[lookout123]

I am finishing up an excellent book that i would recommend to anyone interested in A) flight, B) combat, C) the military, D) the pros and cons of an unbending spirit.

The book is Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed The Art Of War, by Robert Coram. Available in Hard/Softcover.

When i picked it up i thought it would be a good biography of a fighter pilot who bucked the system. It goes much deeper than that. John Boyd really did change the way wars are fought. Although he despised the products that eventually took to the air, he is the mind behind the F15 and F16 and was also influential in the A10.

After he retired from active duty he began to study the process of creativity and how to think outside of the box, long before Smalley, TQM, and all the rest of that BS rolled into town. In fact, he was not interested in thinking outside the box, instead choosing to blow the box up and see what happens.

Unfortunately, his straightforward personality closed a lot of doors to him in his career, but if he had been any different he wouldn't have accomplished what he did.