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Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > Military life & institutions > General
China is modernizing her military very rapidly and as her economy
strengthens, the pace of military modernization is going to touch
higher trajectories. This modernization would impact and alter the
existing strategic environment in the world. In the region the
impact will be more profound and will force her neighbors to rework
their own military modernization programs, war fighting doctrines
and their present position on relations with China and other
regional powers and the US. Today, in addition to issues relating
to human resource development, the biggest impediment is the
availability of technology to develop new modern weapon systems and
equipment. Will the drivers and trends of Chinese military
modernization continue to be same or will there be changes? How
will the modernization impact the PLA behavior, especially in its
neighborhood? How will the neighbors react to this stupendous pace
of militarization in the East Asia? What will be the role of Japan,
Vietnam, India, Russia and US? How will china's restive periphery
and PLA respond to the spread of Islamic fundamentalism? To
correctly appreciate these changes, an in-depth understanding of
Chinese military modernization is essential. This book is an effort
in this direction and attempts to find some answers to the
questions posed. The trends of modernization of the four services
of the PLA have been analyzed and a capability suggested that the
PLA is likely to have by 2025.
Military logistics is a relatively new word to describe a very old
practice; the supply, movement and maintenance of an armed force
both in peace time and under operational conditions. Logistic
considerations are generally built into battle plans at an early
stage. Without logistics, tanks, armored personnel carriers,
artillery pieces, aircraft are just numbers on a table of
organization and equipment. Through this book an endeavor has been
made to understand the logistics of People's Liberation Army (PLA)
of China. An introduction to the theory of supply chain management
and logistics of foreign Armies is discussed. Today 'Revolution in
Military Logistics' (RML) is taking place in the People's
Liberation Army. An attempt has been made to study this evolution,
development and rapid modernization of the People's Liberation Army
logistics.
The untold tale of the first year of the Centaurs in Vietnam as
told through the eyes of air cavalry helicopter pilots and grunts
who built a troop from the ground up at Cu Chi based on teamwork,
fighting ability, and guts. Climb aboard their Huey for an up close
and personal account of the war.
Not your typical war story, this book captures an unvarnished
account of how the Army formed an air cavalry troop in early 1966.
"Rookies to war," the pilots were plucked out of the skies of
places like Fort Rucker, Alabama, and joined by troopers from
across America to fight a guerilla war in the jungles and rice
paddies of Vietnam. There were no field manuals for this war, and
air cavalry was just a glimmer in the eyes of reconnaissance,
infantry, and artillery units.
This is the story of one year of the storied 25th Infantry
Division, 3rd Squadron, 4th Cavalry that left the paradise of
Hawaii's shores for the heat, rain, mud, and guerilla warfare of
Vietnam. The combination of helicopters, infantry, and a Long Range
Reconnaissance Platoon (LRRP) makes for compelling reading as you
follow the lives and battles of 30 different contributors.
There are stories of bravery and fear, ingenuity and
innovation, humor and sadness, boredom and electrifying insertions
and extractions of LRRP teams. In the end, you will grasp the
brotherhood of war and appreciate the sacrifices of those that
serve in the name of freedom.
The books title has an apparent misnomer-boots were not used in
early armies, at least as apparent from temple sculptures which
depict bare-bodied and barefooted soldiers. But is it likely to
have been true? Or social reasons led to suppression of footgear on
temple walls? The book explores these and myriad other questions on
the military experience of South Asia, hoping to construct a
picture of how men, animals, and equipment were used on South Asian
battlefields from the end of the Paleolithic till the dawn of our
era. Further, as all that happens on battlefields is no more than
the tip of the proverbial iceberg whose submarine mass conceals
many cause-effect relationships in a wide variety of fields, the
author, adopting a wide fronted approach, examines the evidence of
anthropology, literature, mythology, folklore, technology,
archaeology, and architecture, to reconstructs the military
atmosphere of South Asia beyond the battlefield, which is the aim
of this book.
Over 100 Australians who served in Afghanistan have committed
suicide since returning to civilian life. Partners and family
members also suffer, in their shared lives with emotionally scarred
war veterans. Ex-service personnel and affected relatives provided
author Ian Ferguson with fascinating first-hand information for the
esearch of Wars That Never End. Their confronting recollections
surfaced in personal interviews, and sometimes in Diggers' letters
and diary entries from front line battle fields, dating back to the
Boer War. Few publications candidly tackle the contentious issue of
mental health among combat veterans, so this book is a must read
for all discerning lovers of Australian war history.
Memorializing the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 is a study of a group
of memorials to soldiers who fought in a now nearly forgotten war,
and deals with the many factors influencing why there was such an
unprecedented number of memorials compared to those to previous
conflicts like the Crimean War, fifty years earlier. One of the
most important issues was the impact of changes in the organization
of the British Army in the late 1800s, particularly the creation of
locally-based regiments, heavily manned by volunteers drawn from
local communities. The book includes a detailed commentary on the
social conditions in England that also account for the
unprecedented number of commemorations of this conflict. It
discusses the variety of forms memorials took: informal - drinking
fountains, 'Spion Kop" stands at football stadiums; formal -
stained glass windows, statues, etc., and the numerous and diverse
places where they were located: cathedrals, town squares, public
schools and universities. The growth of the national press and the
rise of literacy is dealt with in detail, as well as the telegraph,
whose invention meant that news became available overnight. Space
is given to discuss the expression of Victorian prosperity in
public works. The part played by the established church is well
documented and an insight is given into the contribution of
Imperialism, patriotism and jingoism. All these factors explain the
motivation for the memorials' creation. The book is illustrated
with photographs and articles from newspapers of the day.
Appendices cover those who are not commemorated, lost memorials,
those who unveiled the memorials, colonial involvement and more.
Memorializing the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 will appeal
particularly to social historians and students of military and
social history.
Two yellowing envelopes in a long-untouched file, unmistakably of
U.S. Army origin but addressed to a North Carolina housewife,
caught the attention of her son as he sorted her papers after her
death. The postmarks, Virginia Beach, VA., and dated in 1942, were
puzzling, as was the official return address: 111th Infantry C.T.,
Mobile Defense Force. While the 111th regimental combat team could
be deciphered, the Mobile Defense Force was not a recognizable
term. The letters inside instructed her on the duties of a coast
watcher, and evoked memories stored since childhood: The sickening
thump of torpedoes striking U.S. ships just off the Currituck Outer
Banks and the flare of flames, particularly when a tanker was hit,
that were clear even to a youngster on his front porch 8 miles
inland. Each boom and pillar of fire revealed that more men were
dying in the freezing waters off North Carolina's barrier islands
that winter. How did the United States get into such straits that
its life was threatened as the Axis juggernauts rolled across
Western Europe and Asia? What transpired during the crucial years
when the outcome of the war could go against the United States as
Axis aggression flooded the Atlantic with U-boats striving to cut
the stream of ships laden with weapons, troops, and food flowing to
the beleaguered British Isles - the last Allied outpost near the
Continent? How did the Allies achieve victory first against the
U-boats, then the war, for as Napoleon observed: "It is only a step
from victory to disaster. "
The Marine Corps characterises itself as a crisis response
expeditionary force which is task organised and able to conduct
operations across the entire spectrum of military operations. The
Corps is a "middleweight force" that is designed to fill the void
in our Nation's defence structure between light Special Operations
Forces (SOF) and heavier conventional units. A number of decisions
pertaining to national security strategy, force structure, and
declining defence budgets have resulted in a draw-down of the
active Marine Corps. This book examines the draw-down of the Marine
Corps, as well as the force structure initiatives, roles and
missions, and the restructuring of the Marine Corps.
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