Welcome to my first ever blog
This is my first ever blog. So, here goes nothing.
As requested, I am to give a bit of biographical information on myself as well as answer the questions 1) why I'm taking WiMW and 2) what I hope to get out of it.
Bio first. I was born and raised in North Devon. My mother was the daughter of a Master Mariner and had a long and prestigious seafaring history in her family. My father is a Civil Engineer, which was a departure from his family's ancestral trend of soldiering, indeed, many of my father's ancesters' names feature on the roll of the Devonshire Regt.
Following the minimum required education, I enlisted into the British Army's Royal Corps of Transport in 1988 at the tender age of 16 years. As a soldier, I served in the British Army of the Rhine and the Arabian Gulf (Op Granby) with HQ 3rd Armoured Division, and in Turkey, Norway, Italy and Denmark with the AMF(L). I commissioned into the Royal Logistic Corps in 1995 and as an Officer have held a wide range of appointments and have deployed on most operations since that date, including several tours in the Former Republic of Yugoslavia.
In my current post as SO2 Surface Operations, Defence Transport and Movements Agency, I am responsible for the provision of surface transport assets to maintain UK Defence strategic lines of communication to operations worldwide. This includes control of the 6 x 2600 lane metre JRRF Strategic RoRo ships when commited to operations, chartering of merchant vessels as required and the coordination of strategic road and rail lines of communcation. Basically, unless it flies, I am responsible for it.
Here's a picture of one of my ships:
I am married and have 4 children, 2 of which have predeceased me through life-long illness. My surviving children are both boys, aged 3 years and 10 months respectively. My wife is a passenger services agent with Virgin Atlantic Airways (free flights!) and both of my sons are on the books of london model agencies.
When I am not chartering ships or studying, I am likely to be training for my chosen sport of cycling time trials. I have been a member of the Army cycling squad and have competed at Inter-Services and National level. I try to train for at least 12 hours a week and am preparing for 2006 to be my most successful season of competition to date. I am also a keen guitarist and have the lofty ambition of being able to play every lick and solo recorded by the Metallica lead guitarist, Kirk Hammett.
My reasons for taking WIMW and what I hope to get out of it are simple. I see it as the natural progression of my personal development and military eduaction. The broad knowledge that I hope to gain on this course will help to make me a better informed and more effective soldier. Bucket anyone?
When I am not chartering ships or studying, I am likely to be training for my chosen sport of cycling time trials. I have been a member of the Army cycling squad and have competed at Inter-Services and National level. I try to train for at least 12 hours a week and am preparing for 2006 to be my most successful season of competition to date. I am also a keen guitarist and have the lofty ambition of being able to play every lick and solo recorded by the Metallica lead guitarist, Kirk Hammett.
My reasons for taking WIMW and what I hope to get out of it are simple. I see it as the natural progression of my personal development and military eduaction. The broad knowledge that I hope to gain on this course will help to make me a better informed and more effective soldier. Bucket anyone?
posted by Nick Dymond @ 13:30
4 comments
4 Comments:
Hello Nick, thanks for introducing yourself with such a long and detailed post. I wonder if you've ever read Martin Van Creveld's Supplying War: Logistics from Wallenstein to Patton? It's a classic text on the strategy of logistics. No doubt you got a healthy dose of it at the Staff College. What do you make of it? Van Creveld's a provocative author and I often wonder what practitioners actually make of his arguments.
You certainly seem to have a full and rich life. Metallica?! Ah, memories of my youth are flooding back. I had a girlfriend in high school who ditched me for a guy who had a heavy metal T-Shirt stand. She met him at a Metallica concert in Toronto which I brough her to. I guess she sensed somehow that he had better prospects!
Welcome to the course.
Hello David.
I have a copy of Van Crefeld's 'Supplying War' on my desk. Inside is the inscription "presented to Second Lieutenant NRM Dymond by The School of Logistics upon commissioning into the Royal Logistic Corps".
The book has proven to be more than an occasional ally in my career to date, full of conversational anecdote (for those who believe military logistics is an art) and apparently well-researched historical data (for those who think it's a science). Van Crefeld's final chapter entitled 'Logistics in Perspective' provides as useful a starting point as any when seeking to bridge the gap between the traditional perspective of a supply chain in the 'linear' and the more contemporary idea that sees formations deployed in response to a wider, less sporting (dare I even go as far to say, assymetric), enemy threat. Archer Jones' book 'Art of War in the Western World', whilst not a logistics/military supply chain specialist title, is IMHO a better read with some good chapters on the subject.
By the way, military logistics is a science. The art is in it's application.
Nick
A Kirk Hammett devotee! Certainly a lofty but worthwhile aspiration.
Simon
Kirk Hammett is the man. Some might say that the true force behind the success of Metallica is all down to the tight chugging high-gain baritone riffs of rhythm guitar man, singer and principle lyricist James Hetfield. But no, for me its Kirkyboy any day. So what if Yngwie Malmsteen referred to him as 'tone deaf' in his 1988 interview with Guitarist Magazine, what does he know with his pouty lips, curly hair, Niccolo Paganini influences and unmistakable wide vibrato?
Post a Comment
<< Home