Before the Korean War, the primary mission of Lt. Gen. George E. Stratemeyer's Far East Air Forces was air defense of the Japanese homeland. Most of the aircraft constituting Stratemeyer's inventory were interceptors, not designed for the type of combat that would be required now that the United States was joining in the UN effort to end the war in Korea. The Joint Army/USAAF doctrine of 1946, known as Field Manual 31-35, Air Ground Operations, was also considered outdated in the present circumstance. A new approach to warfighting had to be developed in response to the strong influence of General Douglas MacArthur and other of his air officers in the Army-dominated General Headquarters Far East Command. Close air support of the ground forces as provided by Fifth Air Force came at some cost, and tempers flared in the process, but the air commanders in Korea never deprived the ground commanders of close air support if it was needed. Indeed, without the close air support provided to the airmen, the ground campaign would have been a much more bloody and difficult affair than it was.

The Combat Studies Institute provides a wide range of military, historical, and educational support to the Combined Arms Center, Training and Doctrine Command, and the United States Army. The Combat Studies Institute researches, writes, and publishes original interpretive works on issues of relevance to the US Army. The Combat Studies Institute (CSI) publication collection contains reports and books pertaining to American history, military guidelines, foreign affairs, and more. Titles featured in this collection include: Art of War Papers: Protecting, Isolating, and Controlling Behavior, Law of War: Can 20th Century Standards Apply to the Global War on Terrorism? and Traditions, Changes, and Challenges: Military Operations and the Middle Eastern City. This title is one of many in the Combat Studies Institute collection.

"Wounded" is an eloquent, gritty account of the ordeal suffered by injured American soldiers during Operation Iraqi Freedom. The human elements of courage, love, fear, and sacrifice paint an intriguing picture of the reality of war. Author Ed Hrivnak, a flight nurse witness to the pain and suffering, offers a heroic narrative for the reader. There are valiant accounts of battle followed by the reality of life altering injuries, and how troops support each other and persevere.

"Wounded" closes all gaps between the reader, the injured troops in the field, and the medevac personnel helping them during their darkest hours. The book offers a unique look at what it was like to evacuate wounded at the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Hrivnak wants the reader to fully understand the price of war. This international odyssey transcends the casualty statistics forgotten in the news. A wounded soldier is a human being who is vulnerable and weakened. Those who care for them, at times struggling to maintain life, are also scarred. These men and women are an incredible source of strength, courage, and devotion.

"Wounded" completes Captain Hrivnak's original journal, featured in the Emmy winning and Oscar nominated film, "Operation Homecoming. "

This book contains the personal journey and incredible struggles of a combat tested Air Force Chief Master Sergeant. Reading this book is like taking a tour back in time to the peak of the war in Iraq. The reader will feel the stress of being under attack, know the agony of seeing brothers in arms being wounded and patched up, and most importantly, feel the pain a leader carries with them when troops are killed in action. During this journey, Chief Scott Dearduff and his commanding general lead thousands of Airmen stationed across the entire country of Iraq. During that 12 month tour of combat duty, 13 of their Airmen were killed in action. The chief details the struggles that a leader deals with during those most difficult of time. He also shares the internal battle that he felt by being at war again while his family waited for him at home, not really knowing if he would make it home again. This book is not about killing the enemy, but more about those who served and those who sacrificed to meet the demands of the mission. The reader will feel like they have been to Iraq when the book is done. It should be read by every mother, father, sister, brother, friend and family member of any US service member who served in Iraq. These stories, which are never told on the national news, will help you understand that there is passion and compassion in war time, even on the darkest of days.

In the summer of 2010, a unit of Danish soldiers known as ISAF-10 deployed to Afghanistan under British command. In Helmand Province, they tried to secure a fragile peace while dealing with the challenges of training an often apparently indifferent Afghan police and army, ensuring a functioning collaboration with the British despite insufficient military intelligence and divergent military cultures, and fell under frequent attack by an increasingly sophisticated and deadly Taliban. In this remarkable book, Kjeld Hald Galster tells their story. He also looks at the wider picture, examining coalitions ranging from Ancient Greece to the Cold War. Exploring the millennia-long history of coalition warfare, he looks at what makes them work, the lessons they teach us, and how they reflect - and predict - the rise and downfall of the coalitions of the willing in Afghanistan and Iraq, and those yet to come.

Despite the vast research by Americans on General Matthew B. Ridgway's miraculous transformation of the Eighth Army during the Korean War, few studies have examined his operational approach, while contrasting it with General Douglas MacArthur's. The constructed reality that emerges from the literature is that General MacArthur's operational desires led to a strained relationship with President Truman and ultimately limited his ability to employ forces in the manner he believed necessary to defeat the Communist Chinese Forces. Similarly, the impression of General Ridgway painted by historical text is that sheer will stopped and turned around the frantic retreating army, which subsequently halted the CCF advance and pushed the communists beyond the 38th Parallel. Army Design Methodology provides a powerful tool for viewing these actions in a new perspective. This monograph examines the actions of General MacArthur and General Ridgway and their application of critical and creative thinking to the problem created by the entry of Communist Chinese Forces onto the Korean Peninsula in October and November of 1950. This study details the significant reframing that characterized the methods applied by General Ridgway during 1950 and 1951, providing future operational commanders a relevant historical example of Army Design Methodology in action.

Includes many full color illustrations and maps.

The city of an-Najaf, Iraq, is a provincial and market center located on the western branch of the Euphrates River approximately 100 miles south of Baghdad. Its population (prewar) of 563,000 expands at times with pilgrims to this important center of Islamic scholarship and theology. It is the location of several significant shrines for Shi'a Muslims and boasts one of the largest cemeteries in the world. Its more recent history has been marked by conflict of a political nature as the place of exile for Ayatollah Khomeini and site of the assassination of Ayatollah Mohammad Sadiq. It served as the location of Shi'a resistance to perceived political oppression and was a place of battle once more in 2004. This is a "battle study" written purposely from the perspective of the Marines, soldiers, and sailors who fought at an-Najaf in August 2004. Some context is needed to fit these events within the evolution of the campaigning in Iraq in 2004. The Americans deployed to al-Anbar and an-Najaf Provinces, faced a variety of threats as Iraq attempted to again govern itself. Threats were from disparate sources, including Sunni fighters in Fallujah and Shi'a fighters in Najaf. Behind each was the possibility of al-Qaeda in Iraq or criminal exploitation of any disruption of Coalition efforts to establish responsible Iraqi Government. This complexity of threats did not lend itself to easy solutions. In March 2004, Lieutenant General James T. Conway's I Marine Expeditionary Force was faced with an outbreak of Sunni insurgency in Fallujah. At the same time, a Shi'a uprising took place across Iraq, including Baghdad, Najaf, an-Nasiriyah, al-Kut, al-Amarah, and Kirkuk. The fighting spread to Karbala, Hillah, and Basrah with attacks on Iraqi and Coalition outposts. This fighting dropped off in June with the establishment of the Iraqi Interim Government of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, but the menace of further violence remained. The Multi-National Force-Iraq, under General George W. Casey Jr., USA, felt that before the Iraqis could be responsible for security in each province, the centers of violence had to be dealt with by a "clear-hold-build" approach. Baghdad, Fallujah, and Najaf were thus targeted. When Muqtada al-Sadr fomented another uprising in August, the recently arrived 11thMarine Expeditionary Unit found itself assigned to quell the uprising in Najaf. It would be reinforced for this effort by two U.S. Army and four Iraqi Army battalions. The narrative that follows documents this effort from the small unit level. The importance of the close relationship between political and military force is emphasized. The intent is to provide a view of combat for the education and training of Marines who might face similar circumstances.

In commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Korean War, the official history offices of the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force and their respective historical associations collaborated to sponsor as comprehensive a symposium as possible, including as participants some of the coalition partners who contributed forces and weapons to the war. The intent of this symposium, titled Coalition Air Warfare during the Korean War, 1950 -1953, was to focus not only on the contributions made by the armed forces of the United States, but also on those of America's allies. The diverse group of panelists and speakers included not only scholars with subject matter expertise, but also veteran soldiers, sailors, and airmen who had served in that conflict. It was hoped that the melding of these diverse perspectives would provide interesting, if sometimes conflicting, views about the Korean War. The symposium organizers designated an agenda of six specific panels for investigation, including Planning and Operations; Air Superiority, Air Support of Ground Forces; Air Interdiction and Bombardment, Air Reconnaissance and Intelligence, and Logistical Support of Air Operations. Each session began with commentary by the panel chairman, which was followed by formal papers, and in some instances included a lively question and answer session. The papers and most of the proceedings found their way into print and are recorded here in an effort to permanently capture the activities, challenges, contributions, and heroics of the coalition air forces and the airmen who fought during the Korean conflict.

The first major surprise of the post World War II years came into play when in late June 1950, the United States found itself responding in crisis fashion to the North Korean invasion of the new republic of South Korea, just four years and nine months after VJ-Day. The nation became involved in Korea as a result of the Cairo and Yalta conferences in which the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to the concept of a free and independent post-war Korea.

"Train Wreckers and Ghost Killers" discusses the contributions the British Marines and the Korean Marines made to the Allied Forces in the Korean War. In praise of the British Royal Marines that had been attached to his command since mid-November 1950, Major General Oliver P. Smith, Commanding General, 1st Marine Division, wrote that their services in the recently concluded Chosin Reservoir campaign made "a significant contribution to the holding of Hagaru, which was vital to the 1st Marine] Division." General Smith's comments reflected the view held by many Marines, both officers and enlisted, of the fighting abilities of both their British cousins and their Republic of Korea Marine Corps allies. During the three years they fought together on the Korean peninsula, the British, Korean, and U.S. Marines forged bonds that still exist today.

The leader of the Chinese communist revolution, Mao Zedong, was once asked by a journalist what he thought was the lasting impact of the French Revolution. He allegedly responded that he did not know the answer to this question as it was "too early to tell." In this same vein, field historian Colonel Nicholas E. Reynolds' book on the beginning of hostilities in Iraq is one of the first historical works commissioned by the History Division to focus on the role of the U.S. Marine Corps in the long war against global terrorism. This particular book is about Marines during the first stage of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). It spans the period from 11 September 2001 to March and April 2003, when the Coalition removed Saddam Hussein from power, and concludes in November 2003 when the Marines left Kuwait to return to their home bases in the United States. While many then believed that the "kinetic" phase of the fighting in Iraq was largely over, as we now know, it was only a prelude to a longer but just as deadly phase of operations where Marines would be redeployed to Iraq in 2004 to combat insurgents (both foreign and domestic) who had filtered back into the country. However, this phase of the fighting would be very different from the one the Marines and U.S. Army had fought in the spring of 2003 in the march up to take Baghdad. The primary focus of the book is I Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF)-the run up to the war in 2002 and early 2003, especially the development of "the plan," with its many changes, the exhaustive rehearsals, and other preparations, and then the conduct of decisive combat operations and the immediate postwar period, mostly under the control of the U.S. Central Command's Coalition Forces Land Component Command. The book also touches upon other Marine activities in the Military Coordination and Liaison Command in northern Iraq and with the British in the south. Nonetheless, the primary focus remains on I Marine Expeditionary Force and the interactions of its constituent elements. Other forthcoming History Division publications will soon offer detailed narratives on Marines in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) in Afghanistan and II MEF operations inside Iraq.

This is a story about Marines and a tough mission: the Marines of I and II Marine Expeditionary Forces were deployed to Iraq during 2004-2006 and confronted a violent insurgency and a nation in chaos. Though the Marines came to fight-they did so admirably in al-Fallujah, ar-Ramadi, and other hot and dusty locales in al-Anbar Province-they also laid the foundation for a secure and stable Iraqi society. Though security and stabilization seemed improbable if not impossible in al-Anbar Province, the apparent intractable insurgency was beaten with gritty determination that Marines have always brought to the fight. Besides using warfighting skills, the Marines also employed their expertise in civil affairs to help rebuild a nation in disarray. The military occupation of al-Anbar Province required patience, perseverance, and fortitude. The cities and towns were damaged, inhabitants demoralized, and little remained of civil authority. Hopes remained high that the occupation would be short-lived and that the Iraqis would pick themselves up and rebuild. However, those hopes died hard on the harsh realities of post-invasion Iraq. As the Marines took up new and unplanned responsibilities, insurgent violence continued and increased, generated by the national disarray of all social institutions. For the I and II Marine Expeditionary Forces, nation building and combat operations would proceed alongside one another for most of their service in Iraq.

Following the fight out of the Chosin Reservoir, the 1st Marine Division embarked aboard ships bound for Pusan. Once offloaded in mid-December, the division moved inland some 40 miles west to Masan, an area previously occupied by the 1st Provisional Marine Brigade that summer. As 1950 drew to a close, the military situation in Korea appeared bleak. American policymakers were even contemplating evacuating U.S. forces. This U.S. Marine Corps history provides unique information about important aspects of the Korean War, with material on the 1st Marine Division, Lt. General Matthew Bunker Ridgway, Truman fires MacArthur, medical helicopter evacuation, and the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing 1951.

In the spring and summer of 1951 the war in Korea took a different form, moving from the period of sweeping offensives and withdrawals to a bitter, slow, costly, and violent operational tempo. The fighting northeast of the Hwachon Reservoir-- known as the "Punchbowl"-was some of the fiercest the Marine Corps faced in its history. Not only did the Marine Corps have to fight North Korean and Chinese armies, it also had to overcome strained inter-Service relationships that affected everything from supply to close air support (CAS). The Battle of the Punchbowl, was one of the last battles of the movement phase of the Korean War. Following the breakdown of armistice negotiations in August 1951, the United Nations Command decided to launch a limited offensive in the late summer/early autumn to shorten and straighten sections of their lines, acquire better defensive terrain, and deny the enemy key vantage points from which they could observe and target UN positions. The Battle of Bloody Ridge took place west of the Punchbowl from August-September 1951 and this was followed by the Battle of Heartbreak Ridge northwest of the Punchbowl from September-October 1951. At the end of the UN offensive in October 1951, UN Forces controlled the line of hills north of the Punchbowl.

Since reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan began in 2001, the U.S. government, the international community, and the Afghan government have made improving Afghanistan's justice system a priority. Key documents have noted the importance of the justice sector, including the U.S. government's Integrated Civilian-Military Campaign Plan for Support to Afghanistan and the Afghan Government's National Priority Programs focus on strengthening Afghan rule of law and Afghan citizens' access to justice. The Department of State (State) has invested in a variety of rule of law programs since 2005, including programs managed by its Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) to train Afghan justice sector personnel. State also serves as the lead coordinator for U.S. justice sector development efforts in Afghanistan, responsible for coordinating the activities of several U.S. agencies, including the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Department of Justice. INL has spent approximately $205.5 million on its Justice Sector Support Program (JSSP) to provide training to Afghan justice sector officials, to develop a case management system to track cases throughout Afghanistan's justice system, and to build the capacity and administrative skills of officials within Afghan ministries

The Second Battle of Seoul was the battle to recapture Seoul from the North Koreans in late September 1950. The advance on Seoul was slow and bloody, after the landings at Inchon. The reason was the appearance in the Seoul area of two first-class fighting units of the North Korean People's Army, the 78th Independent Infantry Regiment and 25th Infantry Brigade, about 7,000 troops in all. The NKPA launched a T-34 attack, which was trapped and destroyed, and a Yak bombing run in Incheon harbor, which did little damage. The NKPA attempted to stall the UN offensive to allow time to reinforce Seoul and withdraw troops from the south. Though warned that the process of taking Seoul would allow remaining NKPA forces in the south to escape, MacArthur felt that he was bound to honor promises given to the South Korean government to retake the capital as soon as possible. On the second day, vessels carrying the U.S. Army's 7th Infantry Division arrived in Incheon Harbor. General Almond was eager to get the division into position to block a possible enemy movement from the south of Seoul. On the morning of September 18, the division's 2nd Battalion of the 32nd Infantry Regiment landed at Incheon and the remainder of the regiment went ashore later in the day. The next morning, the 2nd Battalion moved up to relieve an U.S. Marine battalion occupying positions on the right flank south of Seoul. Meanwhile, the 7th Division's 31st Infantry Regiment came ashore at Incheon. Responsibility for the zone south of Seoul highway passed to 7th Division at 18:00 on September 19. The 7th Infantry Division then engaged in heavy fighting with North Korean soldiers on the outskirts of Seoul. Before the battle, North Korea had just one understrength division in the city, with the majority of its forces south of the capital. MacArthur personally oversaw the 1st Marine Regiment as it fought through North Korean positions on the road to Seoul. Control of Operation Chromite was then given to Major General Edward Almond, the X Corps commander. General Almond was in an enormous hurry to capture Seoul by September 25, exactly three months of the North Korean assault across the 38th parallel. On September 22, the Marines entered Seoul to find it heavily fortified. Casualties mounted as the forces engaged in desperate house-to-house fighting. Anxious to pronounce the conquest of Seoul, Almond declared the city liberated on September 25 despite the fact that Marines were still engaged in house-to-house combat. This U.S. Marine Corps history provides unique information about an important aspect of the Korean War. Subjects covered in this history include: the 1st Marine Division; Major General Oliver P. Smith; Seoul/Wonsan campaign; aerial medical evacuation; close air support in the recapture of Seoul; marine combat vehicles; Bushmaster; 1950 street fighting.

This monograph is an account of the activities of the Marines and units of the 3d Marine Aircraft Wing in support of the I Marine Expeditionary Force's efforts to liberate Kuwait. This document is part of a preliminary series of official Marine Corps histories that cover Marine Corps operations in the Gulf War. On 2 September 1990, 3d Marine Aircraft Wing took command of Marine aviation forces ashore from a Marine composite aircraft group, which had hurriedly been moved to the Persian Gulf as part of Operation Desert Shield. The wing would grow to be the largest deployed in Marine Corps history. It would fly more than 10 different types of aircraft from eight airfield sites that required laying more than 4.5 million square feet of ramps, landing, and taxiing areas. In addition, the wing and its support groups would construct six 3,000-man base camps and establish a Marine Air Command and Control System that would operate across four countries in a joint and combined arena. When Operation Desert Storm began, the 3d Marine Aircraft Wing was ready and provided more than 18,000 fixed-wing and helicopter sorties in support of I Marine Expeditionary Force's mission of ejecting Iraqi forces from Kuwait.

Merriam Press Military Monograph 152. First Edition (2013). Shortly after 9/11, in November 2001, the seventeen members of the 710th left San Diego for Afghanistan to help in the search of the perpetrators of the worst terrorist attack on American soil. They answered the call during one of the most frightening times in our nation's history. Three would not come home again. The members of the 710th were some of the first boots on the ground in Afghanistan during the early days of Operation Enduring Freedom. Tragically, on April 15, 2002, the 710th lost three of their soldiers in an explosion of a booby-trapped weapons cache while supporting the 19th Special Forces group north of Kandahar. Killed in Action: SFC Daniel A. Romero, SSG Justin J. Galewski, SSG Brian T. Craig, and SGT Jamie O. Maugans. Only one soldier, SSG Jeffrey Pugmire, escaped death. The names of the three fallen Soldiers of the 710th were added to the EOD Memorial Wall at Eglin AFB in May 2003. The members of the 710th Ord Co (EOD) made history once again by their service and presence in Iraq on December 15, 2005 during that nation's first democratic elections. Other past deployments include operations in Bosnia and Kuwait as well. The former CO Major Keith Nelson, and SSG Jeff Pugmire (Ret) have worked at the Joint IED Task Force in Washington, DC. This interservice task force is developing new methods to defeat IEDs and their threat to our troops overseas. A Monument honoring the four killed in Afghanistan as well as Fort Rosecrans Soldiers, past and present, now stands at 1895 Tattnal Way. Open to the public, the Memorial is located along Harbor Drive in San Diego, within Lincoln Military Housing at Liberty Station. It was dedicated in April 2007 on the Fifth Year Anniversary weekend of the loss of the men from the 710th Ord Co (EOD) in Afghanistan. 103 B&W and color photos and documents.

Eyewitness to War Oral History Series: US Army Advisors in Afghanistan is the third publication by the Combat Studies Institute that makes exclusive use of oral history. This volume is a product of interviews obtained by the CSI Operational Leadership Experience (OLE) project and our Contemporary Operations Study Team (COST) The interviews used in this volume range from a senior officer who conceptualized the idea for Task Force Phoenix, the Coalition Joint Task Force that execute a broad-based training, mentoring, and assistance program aimed at improving the Afghan National Army's (ANA) ability to field mission-ready operational commands, to embedded transition team members assigned to coach, teach and mentor their ANA counterparts. The interviews are in their own words; they provide frank commentary to a range of topics including pre-deployment training, logistics support, poppy eradication (and some of the corruption they encountered associated with that task) and integration of Special Forces with conventional infantry on operations. As the US Army continues its advisory mission in Afghanistan and in other countries around the globe, the relevancy of US Army Advisors in Afghanistan grows and should be on the reading list for Soldiers tasked with this mission.

The role of the Organized Reserves in the history of the US Army has taken many twists and turns since the nation's founding. The organization and missions of the Army's reserves, both the National Guard and the Army Reserve, are once again undergoing fundamental change to meet the needs of the 21st century. In Iroquois Warriors in Iraq, Mr. Steve Clay analyzes the role played by the "Iroquois Warriors" of the US Army Reserve's 98th Division (Institutional Training). In an unprecedented move, the soldiers of the 98th were called on in mid-2004 to deploy to Iraq and to fulfill a critical role in the building, training, and advising of the new Iraqi Army. Prior to 2004, a US Army Reserve institutional training division had never deployed overseas to a theater of operations, nor were they designed to function as unit trainers and combat advisors. The author highlights the challenges faced by the 98th Division as it trained for and deployed to Iraq for this unusual mission. Among those challenges were how to train and prepare for the mission, who to send, how to integrate reservists into the new Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq (MNSTC-I), and whether to deploy the 98th as a unit or as a collection of individual soldiers. Throughout the turbulent period of 2004 and 2005 in Iraq, the soldiers of the 98th Division added to the proud legacy of the US Army Reserve. Iroquois Warriors in Iraq tells the story of the history of the 98th Division (IT), it is a compelling narrative of the earliest phases of the Army's efforts to build the Iraqi armed forces, and it offers a number of key insights for the Army as it conducts the Long War.

Disillusioned by movies and naive, the author is determined to enter into the military early and become a war hero."

Despite American success in preventing the conquest of South Korea by communist North Korea, the Korean War of 1950-1953 did not satisfy Americans who expected the kind of total victory that they had experience in World War II. In that earlier, larger war, victory over Japan cam after two atomic bombs destroyed the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But in Korea five years later, the United States limited itself to conventional weapons. Even after Communist china entered the war, Americans put China off-limits to conventional bombing as well as nuclear bombing. Operating within these limit, the U.S. Air Force helped to repel two invasions of South Korea while securing control of the skies so decisively that other United National forces could fight without fear of air attack.