The WAY to WOW Shows
Optimize Your Resources
October 22, 2024
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[0:03] who are you and where are you going what do you [Music] want hello and welcome to business lessons from the military I'm your host Kevin bemel and we're here every Tuesday at 10: a.m. Pacific time to talk about military history Doctrine and the practices of great military leaders all

[0:38] by way of distilling lessons that we can use in our business and professional lives so today uh I'm going to talk about optimizing your resources and I'm going to do this in the context of um so this this comes out of a phenomenon in actually World War II that that I've you know kind of kept track of and that is contrary to what people think during World War II the

[1:14] branch of the service with the most water-going craft I'll call them was not the Navy it was not the Coast Guard and in fact the Navy and the Coast Guard combined still had fewer water-going craft than the United States Army and it it seems so strange why would the Army have all these boats and the reason is because the Army needs to cross rivers and cross lakes and that sort of thing and so you say well why didn't they just

[1:50] have the Navy do it and the answer is back in World War II there was very little interoperability between the service branches so for example in World War II uh the Army had had what was known as originally well started out as the Army Air Service back in World War I it became known as the Army Air Corp um after that and through the very beginning of World War II and then it became the Army Air Force It wasn't until post World War II that the

[2:27] Air Force became a separate Branch the milit and and and there was a big big discussion about whether the um whether airplanes in in essence warranted having a separate branch of the military and eventually it was decided they did um having said that uh the Navy also had it it what was you know essentially an Air Force na the Naval Air Service right and they those planes flew off aircraft carriers right and and you couldn't have

[3:02] um army well Army Air Force pilots flying off of aircraft carriers was difficult because it's of a completely different skill um to take off and land on this you know little you know short super short run Runway um as well as to navigate over water and then as the Marine Corps developed its combined arms philosopy the Marine Corps also developed an air arm in in order to among other things

[3:37] provide close air support to Marine Corps ground operations and and and again it's it's a different skill it's not what the Air Force does it's not what the Navy did it you know the the ability to uh strafe the enemy or drop Munitions on the enemy close to your ground troops without hitting them is a very particular skill and obviously a very important skill because it greatly aids your ground troops in terms of how

[4:13] effective they can be when when you can bring Airborne Firepower to the battlefield you know over and above artillery howitzers and and and cannons and and and that sort of thing so there there has there has been you know as um as military technology has developed there has been this sort of push and pull over do we develop separate branches of the

[4:48] military or or how do we deal with this so I want to give you just an idea of how the current US military Stacks up in terms of its use of waterborne craft and aircraft okay so just I'm going to share just a few statistics with you because I I I think they're kind of they're kind of interesting it giv gives you a sense so um the United States Navy currently has approximately 470 ships okay so that's aircraft carriers Cruisers

[5:23] destroyers um uh Supply not I'm sorry not not supply ships submarines um um etc etc okay and it has approximately 3,000 small boats these would be Patrol craft and um th those kinds of things okay now the US Coast Guard which during wartime is is a it becomes it falls under the um uh Department of the Navy which is part of the Department of Defense otherwise it's it's uh part

[5:58] of the uh Department of Homeland Security um but nonetheless the the US Coast Guard has about 250 Coast Guard Cutters that are 65 feet in length or longer okay so that's that's that's that's kind of the main um ship if you will um that that the Coast Guard uh uses in its operations and um the the the largest uh uh Coast Guard cutter um which is the one that's uh

[6:33] um uh that's in use is called The Legend class cutter or otherwise known as the National Security cutter now interestingly enough um the Coast Guard at times will operate in the Persian Gulf um because the Persian Gulf is essentially almost all Coastal Waters not not literally so but a lot of it is is sort of loral waters and so the kind of Patrol duties and addiction duties and such that the Coast Guard trains for uh is is a a prevalent need in the Persian Gulf okay and and the Coast

[7:10] Guard has another um nearly uh 2,000 small boats the most common being about 25 feet long so you think about that that's maybe what double the length of a car you um so altogether about 2250 waterborne craft in the Coast Guard versus not quite 3500 in the United States Navy having said that um as of uh June of 2024 the United States Army still has

[7:46] 132 watercraft in its Fleet they're operated by the US Army transportation Corps um and the um the watercraft are used for um transporting War fighting supplies combat Vehicles cargo Etc um and and they range in size from 75 foot uh tugboats to 315 foot logistic support Vehicles now 315 feet keep in mind that's about the length of a football

[8:21] field so that's that's already a a pretty sizable ship the that's the size of a a destroyer for example or it's around this this this I'm sorry not a destroyer that's the size of a fast attack submarine um and so it's a it's a pretty sizable craft you say so why does the Navy have I mean why does the Army have these these watercraft well um because you know they they need to be able to um resupply and transport

[8:56] Vehicles Etc sometimes over water um and um so I'm I'm going to leave it there because I'm going to come back to this in a few minutes okay um now um um the by the way the the Army as recently as earlier this year um uh um had quite a few uh more boats but they've been decreasing them um over the last few years okay so that is um that that is uh waterborne craft now now

[9:31] let's look at aircraft okay so um as you might expect the US Air Force has the largest Fleet of aircraft approximately 5500 it might surprise you though to find out that the US Navy has got approximately 4,000 aircraft both fixed wing and rotary okay so the uh the US uh the US Navy flies the fa18 um both What's called the Legacy

[10:06] version ab andc and the Hornet and the Super Hornet the EF versions um it all the electronic attack squadrons also fly a version of the fa18 it has a different number um but it's it's essentially the same platform it's just equipped with different kinds of avionics and it also flies helicopters okay now it also flies by the way um the uh um uh twin prop um E I think it's an E4 for uh command and

[10:43] control so when when I was with ACC long Wing ACC log wi Air Command control and Logistics Wing right are are one of our major platforms was the um uh the E E4 I believe it was it's a twin turbo prop U platform and it takes off from the carrier it hangs out basically above the carrier and the carrier can transmit messages to that aircraft um and that aircraft because it's up high can transmit uh messages to Airborne other

[11:19] types of Airborne craft that are much farther away from the ship that the ship would have trouble communicating with but by being high up they have a more direct line of communication right that's why it's Airborne command and control so um like I said in total the US Navy has about 4,000 aircraft or a little bit less than um 80% of the number of aircraft that the um US Air Force has now the US Army um as of 2023 that was the most

[11:55] recent figures I could find um has about about 3,900 manned aircraft mostly helicopters okay helicopter gunships transports that sort of thing and in addition to that it has um approximately 700 large unmanned aerial systems Norm commonly called drones so in reality the Army actually has more aircraft than the Navy does even though I don't think most of us think about the Army as having anything to do with with flying right

[12:31] and and so they've got about 4600 or over 80% of the number of aircraft that that the US Air Force has okay the Marine Corps now um has approximately 1,200 aircraft they have about 300 Fighters okay and they they fly by the way um two of two of the same platforms that the Navy flies they fly the fa1 18s they fly what are called Legacy Hornets AC and D's um and they fly the F35 the BC

[13:06] variant which is for um which which has a a um carrier um it's for Carrier uh launch and recovery and also um I I don't know if they can launch them off the aibs okay but then they also fly the AV um 8bs which have vertical takeoff and Landing capabilities which are which are flown off the lhds and the lhas the amphibious air uh ships that um that the Navy um um that the Navy uh uses on

[13:43] behalf or uses in order to transport um Marine Marine Corps units from place to place okay so um they have over 700 helicopters across seven different platforms um they're used for pretty much the same reason that the Army uses helicopters transport um combat support that sort of thing they have 27 uh transports um and and those include um I got to fly on one of those that basically the Marine Corps has a I think about 10 I want to say uh Cessna

[14:20] Citation uh corporate Jets um that they use for transporting um senior officers from place to place for meetings or whatever like I said I got to fly on one one time it was really cool um you know it was the only time I've ever flown on a corporate jet like that um and then it has about 110 trainers and about 64 um uh refueling uh aircraft so all told like I said about 1,200 aircraft in the Marine Corps the US Coast Guard has 200 approximately 200 um helicopters in

[14:57] fixed wi aircraft um for patrolling purposes Transportation purposes rescue um you know um the uh uh Coast Guard uses helicopters to you rescue you know stranded boers Etc so basically every branch of the US military has got aircraft in it and um what three well actually by the way the Marine core has watercraft as well um they have what are called elcs

[15:32] their amphibious Landing boats essentially um so four out of the uh five branches of the military have uh boats or waterborne craft so the question I I think that is the natural question is why why are they why are we taking resources like this and splitting them up and essentially training uh soldiers to to man boats we're teaching Marines to fly we're

[16:08] teaching um uh you know soldiers to fly why don't we just have all the flying done by the Air Force why don't we have all the watercraft manned by the by the Navy right and then why don't we have the Army handle all the ground operations maybe including amphibious operations which has traditionally been the pre the purview of the Marine Corps right and in fact it there's been uh a a battle for

[16:43] most of the last I think century and a half um over the Marine Corps because there are um interests that want to see the Marine Corps done away with um because they feel it's an historic Relic uh and and I and I will say that in some respects that is true because Marines the original job of of Marines were to be on Navy ships they reported directly to the captain of the ship at a time when a naval there were wooden you know

[17:19] square square rigged sailing ships and when those vessels were at Sea the captain had absolute command over everything that happened um but he was vulnerable to Mutiny and so a contingent of Marines was on board in order to protect the captain and to put down any unrest on the ship in order that the captain could keep control now they also did Sharpshooter Duty from the from the the mass and spars of the ship during battle um but their their the main

[17:55] reason they were present on on the ship was to essentially sustain the captain's uh Command right and so we don't need that anymore okay we don't have Marine contingents on ships anymore in order to essentially protect the captain so the Marines um in the 19th century transitioned into being America's amphibious Landing Force um quick reaction force that's essentially what they've been uh there was a big fight though after

[18:31] World War II trying there were there like I said there were interests that were trying to get the Marine Corps to essentially be closed or or or disbanded I would be a better word um because they thought the the Marine Corps was was not necessary anymore and in fact one of the Marine corps's U major skills is they they have maintained very strong political connections and that's how they've been able to survive but I'm gonna so I'm going to set that argument aside and let's let's let's stipulate

[19:06] for the purposes of this show that the Marine Corps and the Army U as ground forces do serve different purposes by the way in World War II both the Army and the Marine Corps mounted amphibious operations interestingly enough there was just so many of them that had to be done the Marine Corps couldn't do all of them um but but today the Marine Corps handles sort of loral combat if you will amphibious combat and the Army handles ground combat occupation uh activities those sort of things so so we could justify having a

[19:43] Marine Corps and and and an army but why do we have a naval air arm why do we have what amounts to an Army Air Force when we have an Air Force so it really comes down to the issue that if you saw any of my social media posts it really comes down to the issue of which which direction are you going to go essentially what amounts to a sense of duplicate training or tighter coordination between different parts of the military okay now

[20:21] one of the things that we could do for example is we could for in the military we could say okay from here on out only the Navy is going to conduct waterborne activities so if there's a need to transport army vehicles across a river they're going to have a naval contingency with them and that Naval contingency is going to handle the waterborne operation now why would that be desirable well it would be desirable because all the boats

[20:58] in the US military would be essentially owned and maintained by the Navy and presumably as a waterbor service they could accumulate all the knowledge necessary to operate and maintain those boats and that would be their sole Focus okay uh however I mean yes and so that but the downside of that is or the potential downside of that is is is the Navy would have to learn to operate in all kinds of different Marine I'm going

[21:36] to put that in quotes because we usually don't think of rivers as being Marine they're riverine but water environments right so the Navy today has really no capacity to operate in riverine Warfare now it did have some experience with that uh in Vietnam although the the Coast Guard uh has had much more experience operating in in rivers and Deltas in Vietnam for example uh the Navy today has little if any knowledge of riverine warfare it would have to get that that experience okay now it could

[22:14] okay and and and in fact it could take over the the part of the Army transportation command that that handles riverine Services they could be transferred to the Navy and turned into Sailors okay we could do that and and consolidate all water born watercraft oriented military activities in the Navy here's here's a possible downside to that though and that is that the coordination between Navy and army would become more important okay and one of

[22:51] the things that that I I I I find when I talk to people who haven't been in the military or haven't study the military is there seems to be a a sense that there's a there's a military culture and it's homogeneous the fact of the matter is though Army culture is very different than Navy culture which is very different both of which are different from Marine Corps culture all three of which are different from Air Force culture okay and I've spoken about this

[23:27] on other shows even within what are called communities in a branch of the service and I'll talk about the Navy because that's the one I know the best so there are profound cultural differences between Naval Aviation and submarine warfare and surface Warfare and Special Operations I.E Navy Seals and CBS construction battalions each of those communities which in the Navy ha within the Navy have a different culture and there are culture clashes that come up between

[24:02] them in fact when when I was with uh uh KAG 14 or cvw 14 is what it's really known as uh Commander um carrier born airwing a carrier airwing 14 right we wore brown shoes because historically Naval aviators Naval Aviation are they're known as the brown shoe Navy because they wore shoes okay we would fairly derisively refer to surface Warfare uh surf Naval surf

[24:41] surface Warfare uh people as shoes because they wore black shoes right oh he's a shoe right that was not a term of that was not a complimentary term right and and one of the reasons we we did that is because Naval Aviation is a much more relaxed culture it's a much more it's a a culture in which the most Junior and the most senior interact far more and far more collegially than in the surface Warfare

[25:18] culture where a junior person would almost never interact with the captain of a ship okay whereas in a in a Squadron the most Junior person in the Squadron a plane Captain would would have I don't want to say regular interactions with the Squadron Co but we'll have interactions with the Squadron Co and if they have an idea about something they can walk up to the Squadron Co and say sir I I have this idea that I wanted to share with you and he's almost for sure GNA listen unless he's he's busy and has to get to a

[25:53] meeting or something okay and by the way the same is that that kind of cultural closeness between Juniors and seniors is is also fairly similar in the submarine warfare Community okay um but but again it's so um but there are other differences there so because submarines are dealing with nuclear reactors you they're a very very nerdy Bunch even the most Junior person is and I I in this case I don't I'm not using nerd as as a

[26:29] an insult they're they're just very very smart smart people because they're dealing with a nuclear reactor and so again the the the whole feeling of the community is is very different so coordinating activities between communities that have different cultures is difficult and it can sometimes create problems of communication of of interaction of of of you know keeping their eye on the mission okay we we

[27:04] think of the the US military as as operating very seamlessly in a in a joint environment um but that's that's not at all true there are lots and lots of of issues that come up now the the US military today operates in Combined arms and jointly much much better than it did even 20 years ago certainly much better than it did 75 years ago during you know World War uh 2 Korea that sort of thing okay but the idea that the Army and the

[27:40] Navy work together seamlessly not really I mean the the the two branches that work together the most closely and the most regularly the na US Navy and the US Marine Corps because they're both they're called sister Services they're both part of the sea services even there there are profound cultural differences that make interop interoperation challenging at times and so if you have a an lhd it's type of amphibious ship that transports a Marine Corps unit the crew of the ship is Navy

[28:18] the people they're transporting are Marine Corps and there are oftentimes conflicts not big conflicts but they you know they just don't they don't get along they don't see eye to eye I've mentioned this before the some of the fiercest fights that my dad ever saw when he was in the military were between the Navy and the Marine Corps so the Navy would call the Marine Corps guys jarheads because they generally speaking a lot of them have shaved heads I guess and the the Marine Corps guys would call the Navy swabbi because they you they

[28:53] used to swab the decks with mops right so the Swabbies and the jarheads would into fights unless the Army showed up in which case the Swabbies and the jarheads would get together and beat the heck out of the army so that that was how it worked in my dad's time H he used to tell me these stories and we you know we'd laugh about them while I wouldn't say things are that bad these days that that that still is is around and so the the tradeoff of for example putting all watercraft with the Navy and

[29:28] all aircraft with let's say the Air Force is these branches of the service would really have to learn how to work together and and that can be a very tough Challenge and so the decision really kind of post World War II so uh going back to a little bit of History For a Moment during World War II there was a separate Department of the army and a separate Department of the Navy and the Marine Corps was part of the Department of of the Navy which which it still is

[30:04] to this day there's never been a separate Department of the Marine Corps okay post World War II I believe it was the Defense Act of 1947 if I if memory serves that's what created the Department of Defense which became the umbrella agency of the government under which both the department of the Army and the department of the Navy were placed and the newly created Department of the Air Force so it was when those branches were put under a unified

[30:39] command if you will of the Department of Defense that there really started to be a lot more coordination between what was going on in the branches so for example how rates and ranks were set up each branch prior to that I mean each Service uh uh prior to that had its own way of setting up rates and ranks after that the system of E1 through E9 and 01 through o1 I think is was the

[31:15] highest one in World War II or 09 that's when that was developed and each branch of the military had to conform to that system okay so so since World War II there has been a lot more coordinated action between the various service branches however they do not they do not interact seamlessly even today even today they they don't interact uh seamlessly so what does this mean then for our businesses and professions so as

[31:54] we look at adopting technology as we look at dealing with complex operations in our businesses in order to optimize our resources we need to look at this question of are we going to essentially duplicate training or are we going to require greater cooperation between different parts of our businesses okay and and it's it's not clear for any particular industry which

[32:32] is the better choice okay now when we talk about different training so the you know because of the way the Marine Corps uses aircraft and the Army uses aircraft and the Navy each of those has a a distinct training regimen having said that the fundamentals of flying are the fundamentals of flying so there's a lot of duplicate training that goes on among the service branches just getting qualified aviators who can fly either a fixed Wing or a rotary Wing aircraft and

[33:08] then it's after that when they go to more advanced Flight Training that they they learn the specifics of of what they're going to be doing for their service Branch so the same thing is is true in our businesses so let's take let's take AI so are we going to as we look to deploy AI a new technology are we going to look to have like a department of AI in our businesses where the people there go not

[33:43] only broadly but deeply into how AI can positively impact our businesses and our practices or are we going to let each of our exist departments adopt AI in the way that works best for them if we go with the first one so we can focus all of our AI training on that one Department okay and then the people within that department can coordinate

[34:19] with people in other departments to see how they can use their AI skills and AI techniques whatever whatever they do with it to help these other departments better achieve their missions better achieve their goals their their objectives that's one way of doing it another way of doing it is by letting each department handle it and then they'll have to develop training regimens for the the AI section in their Department right and then once those

[34:54] people are trained up on AI okay then they'll they'll figure out how to best use it within that specific Department in the same way that boats and aircraft work within the military okay which which is going to be better which is going to be more efficient I you know I can't tell you that we can look at the military example where they've done a dispersed model where each each service Branch figures out how to use new technology on their own

[35:30] whether it's well boats and aircraft now it's it's things for example drones so all the branches of the military use drones okay and they they train their own pilots and and all of that kind of thing so is is that the best way to do it I don't I don't know part of part of in the military is you have sort of historical inertia this is how the service branches have operated now for over a hundred years and they're they very jealously guard their their

[36:05] territory so to speak so um when there's not a lot for the Navy to do the Navy uh you know in terms of esec especially blue water activities the Navy will embed Sailors in ground units uh to do intelligence or whatever if if I were in charge I I wouldn't do that I would tell the Navy focus on keeping your skills up and what you're trained to do and if we need to shrink you right now because we don't have a need for a big bluew Navy

[36:40] then that's what we're going to do okay um but the the Navy likes you know they want to keep their personnel each branch of the military wants to keep its personnel and so it it finds things for them to do um even as the other service branches want to sort of keep you know keep the other ones out of their you know their domains so how will it best work in your business that's the question I think each of us as a business owner or as a professional that's the question we need to be answering do we want to create multiple

[37:17] training regimen within our VAR the various parts of our business or do we want to create a focused Department that that maybe is a a brand new department for our business that will go very very deep into the technology but then also have the responsibility to go broadly with the technology in order to understand how their deep knowledge can be put to the service of the other departments that are pursuing the mission of of your organization of your your company or your professional

[37:52] practice so that's the message I wanted to bring to you today in terms of optim in your resources I I invite you to think about that question and it's especially in the realm of AI I think it's that's going to become a a more and more important technology and and how it's deployed I it should be done intentionally as opposed to just letting it sort of come into our organizations and and be adopted sort of willy-nilly that that would be I think the worst possible way to deal with it better to

[38:29] give it considered thought try things out see how they work if they seem to be working well great and if not change how they're working you may want to even change from one of these models to the other that that it may turn out that initially you sub you select the wrong model you select let's say the separate department for the new technology model and and and then choose coordination is uh between that department and all your other departments that's kind of the the the CH that will be the challenge or and

[39:05] you may need to swap that out for the other model which is each department adopts technolog adopts Ai and figures out on its own how to use it and and you have duplicate training etc etc etc so th those those are my thoughts on this and and and you can see I I I think how this comes out of how military Doctrine in this particular case Doctrine and history so I'd be curious about what you think about this so after the show posts on YouTube uh there will be uh links to all the social media feel

[39:41] free to post a comment you can also email me my email address will be in the show notes as well uh would would would really love to hear your thoughts on this topic so that's the show for today tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time is my show uh people making money and our topic is relationships in the workplace now I'm not talking about interpersonal relationships I'm actually going to talk about that in in a future another episode what I'm going to be talking about is the types of relationships that

[40:18] we want to develop in the workplace in order to facilitate our success I've identified eight of them that's not to say we're going to cultivate all eight types but it's it's to give you a framework to think about which of these relationships do I need to develop which will be crucial to my success so that's tomorrow on people making money at 10: a.m. Pacific time and then on Thursday is my every other week show jigger's place and I have a guest this week Anna Rook who is the co-founder of aasha

[40:54] superfoods and Anna's going to be talking about how to live a healthy life and while her company is product based I think you will find that Anna has a very indepth view of what it means to live a healthy life so I hope you'll join me for that so I thank you so much for joining me today on on business lessons from the military and signing off as I always do oh one last thing before I go if you are not a subscriber I would ask you to consider subscribing to my

[41:30] YouTube channel uh we're up over 300 subscribers now I met my goal for this year and actually exceeded it so I'm going to continue to build but if you're a subscriber you'll get a notification every time we go live and and and a show post and so you'll never miss an episode of the various wait a while shows so thank you again for being with me and signing off as I always do Marie darling You Are My Bell but