Quote Originally Posted by Cavguy View Post
However, I haven't yet seen anything to justify that he is the "Greatest American Military Theorist" that Lind & Co. claim him to be, or why I need to adopt a "Boydian mindset" above all others.
I would suggest that some of this comes from the impact Boyd's personality had on the individuals in question. My "drink the Kool-Aide" comment earlier was facetious in a way, but also intended to point out the impact that Boyd's personality had on people. From what I've read, he was one of those people that you either loved or hated. There was rarely any middle ground. This may in some small extent explain the appeal he had for the Marine Corps, which has a tradition of charismatic mavericks, and the violence with which many in the Air Force establishment rejected him (he wasn't a systems guy in their sense of the term).

One of the more interesting parts of Coram's book is his examination of Boyd's main acolytes (and that's the word he uses for them...and also if memory serves one they used for themselves). If you read that, it might help explain why Boyd has the impact on some people that he does.