Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War

by Robert Coram

Because this was Boyd’s first operational command, he was evaluated by his superiors two months after he arrived. The letter of evaluation said Boyd “has a seemingly unlimited ability and stamina to effectively cope with stressed operational procedures.” He “prevented a possible major problem” by “exercising unusually sound judgment” in a racially charged situation. But most important of all it said, “He is fully qualified for Command.” Air Force generals in Southeast Asia must have agreed, because the commander who had caused the incident was relieved of duty and shipped back to the States, while Boyd was pulled out of Task Force Alpha and given command of the 56th Combat Support Group, a job that included, among other things, being base commander.

“I’ve expanded on the thought processes in directions that frankly amaze even me.”

“I may be on the trail of a theory of learning quite different and—it appears now—more powerful than methods or theories currently in use.”

“absolutely superior”

“Pain goes both ways,”

Boyd put on his hard face and wagged a long forefinger at the sergeants. “Here’s what I’m gonna do,” he said he told the sergeants. “First, I’m going to have the latrines repainted. Then I’m going to dig a trench off base, out in front of the main gate. And the first goddamn time I see any more obscenity on the walls I’m going to padlock every enlisted latrine on this base. If somebody wants to piss or shit—day or night, rain or shine—he’s going to have to do it in that trench. In front of every Thai person passing by.”

“Goddammit, I issued it and you better obey it. We’re at war and bigger things are at stake here than your guilt. Your dick can cause you problems but it is not going to cause problems for America. You do as I say or I will make your life a living hell for as long as you are in the Air Force.”

“Let them get used to the good life and then we can just walk in and take over,” he said.

Boyd also dealt with situations of great consequence. He said the McNamara Line was an expensive failure and shut it down. He claimed that a four-star general later told him he was sent to NKP solely because Pentagon generals knew he was the only man in the Air Force with the guts to close down the boondoggle.

“Destruction and Creation,” an unpublished work that some think is his most significant intellectual achievement.

was a year in which he had the chance to wash everything clean. He had begun a voracious reading program and an obsessive search for the nature of creativity, both of which laid the foundation for what soon would become the major focus of his life.

At the same time Boyd was reading widely and thinking ahead and searching for ways to get a grasp on his “learning theory.” When he talked of learning, he did not mean studying but rather the process of creativity. Boyd did not then know it, but his learning theory would become the first bookend for an extraordinary series of intellectual accomplishments.

reputation for creativity and for being an out-of-control maverick,

“If your boss demands loyalty, give him integrity. But if he demands integrity, then give him loyalty.”

“Not a goddamn thing coming out of this office has any importance.”

“But that’s what the Air Force wants. So keep on doing nothing. Just don’t bother me with the bullshit.”

“If I never hear from you, you will get ou...

Boyd thought the discussions at these meetings were useless and refused to attend.

“The lightweight fighter is in trouble, Tiger. We’re gonna have to go to the barricades.”

“Let me tell you something. We got to get rid of that son of a bitch. He’s a crook.”

“get rid of” a president.

Without a skunk fight, life was boring.

One day he charged down the hall to the general who was his boss and complained that his office was filled with bureaucrats and that he wanted someone, anyone, just one person, who could do “real work.” The general and Boyd had a contentious relationship. Boyd’s loud voice and desk pounding and language often bordered on insubordination. It probably was to avoid another exchange that the general told Boyd he could have a young captain who was coming to the Building. When the general said the captain had a Ph.D. in electrical engineering, Boyd said he would take him sight unseen. “Anybody with a Ph.D. in double-e must be reasonably smart.”

He was among the most talented and educated young officers in the Air Force and he knew it. He was an officer of exceptional promise. Everyone thought so. Everyone, that is, but Boyd.

Men in their twenties whose lives have been spent in academics sometimes have a childlike naïveté. This seems especially true of those who study mathematics. And for reasons only psychologists can explain, many young people of extraordinary intellectual gifts and accomplishments also have a deep sense of insecurity. Even the most casual question brought a response from Leopold in which he emphasized his ranking: first of the baby boomers, highest math SAT in his class, second in his class to solo. Leopold was an overachiever, especially after his father died, a year before his Pentagon rotation. He was focused on his career and wanted to be first in everything.

“Tiger, take that calculator of yours and do me a budget analysis,” Boyd said. “I want you to go through the entire Air Force budget. I don’t want my ideas to contaminate your search, but pay particular attention to anything to do with the B-1. Anything you see on the B-1, pull it out.” Boyd leaned forward and in a conspiratorial whisper added, “I think they’re fucking with the budget.”

“Tiger, one day you will come to a fork in the road,” he said. “And you’re going to have to make a decision about which direction you want to go.”

“Or you can go that way and you can do something—something for your country and for your Air Force and for yourself. If you decide you want to do something, you may not get promoted and you may not get the good assignments and you certainly will not be a favorite of your superiors. But you won’t have to compromise yourself. You will be true to your friends and to yourself. And your work might make a difference.” He paused and stared into Leopold’s eyes and heart. “To be somebody or to do something. In life there is often a roll call. That’s when you will have to make a decision. To be or to do? Which way will you go?”

“Great work, Tiger. Great stuff. Stay with it.”

Leopold was respectful but did not let the generals browbeat him into altering his findings. That made a tremendous impression on Boyd, and as a result, Leopold’s life changed. He was in an office of colonels and lieutenant colonels and majors, the junior member of the firm. But because he was Boyd’s protégé, he was number one.

gotta tell you, it will be better for your career if you move on. But you’re doing good work, Tiger, and I’d like for you to stay.” “Sir, I’d like to sleep on it.”

“That fucking Boyd.”

“He said he was going to have to fire his first general.”

Nobody thought I would ever get beyond major,” he said. “But here I am a colonel.” He paused. “And I’m taking out generals.”

Now they were all together, all save one: Christie the Finagler, Sprey the Intelligent, Leopold the First, Spinney the Brash, and Burton the Unbending. For the next decade they revolved around Boyd, asserting themselves in various degrees before coalescing into the most powerful ad hoc group the Building had ever seen.

“perfumed princes”

“weak dicks”

“Why should I come down there at midnight? That’s bullshit.” Boyd fired back, “Because you’re a fucking captain and I’m a colonel and I say get your ass down here now.”

“He wants it bad, he gets it bad.”

“That fucking Boyd.”

“My captain fucked a two-star?” he roared. And then he laughed and said, “Way to go, Tiger.”

“von Clausewitz.”

Boyd said if a man can reduce his needs to zero, he is truly free: there is nothing that can be taken from him and nothing anyone can do to hurt him.

“I had a breakthrough. Listen to this.”

Except for the year at NKP, the past nine years of Boyd’s life had been devoted to hosing his superiors.

Boyd had less formal education than did any of the Acolytes. But he was their intellectual leader—not only in the number and substance of the books he had them read, but in his passion and his obsession and his iron discipline about getting to the truth.

Godel’s Proof holds that there are certain mathematical statements about a mathematical system that can be true yet cannot be proven or derived from that system.

Jacob Bronowski

“If you want to understand something, take it to the extremes or examine its opposites,”

Now, to go back to the beginning, Boyd said there are two ways to manipulate information gleaned from observation: analysis and synthesis. We can analyze whatever process or event we are observing by breaking it down into individual components and interactions. And from this we can make deductions that lead to understanding. Or we can synthesize by taking various sometimes unrelated components and putting them together to form a new whole.