Petronius Didn't Say It !

on wikipedia I recently ran across this interesting vignette on one of the first and most poignant of authors that fired my military history interests - Charlton Ogburn, Jay Luvass (who presented me with his book on LTG Eichelberger after escorting him at USMA in '76), Kenneth Roberts, Burt Loescher, Lloyd Lewis, Bruce Catton, JFC Fuller, Robert Utley, Clay Blair, Ward Just, Christopher Sykes, Paddy Griffiths, Shelford Bidwell, Charles N. Hunter and many more)

But I digress:

I was intrigued to learn that the above favorite apocryphal quotation of mine came from Ogburn!

"The following quotation, or variants of it, is frequently misattributed to Petronius. The quotation actually is by Charlton Ogburn, Jr.

We trained hard ... but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.

Ogburn authored this in an article published by Harper's Magazine in 1957. This recounts his experiences as a junior officer in the famous World War II U.S. Army unit known as Merrill's Marauders, and the quoted passage refers to his somewhat chaotic early training. In full, it reads as follows:

We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganised. Presumably the plans for our employment were being changed. I was to learn later in life that, perhaps because we are so good at organising, we tend as a nation to meet any new situation by reorganising; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralization."

"Charlton Ogburn, Jr. (15 March 1911 - 19 October 1998) was an author and freelance professional writer. He was the author of over a dozen books and numerous magazine articles. The Marauders (1959), his first person account of the Burma Campaign in World War II, may be his best-known work; it was later made into the film Merrill's Marauders (1962)." source-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlton_Ogburn