My first reaction is "You've got to be kidding"

but maybe this isn't so stupid after all.

In July, in a sharp break from tradition, the Army began encouraging its personnel — from the privates to the generals — to go online and collaboratively rewrite seven of the field manuals that give instructions on all aspects of Army life.

The program uses the same software behind the online encyclopedia Wikipedia and could potentially lead to hundreds of Army guides being “wikified.” The goal, say the officers behind the effort, is to tap more experience and advice from battle-tested soldiers rather than relying on the specialists within the Army’s array of colleges and research centers who have traditionally written the manuals.

source

I served a total of 14 years between the Army and the Navy most of it as Hospital Corpsman assigned to the Fleet Marine Force . One of my major complaints at the time was that instructions and training manuals were always years out of date with what was going on in the real world. This seems like an attempt to address that issue and that is a good thing, but I have concerns.

The idea behind doctrine is to have a common jumping off point for everyone. If it is constantly in a state of revision how is that supposed to work? Additionally most US military doctrine is extensively wargamed and tested in various exercises before it ever makes it onto paper but here it seems like anyone who has had one harebrained scheme work once can add it to the wiki and now it is accepted wisdom. That doesn't seem real smart to me. Granted according to the article there will be editors assigned to review each change but what will the criteria for review be, and if this program takes off what will the backlog be?

I hope the review is going to be strict because I have the feeling that the main users of this are going to be the people who feel like "the brass" can never do anything right and good knows wjat kind of moronic solutions they are going to propose.  If this program is utilized by responsible Officers and NCO's and suggestions are properly reviewed however I can see where it could be very helpful in addressing changing situations in a real time fashion.

Posted by: chad98036 at 05:42 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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