[ by Charles Cameron — John Boyd in pop culture ]
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I have just gotten access to Generation Kill, the HBO miniseries about the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, Marine Corps, during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and was accordingly surprised to stumble across this frame ..
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.. from a shot in which Lt. Col. Stephen “Godfather” Ferrando tells his men:

The enemy, he stared us down in Nasiriyah. But I wanted to show him today that some Americans won’t back down from a fight. I can put it in terms of tactics or strategy. I could quote Boyd. The simple way to say it is that some people might reasonably fear these Iraqis running around trying to organize ways to kill us. I don’t. And not because I’m a particularly courageous individual. I simply have a bigger fear. In my darkest hours, I sometimes fear that I will do something General Mattis won’t like. Gentlemen, I have no such fears tonight.

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I suppose that’s not so surprising, given that at the time of Boyd‘s death in 1997, Sen Grassley noted inter alia:

General Krulak describes John as “an architect” of our military victory over Iraq in 1991.That’s an oblique reference to John’s “Patterns of Conflict” briefing. This piece of work had a profound impact on U.S. military thought.It helped our top military leadership understand the advantages of maneuver warfare. Those ideas were used to defeat Iraq.

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Okay, you probably already knew all this ..

I didn’t. Hence, strictly ICYMI — this post.