“Observe” means much more than “see.” “Absorb” might be more descriptive if it did not have a passive undertone. “Go out and get all the information you can by whatever means possible” is even closer. You can never be sure beforehand which stray idea will provide the key to unlock some fatal dilemma. German strategists recognized that this was as important to the soldier in the foxhole as for a general in his headquarters. As General Hermann Balck, whom Boyd regarded as one of World War II’s best field commanders and whose rifle regiment was one of the first across the Meuse during the
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