Project White Horse Forum

Essential Elements of Information for a Culture of Preparedness
We continue to discuss the idea of “team of leaders.”  This video well worth your time. Thanks to John Robb at Global Guerrilllas.  See his site for comments.

But let’s take this one step further into the context of  “What kind of war”  determination as impacting how we [...]

 Essential Elements of Information for a Culture of Preparedness

A  ”lesson in aerodynamics” might be of interest as painting- hopefully- a useful “picture” of the period from  shortly before the September 11, 2001 8th hour, 46th minute, 40th second impact of American Airlines Flight 11, on through the remainder of the day as initial reaction and response took [...]

Essential Elements of Information for a Culture of Preparedness
 “At this stage, the drug cartels are using basic infantry weaponry to counter government forces,” a U.S. government official in Mexico said.  “Encountering criminals with this kind of weaponry is a horse of a different color,” the official said. “It’s not your typical patrol stop, where someone [...]

 Essential Elements of Information for a Culture of Preparedness

“Man is a peculiarly constructed animal who cannot read the handwriting on the wall, until his back is up against it.” Unknown
 TAMPA – Retired Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, speaking at the America Association of State Troopers Law Enforcement Training Conference asked law enforcement officials Monday if [...]

 Essential Elements of Information for a Culture of Preparedness
The military, facing a complex and intractable mixture of “wicked problems” on the battlefield, has responded with a doctrinal revolution in the production and practice of operational theory.  But most police agencies don’t incorporate the “operational level of maneuver” into their planning and concept of operations.   We [...]

Essential Elements of Information for a Culture of Preparedness
Why would our societal orientation in complex, dynamic, fast moving situations be good when our educational system trains people only to think through simplified, linear, sequential problems? Strategic thinkers need to be able to see “the big picture” and handle uncertainty, or they cannot be said to be strategic thinkers.
The ship [...]

This current series of posts  links a discussion of culture of preparedness to both the resilient community concept and to the environment in which that community must persist.  For a wider perspective, the editors of Global Dashboard, Alex Evans and David Steven offer a perspective of the concept of resilience as the core of a new [...]

 
By Captain Charlie Meinema
Tacoma Washington Police Department

 
Disasters may be local, but few are.  Even local disasters are not local, as Yogi Berra might say.   This is often because criminals, explosions, terrorists and fires fail to respect jurisdictional borders, and / or because the crisis – even if inside one geographical or jurisdictional boundary – is [...]

The goal of emergency and crisis response is to reduce output variability in a context in which inputs are highly variable; to that end, crisis response is, in part, about creating an orderly arena within a chaotic environment. … research on High Reliability Organizations (HROs) has suggested that some complex, hazard-managing organizations, for which failure is [...]

Culture:  The sum of attitudes, customs, and beliefs that distinguishes one group of people from another. Culture is transmitted, through language, material objects, ritual, institutions, and art, from one generation to the next.
In our case groups of people who defy being victims, those who realize survival is an ongoing team process, an ongoing learning endeavor [...]

I’m very pleased to announce that Project White Horse 084640 Edition #8 – A Culture of Preparedness and Intersectional Ideas  – is now on line.
The last two editions have provided perspective on “resilient communities” and leadership required. In Edition #8 we shift from providing “perspective” to creating actionable understanding and answers. The first part of [...]

Invest in preparedness, not prediction…I will never get to know the unknown since, by definition, it is unknown. However, I can always guess how it might affect me, and I should base my decisions around that.”     The Black Swan, Nassem Nicholas Taleb
 
In  2001, the Defense Science Board investigated what they termed  “a revolution in training.”  
The superb [...]

Forty years ago, 3 March 1969, the first TOPGUN class  began “graduate level” fighter pilot education and training at Naval Air Station Miramar at the Fighter Weapons School. They were there because eagles screamed.
They were there because fighter pilots will not accept failure. In 1966 North Vietnamese fighter pilots (flying MiG 17 Frescos and MiG 21 [...]