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What is the best battlefield to do a staff ride at?

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  • What is the best battlefield to do a staff ride at?

    I've only done a staff ride to Antietam, which was quite fascinating to see the terrain and how the two opposing generals positioned themselves to command their forces.

    So, my question is, what battlefield is the best one to do a staff ride at?

    If I could, I think that one of the most fascinating ones would be to do the battle of Algiers and walk the Casbah and see how the French brought the FLN to its knees.
    "So little pains do the vulgar take in the investigation of truth, accepting readily the first story that comes to hand." Thucydides 1.20.3

  • #2
    Staff Rides

    Not surprising consider your military experience.

    Just led one of my least favorites, Gettysburg.

    My favorites that I have done, as a leader and student

    Fort Neccessity & Braddock's Retreat

    Ticonderoga
    Saratoga
    Lafayette/Arnold Virginia Campaign
    Yorktown
    Green in South Carolina

    Chippewa & Lundy's Lane

    Chickamauga/Chattanooga
    Red River
    Shiloh
    Vicksburg
    Fredericksburg
    Chancellorsville
    Antietam
    Wilderness & Spotsylvania
    Petersburg
    Atlanta

    Galipoli
    Verdun
    Meuse-Argonne

    D Day
    Battle of the Bulge

    I have been fortunate to have worked for bosses who like to do staff rides and have let me prepare for them on the clock!!!

    I am trying to convince my current boss that I need to do one for Midway. ;)
    “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
    Mark Twain

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    • #3
      Gallipoli?

      I can see all the others, but when did you squeeze that one in? Let me guess? An ouzo-induced side-trip from the Greek Isles?
      "This aggression will not stand, man!" Jeff Lebowski
      "The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool." Lester Bangs

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      • #4
        Little Big Horn

        Well staffed and researched. Easy to walk. Good views of the entire battlefield. Watch for snakes.

        May not be the best value from a tactical perspective. Then again,...
        "This aggression will not stand, man!" Jeff Lebowski
        "The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool." Lester Bangs

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        • #5
          No, back in the day, there used to be a little exerice in Turkey called Display Determination. My unit, the old 24th ID at FT Stewart (now 3 ID) used to participate. One year as a staff pogue I was along for the trip when our Division G3 Training, who had done the staff ride as and exchange officer with the British Army an dhad done a staff ride with them. He put that one together late in the rotation when we shoul dhave been doing something else. Very intersting to have a Turkish officer give his army's perspective.
          “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
          Mark Twain

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          • #6
            As a child in Israel I was somehow very fascinated with the US civil war. It is how I first discovered at what a great and powerful nation the US is.

            I was about 11 years old and we had a class about slavery, civil war in America, etc. I thought to myself how amazing it was how this civil war was fought. I can't think of another civil war where two sides were so uniformed and independent of one another and engaged each other in such standard conventional fashion. Standing armies fighting each other in a civil war in such major battles intrigued me.

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            • #7
              Galipoli
              To my extreme regrets, the Gallipoli battlefield is to a large extent wholly destroyed. Thanks to incompetent officials who succeded one another for the last 50-60 years -a typical case of corruption- the whole battlefield is "distorted" to say the least.

              The greatest Turkish military grave sits under a tourist bus parking lot, and the memorial of this grave sits on top of a hill that never saw any parking. Add to that, the razed trenshces, little guidance expect from guides who only tell folks tales "the bullets did not penetrate the mullahs flesh as they charged down the hills...", no museum remotely comparable to modern war museums, and Turkish citizens, who go to Gallipoli to pray to the souls of 1000s who fell there, without the remotest idea or knowledge of the battles themselves, and you get the idea.

              If you do not have extremely detailed sources, and self made maps or military maps -Turkish General Staff maps are very good and as a result not available to the Turkish public-, you will find the whole trip to Gallipoli a total waste of time.

              Oh, lest I forget, the scenery is beautiful.

              This comes from a Turk who is extremely disturbed by the situation the Gallipoli battlefield is in now.
              Last edited by Ucar; 02 Jul 07,, 12:32.

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              • #8
                Could someone please tell this ignorant civie what exactly is a staff ride?

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                • #9
                  Being a Tank Soldier I can honestly say that Cambrai in France is a must.

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by lazybastard View Post
                    Could someone please tell this ignorant civie what exactly is a staff ride?
                    I'm guessing that it's where a bunch of military types drive around an historic battlefield and discuss the tactics and strategy used while actually seeing the literal physical terrain and then comparing what they might have done, their observations etc.

                    Or something completely different than what I just said.
                    “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by TopHatter View Post
                      I'm guessing that it's where a bunch of military types drive around an historic battlefield and discuss the tactics and strategy used while actually seeing the literal physical terrain and then comparing what they might have done, their observations etc.

                      Or something completely different than what I just said.
                      Your guess is correct. :)
                      “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.” ~ Jimi Hendrix
                      "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
                      sigpic

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by TopHatter View Post
                        I'm guessing that it's where a bunch of military types drive around an historic battlefield and discuss the tactics and strategy used while actually seeing the literal physical terrain and then comparing what they might have done, their observations etc.

                        Or something completely different than what I just said.
                        You drive around on a safari. On a staff ride, you walk the ground ;).

                        In all seriousness, it does take walking the ground to make yourself aware of all the folds in the terrain. Seeing the ground mounted (on horseback or on a tank) can make a world of difference versus seeing the ground lying on your stomach (or even kneeling or standing).
                        "So little pains do the vulgar take in the investigation of truth, accepting readily the first story that comes to hand." Thucydides 1.20.3

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                        • #13
                          I've done walks on the Winchester battlefields. Not a whole lot to see.

                          But I was wondering about Waterloo and some of the sites in Spain where the French and British fought some major battles. What condition are they in and are they worth a walk over?
                          To be Truly ignorant, Man requires an Education - Plato

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Shek View Post
                            You drive around on a safari. On a staff ride, you walk the ground ;).

                            In all seriousness, it does take walking the ground to make yourself aware of all the folds in the terrain. Seeing the ground mounted (on horseback or on a tank) can make a world of difference versus seeing the ground lying on your stomach (or even kneeling or standing).
                            I stand corrected on stating that TH was correct. Well, on the driving part.
                            “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.” ~ Jimi Hendrix
                            "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
                            sigpic

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                            • #15
                              Thanks, guys. I guess knowledge of how the terrain changed over time (construction, erosion, etc.) is an absolute must for this, especially for some of the older battlefields.

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