Download COLONEL JOHN R. BOYD, USAF, RETIRED (January 23, 1927

COLONEL JOHN R. BOYD, USAF, RETIRED
(January 23, 1927 – March 9, 1997)
Colonel John Richard Boyd was an American fighter pilot and
military strategist of the late 20th century whose theories have
been highly influential in the military and in business.
Born in 1927 in Erie, PA, Boyd was drafted into the U.S. Army in
1946, serving with occupation forces in Japan. In 1952, Boyd
attended USAF pilot training at Williams Air Force Base, AZ, and
went on to fly 122 Combat Sorties in the F-86 Sabre with the 51st
Fighter Interceptor Wing during the Korean War. Boyd attended
the Fighter Weapons School Instructor Course at Nellis AFB in
1954, and remained as an instructor at the school. A legendary
fighter pilot, he was known as "Forty-Second Boyd" because of his offer to pay $20 to
any opponent who could evade him for more than 40 seconds in air-to-air maneuvers;
none ever did.
In 1962, Boyd received a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech University.
The “Mad Major” then moved to Eglin AFB as an engineer where he developed his
concept of Energy Maneuverability. In 1965, he received the Air Force Systems
Command Scientific Achievement Award for work on Energy Maneuverability.
Throughout his military service, Boyd made a career of challenging the intractable
Pentagon bureaucracy, making enemies and a few devoted disciples who would
become known as "The Acolytes." With his revolutionary "Energy-Maneuverability”
theory of aerial combat, Boyd transformed the way military aircraft – in particular the F15 and F-16, deemed by many to be the most successful fighter aircraft ever built –
were designed.
Following a military career that spanned more than 25 years, Boyd turned down many
job offers from the defense industry in order to serve as an unpaid Pentagon consultant.
During these years, he worked on a new and radical theory of conflict that, at the time,
was mostly ignored but now is acclaimed as the most influential thinking about conflict
since Sun-Tzu.
Boyd's key concept was that of the decision cycle, and he coined the term “OODA
Loop” which described the process by which an entity (either an individual or an
organization) reacts to an event. In a briefing entitled “Patterns of Conflict” (1977),
delivered over the years to hundreds of military and civilian officials, he broke decisionmaking into a continuous four-step cycle -- observe, orient, decide, act -- and
demonstrated how the successful commander wins by “getting inside the loop'' to
disrupt and ultimately paralyze his opponent. The OODA Loop is now used in business
and industry as a standard description of decision-making cycles.
A popular anecdote credits Boyd for largely developing the strategy for the invasion of
Iraq in the first Gulf War. Boyd was called to Washington, D.C. in the weeks preceding
the war, to develop the plan under the supervision of then Secretary of Defense Dick
Cheney, currently Vice President of the United States.
In a letter to the editor of Inside the Pentagon, former Commandant of the Marine Corps
General Charles C. Krulak is quoted as saying "The Iraqi army collapsed morally and
intellectually under the onslaught of American and Coalition forces. John Boyd was an
architect of that victory as surely as if he'd commanded a fighter wing or a maneuver
division in the desert."
Although an acknowledged expert theoretician and strategist, Boyd never wrote a book
on military strategy. The central work encompassing his theories on warfare consists of
a several hundred slide presentation entitled “A Discourse on Winning & Losing” (1987),
which he gave over 1500 times.
Although stories abound of Boyd’s run-ins with leadership and his unique style, often
defiantly standing alone in defense of his theories and ideology, many leaders, including
Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, feel that Boyd
was “the most influential military thinker since Sun Tzu wrote The Art of War 2400 years
ago.”
A man of strong principles, Boyd frequently counseled young officers on their career
choices. He told them you can either BE somebody or follow your convictions and DO
something. John Boyd spent his life doing something. He was not only a fearless
fighter pilot with a laser sharp mind, but a man of rare moral courage. The mission of
providing America with the best airplane came first, followed closely by his love for the
troops and concern for their welfare. He is remembered by all those he touched over
the last half century as not only the original Top Gun, but a man who always had the
guts to stand tall and tell it like it is. He trained a generation of disciples in all the
services who carry on his good work, continuing to serve truth over self.