I had the privilege of being a reader on MAJ Jason Murphy’s master’s thesis from 2008, an inquiry into the art and science of sustainment and sustainment education. Throughout his career, MAJ Murphy had held every critical assignment you could want a tactical logistician to hold, and he did very well in them. He attended every school and then some, having earned his Masters in Logistics Science in conjunction with his graduation from Logistics Executive Development course. In short, he was as skilled int he science of logitics as you could reasonably hope based on his education, experience and aptitude.
Yet, when he found himself in Afghanistan, he quickly discovered that the challenges he faced extended immediately beyond the boundaries of pure science and calculation. In order to make things work at the operational level, he had to navigate the uncharted waters of the art of sustainment, incorporating the richly nuanced human dimension. He found that success usually came from an artful application of solutions tailored to a dynamic chaotic situation, one in which he found himself constantly surfing on waves of change. In time he developed a feel for the flow, and an intuition for what might work, and an innate appreciation for risk and risk management.
He came to CGSC and found more science than art in our curriculum and decided to make a more formal study of the situation, powered by the memory of his cognitive dissonance. Over the course of his year in SAMS he developed a number of insights into the relationship between art and science, comprising equal measures of tension, friction and mutual support. we’ve taken his insights to heart and engaged in deep reflection into how to accommodate a balanced treatment of sustainment as both art and science, working within the iron constraints of curriculum. This is work still in progress, and a work that ought to always be in progress, and in conjunction with other Army schools on our left and right, informed by the needs as reported by field commanders and our students upon arrival. Adapting is like systems thinking: once you start, you never stop.
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