CONRAD CRANE
When I came into the Army in 1974, we understood that one of our biggest advantages against the oncoming Soviet hordes was a command system that encouraged initiative. While we could predict Soviet actions based on templates and checklists, they would ultimately be bedeviled by our independent responses appropriate to our unique situation. Sometimes we would have to respond in a carefully choreographed way as well, depending on the nature of the mission and the threat. We had no unique name for all of this. It was just understood to be good leadership. The emerging doctrine of AirLand Battle would stress agility and initiative as key operational concepts, but also included synchronization, the requirement to carefully coordinate all activities on the battlefield and achieve “unity of effort throughout the force.”
During this time, Army leaders were developing new doctrine under the guidance of Gen. William DePuy, commander of the new Army Training and Doctrine Command. World War II as well as the wars in Korea and Vietnam, taught him that that the battlefield was “a terrifying place,” and soldiers worked best with very specific orders. He garnered many insights from fighting against the Germans, but was most impressed not with their supposed reliance on the flexibility and initiative of Auftragstaktik, “mission-type tactics” allowing much subordinate flexibility, but instead with their constant communication during combat and active leadership on the battlefield. In a 1986 interview in the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center archives, he acknowledged that if something goes wrong with the plan and communication breaks down while the enemy is responding in an unexpected way then initiative is key, but overall he believed there was “absolute non-stop rubbish on the street” about the amount of freedom of action that should always be given to subordinates.
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