Thursday, August 26, 2010
War Art: Learning History Through Theater–The Great Game
Monday, July 26, 2010
War Art: Bin Laden Hunter Gary Faulkner Receives ‘Vision’ Painting
This is pretty ‘cool’. lol Jerry Cool painted this thing after a dream, and years later felt that the painting he put together was of Gary Faulkner and his quest to find Bin Laden. That is just wild.
In other news about Gary, it sounds like Al Qaeda and company has put a bounty out on him. I haven’t been able to really confirm that, but it makes sense that they would. I say that because the Taliban and Al Qaeda already have a bounty system going on for any soldiers they can kill or capture. –Matt
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Bin Laden hunter receives painting
July 21, 2010
Gary Faulkner, the Greeley man who was detained in Pakistan last month while on a mission to hunt down Osama bin Laden, sits Tuesday in front of a painting called “A Renaissance Dream of 9-11: The Killing of Osama bin Laden” at the home of artist Jerry Cool in Muncie, Ind.
MUNCIE, Ind. – An Indiana man who says he dreamed two years ago of a bearded man slaying Osama bin Laden has given a painting of the dramatic scene to a Colorado man arrested in Pakistan while hunting for the al-Qaida leader.
Jerry Cool, 63, told The Star Press of Muncie that he was “shocked” when he saw Gary Faulkner talking on CBS’s “Late Show With David Letterman” on June 28 about his arrest in northern Pakistan earlier that month.
“Once I saw Gary on TV, I knew that was him in my vision,” Cool told the newspaper. “To me, he’s the only one that deserves that painting.”
Sunday, June 20, 2010
War Art: A Man With A Heart For Stone
“I can’t understand why people do what they do just from looking in their eyes, but when I see what they make I see different creative views,” said Wagner. “Everybody has a different opinion of how life is, and you can see that when someone is given a piece of stone and turns it into a unit crest, a shot glass, or even just a ball.”
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The reasons why I keep coming back to art on this blog is not only do I enjoy the art itself, but I have a profound respect for the process and inspiration needed to make that piece of art. It requires analysis and synthesis, and it is a great ‘building snowmobiles’ exercise.
One of my favorite examples of artists/strategists was Myamoto Musashi. He was a big fan of art and for good reason. For problem solving or developing unique strategies, you need a brain that can look at situations from different angles and find multiple solutions. It takes creativity and the ability to really bend and mix the concepts to come up with unique solutions, much like an artist does on a canvas or with marble.
Of course you need to know yourself and your enemy, but if your enemy has that same mindset, you must have something a little different in your strategy to gain the upper hand. Getting inside his OODA loop is important too, but what if your enemy is aware of OODA as well? The real winner in this fight, is the one that is able to take all strategies and all inputs, and create a winning strategy that is more effective that your enemy’s. It is something to think about when trying to figure out how a ‘John Boyd’ could defeat a ‘John Boyd’. Having a creative mind is just one factor of many that will help you to get there.
On a side note, it is also interesting to go back to the patterns of battlefield innovation that I keep seeing. (here, and here) Where the dominate combatant’s strategy is copied by the weaker combatant’s strategy, and then the weaker combatant adds something to that newly adopted strategy to make it even more effective. A technological advantage could be one addition, or a multitude of little changes, all born from a different point of view, all from a creative mind. Borrowing brilliance seems to be a good way to go, just like artists get inspired by other artists. Interesting stuff and bravo to Charles Wagner for producing some beautiful marble work. –Matt
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Charles Wagner, a native of Rainier, Wash., explains the process of carving the 2nd Infantry Division shield into the emblem of 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd ID. Wagner worked during his down time for almost a month to create the marble carving, which he will present to the brigade at the end of their deployment.
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A Man With a Heart for Stone
Story by Pvt. Zach Zuber
June 19, 2010
DIYALA, Iraq — It all started with grief in 2004-05 timeframe. Three Soldiers lost their lives, and a U.S. civilian contractor, who had befriended them, was left with a loss. Charles Wagner, a mechanic for General Dynamic Land Systems, was working in Mosul, Iraq, at the time and had to find a way to deal with his pain.
In an effort to relieve the pain felt from the passing of his friends, Wagner began shaping marble stones into crests, crosses and hearts. Since that time, he has created many works of art to escape from the stress that comes during deployment.
“This started out as a way to displace myself from what’s going on over here, working during off hours to focus on other things,” said Wagner, a native of Rainier, Wash.
Wagner said he lost three Soldiers on one mission, and he created hearts, crucifixes, and lancers for each of the parents as a way to connect to them.
During that first tour, in 2004-05, he carved a full-size lancer for 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division. Then, during the 2006-07 tour with 3rd SBCT, 2nd ID, he created a replica of the Indian-head shield that represents 2nd Infantry Division. When he traveled with the Arrowhead Brigade to Iraq last August, he received the request to make the 3rd Stryker Brigade crest, which includes the 2nd ID shield on top of an arrowhead, with the number three located above the shield.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
War Art: ‘That Guy’, From LMS Defense-The Comics
‘That Guy’ by LMS Defense- The Comics. Artwork by Righteous Duke.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Cool Stuff: Soldier Of Fortune Postcards From The Mexican Revolution
This website has some cool photos of some forgotten history. During the Mexican Revolution, there were many soldiers of fortune from all over the world applying their trade on both sides of the conflict. This was a very interesting period in which at the same time, you had wars like World War 1 going on in which many battlefield innovations were going on. You could say it was the time period in which the horse and repeating firearm was being trumped by machine guns, tanks, artillery and barbed wire.
But back to this collection of postcards. It is a fascinating look at the characters of that time period. I got a kick out of the names of some of these guys. Like Diablo or Slim. Slim was actually the name of quite a few American mercenaries back then.
The other thing I looked at was the amount of guys hired for their machine gun expertise. Guys like Tom Fountain, Sam Dreben, Alfred Lewis, and of course Maximillian Kloss and his work at the Battle of Celaya. Very interesting round up of some highly specialized folks that applied their trade all over the world, to include Mexico. It kind of reminds me of the long bow mercenary archers of the 14th century and how sought after they were. (the White Company comes to mind)
Finally, and this is what is really interesting about the mercenaries of this time period. They were the ones importing the know how of how to use these latest tools of warfare. It was these guys working in Mexico who introduced new and interesting ways of how to use the machine gun in warfare. The war in Europe was also emphasizing how effective these weapons were, and demonstrating how they could be used.
These soldiers for hire were the same guys who picked up battlefield innovations in other countries and wars they worked in and further evolved their ideas on how to wage war. That to me is a very interesting area that really hasn’t been studied when it comes to the dynamic of the globe trotting soldier for hire. Anyway, check out this link to see the other interesting characters and photos at this website. –Matt
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American, Canadian and other foreign mercenaries in Mexico
From Wikipedia
Members of Pancho Villa’s American Legion of Honor
Many adventurers (e.g. Sarah “Wildwoman” Horn), ideologues and freebooters from outside Mexico were attracted by the purported excitement and romance, not to mention possible booty, of the Mexican Revolution. Most mercenaries served in armies operating in the north of Mexico, partly because those areas were the closest to popular entry points to Mexico from the U.S., and partly because Pancho Villa had no compunction about hiring mercenaries. The first legion of foreign mercenaries, during the 1910 Madero revolt, was the Falange de los Extranjeros (Foreign Phalanx), which included Giuseppe (“Peppino”) Garibaldi, grandson of the famed Italian unifier, as well as many American recruits.