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252:: A well-led staff ride with a competent instructor on the campaign or battle site is an invaluable lesson for all. The instructor should set the stage at each stand, orienting the students to key terrain, and then guide the students through the discussion of the actions at each position, finishing the stand with questions that help spark deeper analyses of the actions. Understanding the
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167:, Kansas. Like the classic staff ride, the Leavenworth staff ride was originally conducted on horseback. However, rather than studying the role that a particular piece of ground might play in a future conflict, the participants in a Leavenworth staff ride studied the ground associated with a battle or campaign that took place at some point in the past.
270:: Integrating the insights and understandings developed during the staff ride and applying them to the current environment is crucial to the learning experience. At the end of the staff ride, the instructor should provide a final integration phase to examine the experience and firmly link the insights of the past to the army of today.
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were given to umpires, who decided what and when units would be sighted or encountered and passed the information back to the commanders and staffs. The exercise thus allowed the commanders to war game more realistically than on a table top. Critiques would take place at the conclusion of the staff rides. As an example, the
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The
Prussian staff ride evolved to an intermediate stage between table-top war games and army maneuvers. In this expanded form of staff rides, the commanding officers and staffs would deploy in the field as if at war, but without troops, with 'teams' for both sides. Reconnaissance and movement orders
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of the
Prussian Army, Moltke took his subordinates on riding tours of areas where, in the event of war, significant military events (such as battles or the deployment of large numbers of troops) were likely to occur. These exercises served the double purpose of training staff officers to appreciate
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In some instances, the
Leavenworth staff ride consists of a guided tour of the battlefield, with explanations provided by military historians, park rangers, or others with expertise on the events in question. In other instances, each participant is assigned the task of explaining the events of a
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In the 1970s, the U.S. Army revived the staff ride, replacing horses with buses and automobiles; expanding the range of battles and operations studied well beyond those of the
American Civil War; and extending the opportunity to participate to soldiers of all ranks and specialties.
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conducted in the places where the decisions at the heart of the case were made. That place could be a historic building, a scenic overlook, or a ship that has been turned into a museum. In most instances, however, it is a portion of a battlefield that has been preserved.
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describes three different types of military exercises and examinations, usually conducted on a particular future battlefield and/or area of operation for the purpose of preliminary reconnaissance, terrain study and tactical preparation. As the
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the operational and strategic significance of particular pieces of terrain and informing contingency planning. The term "staff" refers to the fact that participants in these exercises were originally members of the Great
General Staff.
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264:, and backgrounds of the key commanders is critical to understanding the battle. Properly prepared students will gain immeasurably from the experience of presenting information to their peers in this environment.
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have been subjected to modern military scholarly work, the idea and practice of battlefield examination and exploitation has been documented throughout history. As early as 500 years BC, the
Chinese general
242:: Participants study the battle or campaign in detail with guidance from the staff ride instructor. During this phase, each participant assumes a role or position to brief during the ride. This
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it requires active participation, where each group member assumes the role of a participant in the battle, and he is questioned by the others as to the view on what occurred in the battlefield.
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it is an educational technique for studying leadership, decisions taken and whether alternatives could have been employed, and
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Also known as an "on-site decision-forcing case" or a "Quantico-style staff ride", a decision-forcing staff ride is a
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and the various officer schools; however, staff riding is not limited to officers. Indeed,
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US Army soldiers during a staff ride in 2010 to a World War II battlefield in
Tunisia
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emphasized the rigorous study of the terrain. Notable military commanders, such as
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330:"Lessons of war. The significance of battlefield tours for the Dutch military"
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in the second half of the nineteenth century. While serving as chief of the
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Since that time, army schools have used staff rides to enhance professional
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Hannibal's Oath: The Life and Wars of Rome's
Greatest Enemy - Chronology
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have regularly studied the terrain and exploited to its full advantage.
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The staff rides conducted by Major Swift were invariably those of the
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The classic staff ride (a direct translation of the German term
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437:
Inventing the
Schlieffen Plan: German War Planning 1871-1914
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A properly conducted staff ride consists of three phases:
205:, too, find the process useful to understand higher level
217:; they also benefit from a historical view of training.
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Siri
Driessen, Maria Grever, Stijn Reijnders (2022).
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A staff ride differs from a guided battlefield tour:
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particular time and place to the other participants.
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United States Army Command and General Staff College
246:enhances the educational value of the staff ride.
537:United States Army Center of Military History
151:The Leavenworth staff ride was introduced by
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371:: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
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46:of all important aspects of the article.
387:"Austerlitz. The French Plans in Brief"
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42:Please consider expanding the lead to
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439:. New York: Oxford University Press.
343:(2). Informa UK Limited: 214–232.
139:was largely anticipated in one of
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452:The real German war plan, 1904-14
408:John Prevas (26 September 2017).
161:Command and General Staff College
122:) is a technique made famous by
197:(CGSC) and has continued at the
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191:military education and training
34:may be too short to adequately
529:Robertson, William G. (1987).
307:"The Art of War - 10. Terrain"
44:provide an accessible overview
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350:10.1080/23337486.2019.1651044
124:Helmuth von Moltke the Elder
86:Decision-Forcing Staff Ride
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518:"The Staff Ride Challenge"
454:. New York: History Press.
337:Critical Military Studies
203:Non-commissioned officers
522:Johns Hopkins University
450:Zuber, Terrence (2011).
435:Zuber, Terrence (2002).
143:'s pre-war staff rides.
389:. Battlefield Anomalies
82:Leavenworth Staff Ride
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281:decision-forcing case
176:Battle of Chickamauga
141:Alfred von Schlieffen
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559:Military terminology
137:Battle of Tannenberg
535:. Washington D.C.:
128:Great General Staff
103:Frederick the Great
414:. Hachette Books.
193:. It began at the
172:American Civil War
157:United States Army
78:Classic Staff Ride
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421:978-0-306-82425-8
240:Preliminary Study
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391:. Retrieved
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52:January 2019
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31:lead section
268:Integration
250:Field Study
199:War College
147:Leavenworth
120:Stabs-Reise
548:Categories
288:References
258:technology
215:leadership
73:staff ride
393:April 30,
359:202359149
313:April 30,
71:The term
36:summarize
99:Napoleon
95:Hannibal
84:and the
254:terrain
155:of the
114:Classic
91:Sun Tzu
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213:, and
80:, the
355:S2CID
333:(PDF)
293:Notes
163:) at
109:Types
416:ISBN
395:2020
373:link
315:2020
345:doi
101:or
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
