Military Review English Edition July-August 2014 | Page 47

CULTURE OF INNOVATION

football team.1 Patton made a similar splash
with a letter in Cavalry Journal advocating the
creation of an independent Tanks Corps.2
Historians would later cite these articles as
“nothing less than a proposed tank doctrine
for the next war … what these two upstart
tank officers were suggesting would alter the
whole doctrine of land warfare.”3
Their invited guest that afternoon was a
rising star in the Army at the time named
Brig. Gen. Fox Connor. Connor had known
Patton for years but had just met the young
Capt. Eisenhower. After dinner the three
officers and their wives went to the motor
pool to give Brig. Gen. Connor a ride on a
British Whippet tank. Connor was so impressed with Eisenhower and his thoughts on
the future of armored warfare that he invited
him, at Patton’s urging, to become his brigade
executive officer. Decades later, President
Eisenhower would cite Connor as his most
important mentor during his long climb from
lieutenant to commander in chief.

MILITARY REVIEW  July-August 2014

Patton and Eisenhower were, to use a
modern phrase, disruptive innovators. They
were applying innovative solutions and creative approaches to a novel problem faced by
their military service (how to use tanks effectively).4 Their ideas, however, challenged and
even threatened the established organizations
and traditions of their respective branches.
The history of military innovation reveals that
this is not a new phenomenon. In fact, most
revolutionary ideas emerge from junior-level
practitioners—who are unlikely to be able to
refine or implement their innovations within
the straightjacket of the military bureaucracy.
What these innovators need is—
a means to connect with one another
for the purpose of refining and incubating
their ideas;
a forum to discuss their ideas; and
an understanding mentor