#1--Brendan McBreen

The topics we discuss in this episode include: -Brendan’s journey to studying combat decision-making -The difference between what you learn in the classroom and how things really are in the fleet -Brendan's “sabbatical” in 29 Palms -Preparing young officers to lead platoons -The challenge of maintaining a fighting edge with your unit while deployed -The dangers of over-formalizing and over-standardizing training -The role of trust in the Marine Corps and how training increases it in a unit -The importance of humility for leaders -The role of the personnel system in a fighting organization -The role of processes, policies, and people who don’t add value to an organization -Brendan’s thoughts on General David H. Berger’s force design plans for the Marine Corps -Brendan’s take on the competency of our elected officials on defense matters and how well the services do on advising those officials -How well the Marine Corps teaches decision-making -What techniques Brendan found most effective in teaching decision-making -Where Brendan found inspiration for his own PME -The need for consistency in a PME unit program and making PME a norm in a unit -The genesis of Brendan’s excellent website: http://www.2ndbn5thmar.com Links Brendan’s Infantry Skills Training website: http://www.2ndbn5thmar.com "I Want to be ‘Ender’” by Brendan McBreen: http://www.2ndbn5thmar.com/dm/EnderMcBreen1998.pdf Eratta Regarding the Charles Whitman decision-forcing case, I misquoted the referenced poll percentage. The poll claims that around 36% of Americans were against the Vietnam War in August 1966, when Whitman went on his rampage.