The Directed Telescope: A Traditional Element of Effective Command

“War is the redm of chance. No other human activity gives it greater scope:
no other has such incessant and varied dealings with this intruder. Chance
makes. everything more uncertain and interferes with the whole course of events.”
So wrote Karl von CIausewitz in his clas.sie, On WQ~. This inherent uncertainty
in war, when combined with exertion, danger, and chance, produces an everpresent
friction. The commander’s role throughout military ?&story has been to
reduce the uncertainties of war for his own side and increase them for his
enemy. Notwithstanding great advances in the arts and sciences of command
and control, the best commanders have traditionally used trusted subordinates
as extensions of their own minds as a way of penetrating the fog of war. This
technique has come to be called the “directed telescope.‘”
The Directed Telescope: A Traditional Element of .Effective Command, by
Lieutenant Colonel Gary B Griffin, was first published by the Combat Studies
Institute in 1985 as a CSL Report. Since its publication, Directed Telescope
has been widely read across our Army and quite a few others, and as the
Persian Gulf operations began several months ago, the study took on a particular
relevance and timeliness. Lieutenant~ Colonel Griffin examines the historic rote
played by liaison officers, aides-de-camp, and staff observers as extensions of
the commander. The study focuses on the relationship between several great
commanders and their liaison officers, as well as the systems, techniques, and
organizations they employed. With this study in hand, modern-and future commanders
can draw on an expert analysis of various command and control
expedients as they create new versions of the directed telescope.