Ok…picture this…
The table has been cleared. Everyone has enjoyed a big dinner. Turkey, ham, dressing, potato salad, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cornbread, biscuits, gravy, green beans wrapped in bacon, Iced tea, pecan pie…you get the picture.
Support personnel take the time to relax and enjoy a good football game because they know things will be busy for them soon enough. The generals are the ones who are busy right now.
Operational planning is the business that needs to be attended to. D-day has been established. Now, the real work begins. Details as to how the operation itself will play out need to be made. 
- Where will command and control be located?
- How will the transportation assets be allocated?
- Where are the expected points of resistance and can the plan work to use this to our favor?
- How will supply/logistical elements be coordinated to keep operational units operational?
- The list goes on…
Planning operations takes a while. You may go through a few different variations before you end up with the plan that successfully achieves the overall objectives in the most efficient manner. Plus, a lot of times, you can draw cool maps! And before all you history buffs say anything, I know the map is from the Japanese offensive in the pacific and has nothing to do with Gen. Eisenhower in Europe…lol…it was just a cool looking map.
You see, we are not talking about planning a global war really…just Black Friday.
Look at the header image and imagine it being set at my mother-in-law’s dining table in her dining room as opposed to in the stark, drab room in which Allied forces planned the offensive against Nazi Germany. Replace the folks around the table with my wife, two sister-in-laws, a daughter and a niece. I would be the one sitting on Gen. Eisenhower’s left with the look on my face like, “y’all are really taking this seriously.” The scenario is exactly the same…lol
They do take it seriously (just try walking away from the table with one of those intelligence reports…I mean, sale ads.)
I don’t even know what ‘the big thing’ is nowadays. I remember when it was that one toy that all the kids wanted…Cabbage Patch Kids…Tickle Me Elmo…Furbies. Now it is more about the flat panel TVs and iPads.
My thinking is a lot like the soldiers and marines fighting the wars. We are always thinking that our way is easier than the way the generals have it planned. Things like, “let’s just bomb them into the stone age, then walk in. That’d be better than fighting for every bridgehead, crossroads or town square.” In this instance, “let’s wait a day or so and pay $20 more for the same TV. One, it won’t be so hard to find a parking spot and two, we won’t have to risk bodily injury when we get run over by the little ladies mowing folks down to get to the big tins of flavored popcorn for $1.78.”
But of course, as in war, when the soldiers disagree with the generals, the generals have the final say-so. So it is when the wives generally have the say-so when it comes to shopping.
Anyway, enough of my nonsense for now. Y’all stay safe out there tomorrow. Me? I will cruise around with my wife tonight checking out all the folks in tents outside the BestBuy and the Target…call it last-minute reconnaissance. In the morning, I will happily say, “sorry, I gotta go to work honey.”
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