Gen. Barry McCaffrey: Learn to see down two levels but command down just one
Gen. Barry McCaffrey was one of our most articulate generals. Here is a comment from his Army War College oral history: … battalion command taught me … to see down two levels but command down one. When I was a battalion commander I always knew where my platoons were. I knew everything about what platoons ...
Gen. Barry McCaffrey was one of our most articulate generals. Here is a comment from his Army War College oral history:
Gen. Barry McCaffrey was one of our most articulate generals. Here is a comment from his Army War College oral history:
… battalion command taught me … to see down two levels but command down one. When I was a battalion commander I always knew where my platoons were. I knew everything about what platoons were doing — but I was only about giving orders to company commanders — period. At every level [of] the chain of command, if you command down one level and see down two levels, it is not very hard to be effective.
(P. 43)
Thomas E. Ricks is a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy. Twitter: @tomricks1
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