In article ,
(Derek Lyons) wrote:

In your scenario, it's the Naval line; 'An officer can be
wrong, but he cannot be indecisive or hesitant'.

In many forms of melee combat (whether involving groups of troops on the
ground, ships at sea wailing at one another with large caliber ordnance,
or in the archetypal aviation dog fight), this axiom works remarkably
well and it works for a very simple reason - the indecisive officer
usually has his troops/squadron/element DOING NOTHING (or, more or less
the same thing, continuing to advance with no change of formation),
making them very easy targets. Doing something, even if it later turns
out to be the wrong thing, at least makes you more difficult targets and
often gets you out of the line of fire of the most immediate threat.
Now, you may well bumble into a bigger threat, but not always and that
first action, however hasty, can buy you needed time to figure out what
you should have done in the first place and how to obtain that objective
from your current situation.

This was drilled into me in college. I was leading a formation of about
15 through a field training exercise when the smoke grenades and blanks
started going off around us. It was a mixed group of AF and Army ROTC
cadets undergoing "Hell Week" for Scabbard and Blade and the trainers
thought it would be funny to put one of the AF guys (me) in charge.
Well, hell, I could've lectured them on Billy Mitchell's evangelism re
big bombers or about Curt LeMay and the genesis of SAC's organizational
structure (this was in the glory days late in Reagan's second term - we
still had SAC, TAC, et cetera), but what the heck did I know about
ordering troops around? While fumbling around to figure out the
commands - I knew what to DO but not how to command others to actually
do it! - the Army guy acting as platoon sergeant starts giving orders
and all his buddies scramble away and disburse to cover - leaving us
seven or eight AF people "dead" in the kill box.

**** like that made me glad to be a "wing nut" rather than a "ground
pounder."

--
Herb Schaltegger, B.S., J.D.
Reformed Aerospace Engineer
Columbia Loss FAQ:
http://www.io.com/~o_m/columbia_loss_faq_x.html