Episode 208: Best of the General Board

Though over three years old, this topic remains at the top of the list of importance and if you are a new listener to Midrats and haven't listened to it yet - this is required listening.

If you caught it in a previous year, then it is well worth a relisten.

Look at the performance of the US Navy in World War II - those ships came in the shipbuilding programs of the 1920s & 1930s. At a time with no computers or modern communication equipment - and working through the naval treaty limitations and the Great Depression - we saw incredible innovation & steadily improving ship designs. Why? 

A lot of the credit is given to something the Navy had then, but does not have now; The General Board.

What was The General Board, what did it do, and is the Navy today suffering for the lack of one?

Our guest is John T. Kuehn, CDR USN (Ret) PhD. A former naval aviator, he completed cruises aboard four different aircraft carriers. He flew reconnaissance missions during the last decade of the Cold War, the First Gulf War and the Balkans. 

Kuehn has served on the faculty of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College since July 2000. He earned a Ph.D. in History from Kansas State University in 2007. He is the author of the Agents of Innovation: The General Board and the Design of the Fleet that Defeated the Japanese Navy, and Eyewitness Pacific Theater with Dennis Giangreco.