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"The Plattsburg Manual A Handbook for Military Training"

We must know how to solve such problems if we
are to master our duties as officers.
Whether, as general or corporal, you are solving a problem on a map or
on the ground, your methods will be, in principle, the same. In the
former case your soldiers understand thoroughly all orders and do
exactly as directed. In the latter case your soldiers are human. They
get tired and sick. They go in the wrong directions and get lost
sometimes. One forgets, another is late, and the third misinterprets an
order, etc.
Here is the common-sense way in which an all-American quarterback
performs his duties. He studies carefully the opposing team (enemy) by
reports beforehand and on the field of the contest, to determine his
weak and strong points. The latter he wishes to avoid in directing his
attack. He considers his position on the field, the wind and weather, if
raining, etc., and then his different plays to hit the weaker parts of
the opposing line with the advantages and disadvantages of each. To his
well-trained mind all this is done in a flash, but the logic and causes
and effects of action are none the less present.


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