lessons learned - a history of us army lesson learning by dennis j. vetock
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"This is a special study addressing a current concern and is based on the historical materials available at the US Army Military History Institute, a field activity of the Department of the Army. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Department of Defense or any elements thereof. Furthermore, this effortis not connected in any way with the US Army Center of Military History.""Let us ask how armies learn their lessons. We take for granted that armies seek to profit from their experience and thereby improve their performance. How, specifically, do theyaccomplish this? What procedures actuallytransform usable experience into improvedperformance? Whatever they are, theseprocedures should not be taken for granted but should be identified and analyzed. We need to know when and how armies - including our own - have made effective use of operationalexperiences. This need is more timely than ever for the US Army, since it recently established the Center for Army Lessons Learned (CALL).Unfortunately, no comparative or historical studies on the subject are available to offer insights and understanding to the new agency or to the Army as a whole. Lacking, too, is a coherent explanation of the lesson-learning phenomenon itself. What follows is intended to serve as the neededhistorical background." excerpt from the prreface