Investor's Business Daily, July 19th, 2007
John Boyd saw one way to do anything -- the best way. And if someone else couldn't show him the best way, he'd find it himself.
The brilliant Air Force fighter pilot (1927-97) thus created new methods of air and ground fighting that "changed the way every air force in the world flies and fights," said Robert Coram, author of the book "Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art Of War."
"Boyd was one of the most important unknown men of his time," said Coram.
His path to the top wasn't a straight shot. He had to overcome childhood hardships and, later, Pentagon rigidity.
His father's early death and sister's polio forced Boyd's mother to work three jobs from their Erie, Pa., home to support her five children. A brother's death after suffering from schizophrenia added to her burden.
She gave John good advice, Coram wrote: "People will seek out your weaknesses and faults, so tell them only of your strong points."
Boyd never tired of learning and sharing his knowledge, says Coram, and his focus was clear.
"He lived in a world of black and white, of right and wrong," the author said. But Boyd died thinking people would see him as a crackpot and failure, as a man who never made general.
Boyd fell in love with flying, thanks to drugstore chain founder Jack Eckerd, also of Erie. Eckerd took the fifth-grader up in his private plane as a treat.
Thrilled by flight, Boyd began drawing pictures of airplanes and learning more about them on his own. He also spent time developing his other skills; he won awards in swimming and water polo.
At 6 feet tall and 164 pounds, he was called "the merman" by classmates. But they mocked his hand-me-down clothes.
To get past the ribbing, Boyd adopted his mother's resolve, wrote Coram. She "stressed that if he worked hard and had integrity ... he would rise above those who snickered at his poverty, ridiculed his clothes and thought they were superior to him."
Determined to follow his dreams of flight, Boyd enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1945. But he failed to get into flight training school. The reason? The Army decided he had "low aptitude."
Discharged in 1947, Boyd earned an economics degree at the University of Iowa through the ROTC program. He wanted to prove the Air Corps wrong about his flying aptitude, so he joined the Air Force after graduation in 1951.
"He was first, last and always a fighter pilot -- a loud-talking, cigar-smoking, bigger-than-life fighter pilot," Coram wrote. Boyd flew 29 combat missions in F-86 Sabre jets against Russian MiGs in Korea.
His commander wrote, "The USAF needs more combat pilots of his caliber if we expect to fulfill the responsibility for the defense of our nation." Boyd continually experimented with ways to improve maneuvers. As an instructor at the Air Force Fighter Weapons School in Nevada, "40-second Boyd" defeated any pilot in simulated combat in less than 40 seconds.
Take his favorite ploy, called "watching the crowd go by." With an attacker on his tail, he'd throw his plane into a high-G barrel roll. The pursuer would zoom past, and Boyd became the attacker. "He was a thinking fighter pilot," said Coram. He taught pilots to think not just about their maneuvers, but also about the enemy's response and how to counter that response.
Constantly trying to give himself an edge, Boyd taught himself calculus to define fighter movements as math equations. To share his ideas, Boyd -- then a mere captain -- wrote the "Aerial Attack Study."
"When the U.S. Air Force declassified it, air forces the world over adopted it," said Coram. Later, Boyd funneled all he knew into a briefing called "Patterns of Conflict."
Superiors praised him. "One of the foremost authorities on fighter tactics," said one.
Boyd himself said: "What is the aim or purpose of strategy? To improve our ability to shape and adapt to unfolding circumstances, so that we can survive on our own terms."
Intrigued by new ideas, Boyd spent time researching his theories on aircraft tactics and design at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.
The Air Force noticed his innovation and sent him to the Pentagon to work on a fighter project. In 1968, he stopped flying to concentrate on engineering and tactics. The bomber-driven Air Force believed in "bigger, higher, faster, farther."
Boyd believed agility was more important than power and speed. He stuck to his theories and helped develop the F-15 and F-16. The planes are Air Force fighter mainstays.
Boyd was known for his commitment to quality. He was stern with contractors trying to sell inferior planes. When one designer's data showed his firm's plane would take off without starting its engine, Boyd said, "This airplane is made out of balonium."
After 24 years in the Air Force, he retired as a colonel in 1975.
He was devoted to perfecting flight for the armed forces. He volunteered to be an unpaid consultant, supporting his family on a meager pension. His lasting work came after he retired, says Pentagon analyst Franklin Spinney. "He had an inner drive to search for what he thought was the truth."
This story originally ran Oct. 30, 2002, on Leaders & Success.
