Clarifying Command: Keeping Up with the (John Paul) Joneses
B. A. Friedman and Olivia A. Garard
April 7, 2020
Commentary
Editor’s Note: This is the first article in a series on command philosophies and command technologies.
During the American Revolution, rebel commissioners granted John Paul Jones the ability to operate “in the manner you shall judge best for distressing the enemies of the United States.†With the order, Jones had everything he needed to act. He eventually decided on a specific target, approach, and method: conducting a small-boat raid against Whitehaven harbor on April 23, 1778. His amphibious raid against the coast of England, during which his crew spiked enemy cannons and set fire to ships, provoked chaos behind British lines, causing mass panic and forcing the British to commit troops to defend their coastline over the following months.
B.J. Armstrong’s Small Boats and Daring Men details the mission and its effects on the British: misinformation, quadrupled insurance rates, impressments to conduct coastal defense, false alarms, and the lore of “Pirate Paul Jones†as a political threat. The American commissioners did not have the situational awareness to plan John Paul Jones’ raid, let alone carry it out. They left it to Jones, with his proximity, understanding, resources, and ability, to execute. Though the harassment was successful in the end, Jones still encountered the enduring friction of warfare: His crew’s candles, which were supposed to provide the spark for the ship fires, extinguished. Fortunately, Jones had the flexibility and authority to overcome and embrace uncertainty — the crew foraged for fire, found tar (an accelerant), and accomplished the mission.
https://warontherocks.com/2020/04/clarifying-command-keeping-up-with-the-john-paul-joneses/
