RULE NO. 1
the way back to the Vietnam-era saga of the M16 rifle’s multiple malfunctions if you want another horror story of a techni- cal glitch costing friendly lives. Programs seem to have a life of their own some- times, a very real momentum. We’ve been getting better at killing programs lately, at various stages of their lives— usually fairly late—some deservedly, some maybe not. Usually the decision to cancel stems from money constraints or requirements waning, and thus ignores sunk costs.
Te parachute experience was NIGHT FLIGHT
U.S. Army paratroopers from 173rd Brigade Support Battalion conduct a night airborne operation with a C-130 Hercules from the U.S. Air Force 86th Airlift Wing, in Pordenone, Italy, in February 2015. The midair maneuvering that the MC1-1 aimed for was a strange goal to pursue: In combat, most jumps happen under cover of darkness and too close to the ground for Soldiers to have time to steer. (U.S. Army photo by Visual Information Specialist Massimo Bovo, Training Support Activity Europe)
irony. It
sucked. Because Rule No. 1 for anybody in the acquisition business should be, just like ol’ Hippocrates said to all future gen- erations of medical students, “First, do no harm.” Yeah, that’s right: Don’t kill the customer.
operational testing. But the thing had its own momentum by then. As in the failed Operation Market Garden, which is often attributed to “momentum” and groupthink, everyone was swept up in the notion of something new for the para- troopers. No one along the way had the guts to stand up and say, “Tis is wrong.”
Te brigade commander could have done it. He was at the end of his career. But I have to suppose he was trying to get promoted to brigadier general. He was definitely trying to “manage up” and please those above him.
I could have done it myself that day in Towle Stadium, but it likely would have had only the effect of my own embarrass- ment, since I was at the end of a long line of events that delivered the parachute to me and my troopers. I guess that’s why I resent this experience so much—because
132 Army AL&T Magazine January-March 2017
people got hurt and it made a sort of accomplice out of me. I was only mildly uncomfortable jumping the chute tacti- cally and became a master parachutist by the end of my tour. But I didn’t stand up for my men that day and tell the CO where he could put that parachute. Te acquisition system had let us all down, and I swore to myself I’d do my best to prevent such from happening again if I ever could.
Te only way I figured I could do that was to infiltrate the ranks of the “acqui- sition weenies” who were giving us this kind of crap: the scientists and engineers and testers and logisticians and bureau- crats who ran or oversaw this process that could allow people to be hurt by the very thing that was supposed to help them.
Unfortunately, the parachute tale isn’t that unique—it was just personal. Go all
JOHN T. DILLARD, COL., USA (RET.), is the academic associate for systems acquisition management at the Graduate School of Business and Public Policy, Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in Monterey, California. He began his Army service as a Ranger-qualified infantryman and master parachutist,
serving in the 1st Infantry
and 82nd Airborne divisions, and joined the NPS faculty in 2001 upon retiring from the Army after 26 years of service. He spent 16 of those years in acquisition, most recently as commander of the Defense Contract Management Agency, Long Island, New York. He has also served on the faculty of the U.S. Army War College and as an adjunct professor of project management for the University of California, Santa Cruz. He holds an M.S. in systems management from the University of Southern California and is a distinguished military graduate of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga with a B.A. in biological sciences.
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