Zachary Griffiths
You defend Vilnius by blowing the bridges.
A few years ago, during a warfighter exercise, my battalion was tasked to delay Donovian forces assaulting through Vilnius into the Suwalki Gap. While poring over the maps, I paused to wonder: Has Vilnius been fought over before? A quick search on Google and Google Scholar turned up examples from 1655, 1812, and 1944—all pointing to the same solution: blow the bridges. We did. It worked.
This is the power of what we might call a tactical literature review. In academic writing, literature reviews discuss and analyze “published information in a particular subject area.” A tactical literature review, then, systematically reviews historical accounts, today’s articles, and archives relevant to a specific mission or problem. Just as you might borrow the order for a rifle range from your sister platoon leader, the tactical literature review uncovers what others have already learned, so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
A Few Keystrokes from Everything
Professional writing is not just an institutional indulgence—it makes our Army more lethal. Historically, leaders faced with tactical problems could draw on little more than their training and experience—the total of reachable knowledge on hand. Leaders have always battled this challenge. During World War II, General George S. Patton carried along a small library with him and borrowed experience in European campaigning by reading German and French authors before the war began. In fact, the American Library Association even took libraries to war in World War I and II, bringing both reference texts and recreational reading to the front.
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