Like many soldiers, I enjoy studying military history. Even the most storied of battles can contain revelations with unexpected applications. In 2004, mired in a fight against the most elusive and intractable of enemies, I was fascinated by Adam Nicolson’s Seize the Fire: Heroism, Duty, and the Battle of Trafalgar, which chronicles British admiral Horatio Nelson’s daring face-off with a superior Franco-Spanish fleet.
