So we're now getting introduced to a new character who seems like he should be pretty relevant for the final half of the novel, but will only be with us for a couple of scenes. In this respect, his role will mostly be to endorse the sheer awesomeness of Bland's preferred characters with a special … Continue reading 61-War machine springs to life
Reading + Leadership: Signal to Noise…
***It's going to take a little while to get there, but this posts' reading is Peter Edwards 'One Dead Indian: The Premier, the Police, and the Ipperwash Crisis.' I had long planned to do a post on Edwards' excellent book, as well as a separate one about the leadership issues that this post begins with. … Continue reading Reading + Leadership: Signal to Noise…
53-Lepine is loading Chekhov’s gun with blanks!
In case you were wondering what our token “good Indian”[1] with the western sounding name, we’re now back to Gen Lepine’s headquarters.... [Heavy sigh. Time for a sidebar.] Okay, so, I'm still not sure what to make of the fact that René Lepine is native. Because it feels like it should mean something, even though … Continue reading 53-Lepine is loading Chekhov’s gun with blanks!
Billy Bishop – Let’s have a proper introduction…
I've been meaning to do this for a bit. In Douglas Bland's Uprising, General Andrew Bishop is named after (and in story he's the descendent of) the real life William Avery "Billy" Bishop, who was a Canada's top Ace pilot during the First World War, and was a General training new pilots within the British … Continue reading Billy Bishop – Let’s have a proper introduction…
Leadership(?) – NTM/NMB/NLT and why timing is everything
I got some mixed feelings about the classic war movies like 'The Longest Day' or 'A Bridge Too Far.' Sometimes they capture the spirit of the age in a way we don't always manage in modern films, but other times they get uncomfortably sentimental or melodramatic (and in the case of wars featuring the Japanese, more … Continue reading Leadership(?) – NTM/NMB/NLT and why timing is everything
Supplemental Reading – Robert Falcon Ouellette on the Métis Wars
Sometimes you get lucky, and the fates conspire to hand you a gift. So I already (briefly) introduced Member of Parliament Robert Falcon Ouellette, the MP for Winnipeg Centre. He's the real life human being who stands in contrast to the underwhelming Jim Riley whom Bland has representing a similar region in the novel (Winnipeg … Continue reading Supplemental Reading – Robert Falcon Ouellette on the Métis Wars
Shame. You need it.
***The following post is a follow-on to this one in the deconstruction. My intent is to expand on some of the points I made in the post, and tie them in with some of the ideas I'd been kicking around for a Personal Philosophy post. Be warned that it deals with issues of character building in … Continue reading Shame. You need it.
Warning Order/Frag Order – Or how you can lead without actually making a plan…
So like I discussed earlier, Battle Procedure is the means by which a commander creates a plan for a previous unseen situation in real time. A major part of this involves delegating portions of the plan to subordinates, and having them develop their parts concurrently to you so that a detailed plan can emerge in … Continue reading Warning Order/Frag Order – Or how you can lead without actually making a plan…
Fire Picket: One hour that means so much…
***Although a lot of CAF training is standardized across the board (and we actually have a Standards Cell attached to each division to ensure this) there is a lot of background and administrative activity that is not. Especially in the Primary Reserves (the Militia, baby!) where we typically have to train locally, using whatever resources … Continue reading Fire Picket: One hour that means so much…
Battle Procedure (or why you have to trust and delegate)
***Just to note in advance, the process called ‘Battle Procedure’ is something that has gone through a bunch of reincarnations over the years in the CAF, and exists under various other names in various other armies. So what I’m going to be discussing here should sound familiar to most military readers, even though the terminology … Continue reading Battle Procedure (or why you have to trust and delegate)
Putting Down Uprising 