stamps.  A skillful player can play this on one hand.

Fig021

The Rescue or Protection of a Victim is the favorite pastime of politicians and a motive for murder, mayhem, and war.  The common phrase heard in the courthouse, is that the defendant is the victim (defense) which justified offensive measures such as murder, manipulation, and madness. There are few political arguments that do not include defending children as the ultimate objective of Candidate Foghorn.    It is the fundamental justification used by Jodie Foster in Elysium:

Fig022

As the justification for shooting down two ships filled with the sick from earth. 

The Rules

Each species, group, herd, tribe, clan, pod, or flock has sociological rules to govern habitual behavior to facilitate successful Roles in order to Feed and Breed (Food and Family).   Most of these behaviors are the net result of DNA coded instructions, which instructions require integration of local circumstances.  IMHO had divided a model of these Rules into two sets: Social Standing and Relations with the Physical World: 

For a Templar set of Rules they include:

Fig023

And a different set for the Saracens:

Fig024

The arm and hand signals used in these illustrations was developed by IMHO to avoid another acronym with eight wordy values to one in which uses the hands in open discussion with those who need to know.  

Fate is what is called “sources of authority” in political science.  In WW 2, surrender pamphlets dropped on German troops had to look official and be signed by an authority like Ike and/or Monty.  

Fig025

WW 2 Propaganda is filled with examples of how the habitual behaviors of a culture could be leveraged to do or do not do something that supports allied objectives.  These go straight to the Food and Family biological imperatives by leveraging the Roles, Rules, and Tools of one side or another.

The Salacious and the Savage

 Two Step Bullshit.  Leveraging Roles, Rules and Tools back to Food and Family Is the hallmark of WW 2 propaganda leaflets, like the “safe conduct” above.   Themes and Symbols are the alphabet of Psychological Operations. The selection and design of themes and symbols are directed at specific target audiences, the most effective being the Two Step Bullshit which is used when the Decision Makers cannot be touched, but who are approachable to someone you can reach effectively.  

Fig026

The NVA and VC military efforts in South Vietnam had failed by 1969 with their forces in Cambodia moved north to Laos.  The VC local guerilla forces under COSVN had been consumed by superior firepower of the Allies in Vietnam.  Some say that that the NVA objectives included annihilation of COSVN (Central Office of South Vietnam), the government of the Viet Cong. 

Fig027

Communist efforts to seduce the drafted US soldiers to switch sides failed utterly.   So the draft dodgers and cowards on campus elevated treason to a virtue.  This was classic Two Step Bullshit which eventually reached Congress which pulled the plug and snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

Fig028

Who’s Laying Her Now? 

This is a famous Nazi series dropped on US troops, The Girl You Left Behind

Fig029

In addition to someone else getting yours, the price you pay is for someone else’s profit.

Then there is the heartstrings approach of what happens to the Family with you gone.

Fig030

The emotion that the Germans wanted was that the GI would either quit or slack off fighting Germans.  The Grand Prize is to get the enemy to switch sides as indicated in the VC pamphlet. This goes to legitimizing the enemy as a real friend.   Machismo helps.

Fig031

This requires leveraging the Rules that define who is the victim here, and assigning a Rescue and Protect buzz to the Traitor.

Fig032

The fight against Bolshevism was the number one enemy that Europeans could unite.  In addition to Waffen SS units from European nations, the French sent a Volunteer legion and Frenchmen joined an SS Division Charlemagne (fought to the bitter end in Berlin). 

Fig033

Essential to effective propaganda is the portrayal of the villain as murderous, manipulative, and/or mad so that the hero can play the same roles against the Villain (Offense vs Offensive Offense).   The Blue and Red get hard to discriminate one from the others. 

Fear and Loathing

Key to such vilification is to arouse both Fear and Loathing.

http://gordonswar.blogspot.com/2006/12/narrative-analysis-terror-and.html

The Victims portrayed in such propaganda are women and children, as they ideologically are weak and vulnerable to villains of an inferiors sort, as in bestial. 

In George Orwell’s book “1984” portraying a totalitarian state of the future created “NewSpeak” as a way to prevent dissension, dissent, and dissolution.

“The aim of Newspeak is to remove all shades of meaning from language, leaving simple concepts: (pleasure and pain, happiness and sadness, goodthink and crimethink” ….Wikipedia on Newspeak.

Fig034

The inferior are out to get you!

Fig035

Protect your women, children and old people from the savage beast. Who, ironically are super beings that manipulate the world unseen by the upstanding and honest!

Fig036

The Manipulative and vindictive are everywhere.   The elections now in swing at this time are full of villainy from the manipulative vicious and evil.  Including toenail fungus.  

FAMILY

Propaganda leverages the imagery of the wholesome family as that which must be nurtured and protected.

Fig037

In accordance with the Rules (Fate) in order to get Fame and Face, one must use the Tools to smite the foe.  Harshly.

Fig038

To be continued….

Gordon S Fowkes, LTC USA RET, M.Ed., KCTJ

Intelligent Design?

One of the speakers in the recent Army War College Strategy Conference, Session II made a comment to the effect that the US Constitution by its checks and balances makes the development of a “national strategy” difficult.  As a simple matter of fact, a national strategy consensus of sufficient detail to pass through the operational design process has never happened in the US, and very few times elsewhere.  At best, national strategies are wish lists subject to the winds of war.

http://gordonswar.blogspot.com/2007/10/there-are-more-wheels-than-cogs.html

01

One of the best examples in US history is that adopted by Abraham Lincoln whose strategy carefully avoided the appearance that the Confederacy actually existed as a legal entity.  He did not wish to run the risk of France and/or Great Britain would openly support a bona fide nation recognized under international law.  His objective was to reunify the nation, bind up its wounds, with charity for all and malice for none. 

Birth of a Nation-CSA

John Wilkes Booth fired the shot that destroyed the South for a century by killing Lincoln, giving the Radical Republicans cause to nullify Lincoln’s strategy of binding into one of tearing the bonds that lingered in the South in Reconstruction.  As a result, the South did not celebrate the 4^th of July nor sign the National Anthem until the Spanish American War when old Confederate units and officers were called to the colors. 

02

The assertion that the Union fought to free the slaves is a post war approbation, as slavery was not ended until the 13^th Amendment.  At the present time, fruits of Reconstruction carried by Confederate diaspora have produced a political monologue that excludes all Amendments to the Constitution after the 12^th as genuine. Regardless of the merits of this argument, the salient fact is that it is still in play 150 years after the fact.  

The “national strategy” of the US in the Spanish American War morphed from a revenge on the Spanish for the “sinking” of the USS Maine, now seen as an accident, into a global war between Spain and the US.  Theodore Roosevelt, CMOH, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy issued orders of no authority for Admiral Dewey to attack Spain in the Philippines allegedly to support Aguinaldo and his Filipino Insurrection against Spain.  My grandfather was a cavalryman in the continued operations against Aguinaldo.   

Oil for the lamps of China?

 003

The US wound up with a Pacific empire that included several other islands and a concession in Shanghai governed by a US governor, a regiment of US Marines and a regiment of US Infantry, that plus the Asiatic Fleet on Chinese rivers.  What national interests in this relatively brief period of American Imperialism, came after the fact of individual initiative in the best interest of American commerce, the life blood of nations.  Like “Oil for the Lamps of China”:

http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/140812/Oil-For-The-Lamps-Of-China-Original-Trailer-.html

004

When it became clear that Japan was going to sail south to compete the encirclement of China, and weeks before Pearl Harbor, the US pulled its troops out of Shanghai and its fleet from China and transferred them to the Philippines. Britain shifted theirs to Singapore where they and American troops became prisoners of war of the Japanese   While the Navy had plans to relieve the Philippines in case of a Japanese seizure by a drive across the Pacific to meet the Japanese fleet in a head to head surface battle in which round eyes shot better than those with a cant. The Japanese had the same plan in mind with a different cant in mind.  Yamamoto had a different plan in mind which upset everyone else’s designs.

005

The usual pre-war budget struggle of the Army Air Corps (USAAC) of bombers versus battleships, had a boost from FDR, who instead of sending the Atlantic Fleet then conducting anti-submarine exercises with U-Boats as training aids, decided to send 100 B-17 bombers to cover the South China Sea from the depredations of the Japanese fleet.   About half the bombers made it.  In order to strengthen the ferry routes for the B-17’s to fly from Hawaii to the Philippines the Navy transported Army fighters to the islands of Wake, Midway and Guam to protect the bombers.  

That is why the Carriers and the fast battle fleet was not in Pearl Harbor on December 7^th, 1941.  The Wild Card Trumps All Bidding.

US fleet submarines were forbidden to raise their periscopes to attack “enemy” ships in exercises on pain of relief of command.   On December 8, they were let loose on the Japanese with a vengeance truly poetic. Then again, the Mark XIV torpedo failed more often than not based on Navy acquisition policies in Washington, DC.

006

Field Marshal Douglas MacArthur, Commonwealth of the Philippines, returned to active duty as a LTG, ordered US forces not to open fire on the Japanese unless bombs were actually seen to be landing on Philippine soil. This was nine hours after Japan had attacked.  B-17 bombers aloft with bomb loads ready to fly to Formosa where Japanese bombers and fighters were still grounded, were told to return to base.  They were caught on the ground being refueled and re-armed.

As of December 8, 1941 the Congress voted that a “state of war (had) existed” between the US and Japan.  There was as of that date not a sufficient majority in the Congress to declare war on Germany. Hitler solved that problem, which allowed FDR to place a higher priority on defeating Germany than the Japanese who had started the war.  The national strategies became subject to a series of conferences, the first of these was on HMS Prince of Wales on August 14, 1941 between Churchill and FDR that resulted in the Atlantic Charter that outlined some of the principles that eventually developed into the UN Charter by War’s end.  The Allied Conferences in Casablanca and Yalta served as adjustments in national interests followed by the Potsdam Conference to define the next half century.

The Conduct of WW2 from an operational or tactical point of view were not affected by these conferences while the reverse is closer to the truth.  WW 2 started with an invasion of Poland by the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany who split Poland as they chose.  WW 2 ended on a battleship in Tokyo Bay while Hiroshima and Nagasaki were radioactive with Soviet representatives as allies.   

The Score Card Shifts:  Serbia started WW 1 with the assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo, and the war ended with Serbia on the Allied side.  Germany had to admit guilt at Versailles for starting the war started by Serbia.  The key issue that put Cousin George vs Cousin Wilhelm was that of Grand Fleet versus High Seas Fleet, the latter mutinied and brought Germany down, and which ‘saved face” by scuttling at Scapa Flow”.   Go figure.

 On January 12, 1950 Secretary of State Dean Acheson made a speech before the National Press Club in Washington DC that did not include Korea as within US “defense perimeter”.  Accordingly Stalin and Kim Il-sung invaded South Korea on June 15, 1950. 

Korean War, an Oversight of Oversight

South Vietnam was created and dissolved by International Conferences which did not involve South Vietnamese involvement.   A successful air was and Stability Operation in Vietnam were defeated by domestic activists of the enemy cause in our national capitol. 

The national interest then shifted with a vengeance to the defense of the Fulda Gap which had laid open with hollow forces for a decade.  High on the national priority was the defense against Soviet forces across the North German Plains which is really a swamp drained by extensive canals and irrigation systems.

008

The point of all this is that Murphy’s Law is the First Law of War.  Everything that could go wrong went except when the wrong thing was done first that turned out right.  The pre-War national strategy was built on bars of soap, that when whetted became slippery.   Nothing should be taken for granted. The real questions are what capabilities are needed to achieve what effects on selected populations to achieve what ends (threats included).  

In Laying Plans, para 18, Sun Tzu said that all war is based on deception.  That necessarily includes inducing self-deception in the right minds to do the wrong thing at their wrong time.  In even broader terms, all conflict is biologically oriented and psychologically bent in accordance with the culture and technologies at hand.  Any "cross domain synergy" that does not leverage the psychological and sociological paradigms of the target audiences is not going to be pretty. For exemplars, please note the successful North Vietnamese sabotage of the US will to win, and the current sophisticated renovation of the Comintern in Russian national interest, the Russian energy and defense industries.

A retired US Army LTG on BBC recently noted that some rotational forces might be needed in the current imbroglio with Russia over the issue of Crimea and the Ukraine.  The essence of rotational modular brigades is personnel management which trumps effects, threats and capabilities.  The bridging of gaps created by the stresses between effects, threat, and capabilities has fallen on the ingenuity of the troops involved to succeed in spite of modular management.  Been there, done that.

 

010

What, then, is the purpose of so much time and energy over Logical Lines, Centers of Gravity, Design, and Strategy when the default deployment algorithm is a one trick pony?   At face value, Parkinson’s Laws apply particularly the Law of Inverse Relevance also known as the Law of Triviality.   This holds that the more effort spent in a decision process is inversely related to its importance. His fictive example is the corporate board that approves a massive plant rebuilding with minimal discussion, while the Employees Bicycle Shed requires a special committee after long and ardent discussions.

Based on the observations of over fifty years in public and military service, inverse relevance is only the tip of the iceberg.   The more informative observation is that which is bragged about is of minor importance, and that which is complained about or blamed is the real agenda.   In short, the current discussions over national interest and the design process is at best hot air, at worst, a smokescreen

011

In order to get military officers out of the critical path to combat effectiveness, Donald Rumsfeld put untrained and inexperienced civilian bureaucrats in the role of the General Staff.  Where once, this extended down to the tactical level where the MDMP process resulted in a five paragraph field order including task organization.  This eclectic process has been condemned as “stove pipe” and replaced with pre-packaged task organizations packaged on the A-Ring in the Table of Organization and Equipment.  Now we have a four and a half paragraph order and no task organization. This notion is so farfetched that the field simply ignored it and cannibalized their units to restore task flexibility. 

There was nothing broken in the MDMP until it was “fixed” by transformation. Un-fixing goes to an older more successful war fighting model, training and operations in a constant state of flux dictated by mandatory linkage of all units into real or contingency plans in real places with an audit trail from barracks to battlefield.  This was once called the Capstone Program (pre-OIF) which linked all US and associated allied units to one or more real contingency plans.  As exercised, this process created a laboratory in which internal processes were stressed with a change in resources or demands (missions). 

012

Eliminates all General Officers and Reservist/Guard from TOE

These capabilities to task organize in chaotic circumstances in an all-inclusive task organization produced a refined Military Decision Making Process under specific and changing pressures.  The restoration of mission orientation can be enhanced in individual and small units by linkages with ongoing virtual wars suitable for interface with larger units command post exercises (CPX).  In these exercises, it is the planning that counts more than the plan itself.  Desert Storm proved that, as did the original invasion of Iraq, before Transformation.

It is the Chain of Command and Coordination that is the Center of Gravity of war fighting, a chain that may be little more than chain than command, as it is the framework through task organization builds on.  And it is the chain that must be kept primarily operational in anything except administrivia. 

Gordon S Fowkes, KCTJ

LTC USA RET