Science, Strategy and War The Strategic Theory of ... - Boekje Pienter

3. THE SEEDS OF A THEORY AND THE FERTILE SOILHe who can handle the quickest rate of change survivesJohn Boyd 1There is no such thing as a logical method of having new ideas. Discovery contains an irrationalelement or a creative intuition.Karl Popper 2The seed of a theory; Boyd’s military lifeFlying fightersThe OODA loop now is so familiar - it has become a truism - that one has a hard timeunderstanding why it was novel to the various audiences Boyd lectured for when the conceptwas presented in the seventies and eighties and why it was considered so relevant so as tobecome so influential as suggested in chapter 1. But the OODA loop construct did not justappear in a flash of insight. Boyd developed it through studying, analyzing and synthesizing,in short, through learning about military history and theory. It was a thoroughly creativeprocess, which (besides his interest in science, the topic of chapters 4 and 5) has its roots inhis early career, his involvement with the design of fighter aircraft and his interest in militaryhistory that followed from research projects asociated with designing fighters. His ideasflowered because of the fertile soil Boyd found when he developed his thoughts inincreasingly coherent form. These three factors will in turn be addressed in this chapter.As is evident from the chronology of key dates and events below, Boyd’s ideasmaterialized over the span of several decades and gained coherent conceptual form only afterhis retirement in 1975 3 . Two decades separate his first and last presentation. The yearsfollowing his retirement were marked by the aftershocks of the Vietnam War, which werefelt throughout the US armed forces. But his formative period began with flying fighters inthe US Air Force. His military career started in 1945, when at age 18, he enlisted in the Armyand served in the occupation of Japan. Shortly after getting out of the Army, Boyd attendedthe University of Iowa on the GI Bill and enrolled in Air Force ROTC. In 1952, aftergraduating from college, Boyd attended Air Force pilot training at Williams Air Force Base inArizona. There air-to-air combat was an eye-opener and he managed to persuade hiscommander to change his posting from flying bomber aircraft to fighters. In the Winter of1952-1953 was subsequently assigned to Korea with the 51 st Fighter Interceptor Wing, whichoperated the F-86 Sabre.1 Final slide of A New Conception of Air to Air Combat, August 4, 1976.2 Karl Popper, The Logic of Scientific Discovery, (New York, 1968), p. 32.3 This list is based on Cowan, pp. 29-30, and Hammond, p.155.40