SW045 Dade Battlefield Staff Rides Instruct Present-Day Military Leaders in Challenges of Command When Under Fire in Irregular Conflict

George Webb, a former Florida State park ranger, portrays a trader of the 1830s. He briefs British officers and NCOs from US Central Command on a military staff ride to the Dade Battlefield.

The Dade Battle of December 28, 1835 is considered one of the U.S. Army’s most lopsided defeats. How an Army column could allow itself to be caught so unaware of a hostile adversary in its midst is a question that military professionals still ask to this day. One way to answer that question is through what's called the Military Staff Ride.

The staff ride puts military leaders in the figurative shoes of the officers and men of Dade's column. Although the battle was part of what is now called “irregular warfare,” today’s leaders—uniformed and civilian—can find ample opportunity to highlight the role of all warfighting functions with a particular emphasis on intelligence, fires and protection. Was the outcome foreordained? Would it be foreordained in the contemporary world? How might today's leaders have conducted the march and the battle differently had they been in charge? Listeners will not be surprised that the insights gleaned from conducting the Dade’s Battle staff ride are as relevant today as they were over 175 years ago.

With us today to discuss the Military Staff Ride and specifically how one is conducted at the Dade Battlefield is David A. “Scotty” Dawson, the civilian command historian for U.S. Central Command, at MacDill Air Force Base, in Tampa, Fla. Scotty is a retired Marine Corps colonel with numerous combat deployments to his credit. 

Reenactor Steve Rinck, Seminole Wars Foundation president, portrays Irish-immigrant Pvt. Paddington McCormick -- Paddy to his friends. Paddy explains the miserable life of a U.S. Army recruit in Florida to British officers and NCOs from US Central Command visiting Dade Battlefield on a military staff ride in the summer of 2016.

The British Army military contingent (in civilian clothes) and three living history reenactors (front row) portraying a trader, a Seminole warrior, and a U.S. Army soldier, pose for a group photo after completing the Dade Battle staff ride. The reenactors explained their character and the part they played in the Second Seminole War. Our guest this week, Scotty Dawson,  command historian for US CENTCOM, is standing in the back row, third from the left (white hat). Seminole Wars podcast host, Patrick Swan, is in center rear (wearing safari hat). Summer 2016. 

The Staff Ride Handbook for Dade’s Battle, Florida, 28 December 1835 is published by The Combat Studies Institute at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. Authored by Michael G. Anderson, this extensively researched handbook examines this opening conflict of the Second Seminole War. He uses it as a vehicle to allow organizations at any echelon to study leadership at the tactical level.

Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. He is a combat veteran and of the U.S. Army, serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Kosovo, and at the Pentagon after 9/11. A military historian, he holds masters degrees in Public History, Communication, and Homeland Security, and is a graduate of the US Army War College with an advanced degree in strategic studies. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Florida. 

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