Clark Summers

This dissertation argues that a significant factor contributing to the successes of the American colonial militia against British regulars during the American Revolution was technological: the fusion of adaptive hybrid tactics acquired through contact with the Indians, combined with the superior accuracy and range of the Pennsylvania rifle. Each of these two technologies represent a unique and singular advance, however each by itself did not provide the advantages necessary for American militiamen to achieve tactical parity with British professional soldiers. The fluid maneuver and non-linear aspects of adaptive hybrid tactics were not sufficient to counter the shock effects of British regimental linear infantry tactics absent the long range accuracy and stand-off distances made possible by rifles. Likewise, the significant improvements of the Pennsylvania rifle over contemporary smoothbore muskets in range and accuracy were negated by its unsuitability for conventional infantry tactics. Only when both the technologies of adaptive hybrid tactics and the Pennsylvania rifle were combined would they provide a means for American militiamen to reach tactical parity. The original research presented here focuses on the experience of the Pennsylvania militia formations established and evolving over the course of the French and Indian War, and during the subsequent years of Pontiac’s War, from 1754 to 1765. In particular, the “Black Boys Uprising” of 1765 in the Conococheague Region of Pennsylvania serves as the index case, the first time American militiamen successfully defeated British regulars by employing adaptive hybrid tactics combined with accurate long-range rifle fires. This event demonstrates the means by which American militia might achieve tactical parity with British regulars

AT FIRST, THE obvious question concerning the role women will play in the U.S. Army in the next 20 years is, "When will we gender integrate the combat arms-Infantry, Armor and Field Artillery?" Surely all soldiers should have the widest possible opportunities to pursue the most demanding and critical jobs in the U.S. Army. These jobs exist to manage and apply violence upon the nation's enemies, "to kill people and break things," as an infantryman might put it. Haven't nearly 40 years of experience, and particu- larly the last decade of enduring combat operations, validated the fact that women have served successfully in every branch and military occupational specialty (MOS) open to them?Considering the problem of gender integration from this perspective, one sees there is no substantive difference in performing required tasks to their standards between equally trained and duty-qualified male and female sol- diers. If the vast majority of MOSs are equivale...

This essay argues that meeting the challenges of effective integration of Civil Affairs (CA) into twenty-first century strategies requires first addressing the shortfalls within commissioned officer training and acculturation within the US Army itself. These shortfalls reside in the DOTMLPF-P domains of Training and Leadership. Officer pre-commissioning training (Reserve Officers Training Corps) should be revised to include greater consideration of American Colonial low- and medium intensity conflicts prior to the American Revolution, particularly as they pertain to CA considerations. This would be an effective and economical means of better developing and utilizing Civil Affairs forces in the future.

Movies are perhaps humanity's most technologically demanding and intensive form of artistic expression. On the spectrum from most simple and least technologically reliant-such as a single mime, or a solo A'cappella singer-it might be argued quite reasonably that the production of modern cinema easily represents the extreme of technological dependence. Simply put, even the most simple of movies are exceedingly complex. Each is the product of integrated and interdependent systems, reliant upon the means of industrial production, and the availability of global markets of goods, services and markets. Regardless of its conception in the mind of an individual writer, or director, or producer, a movie's realization as a unique physical artifact, phenomenon, or manifestation of the original idea is only achieved through mass technology. In this sense, more so than any other artistic medium, modern cinema well-captures the zeitgeist of transhumanism, the emerging body of thought that believes technology is now providing the means for people to move beyond the physical and psychological limits of being human. It is therefore most appropriate that the most noteworthy expressions of the growing public awareness of the nascent issues surrounding transhumanism would be found in recent movies. 2013 was a very good years for films featuring Transhumanist themes. No less than three major motion pictures were released based upon these ideas, each featuring top Hollywood talent,