Early on the morning of January 17, 1991, the Persian Gulf War began. It consisted of massive allied air strikes on Iraq and Iraqi targets in Kuwait. The United States Air Force spearheaded the offensive and furnished the bulk of the attacking aircraft. During 43 days of fighting, the U.S. Air Force simultaneously conducted two closely coordinated air campaigns. This study develops background information to place the Persian Gulf War in its proper historical and cultural contexts, unfamiliar to and not easily understood by Americans.

"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 war in the Persian Gulf in 1991 capped an era of USAF modernization and enhanced readiness begun in the late 1970s and that continued through the 1980s. The long lead-time weapons acquisition and training programs, begun a decade or more earlier, came to fruition against a far different opponent and in an unforeseen locale than that envisioned by their creators. The force designed to counter the superpower foe of the Cold War, the USSR, never fought a direct battle against that enemy during the existence of the Soviet Union. Instead, the USAF fought the first war of the so-called New World Order, a war that had as much in common with the colonial wars of the late nineteenth century as it had with the high-technology wars of the late twentieth century. The USAF shouldered the bulk of the fighting for the first thirty-nine of the conflict's forty-two days. This volume covers the air offensive against strategic military and economic targets within the pre-August 1990 borders of Iraq. The offensive air plan once again displayed the ability of the U.S. military to turn the necessity of improvisation into a virtue when, in mid-August 1990, an element of the Air Staff in the Pentagon wrote the basis of the offensive plan in ten days. The plan was founded upon the precepts of Col. John A. Warden III's air power theories-centers of gravity, shock effect, and the importance of leadership-related targets. Once the outline plan reached the arena of operations, the U.S. Central Air Forces (CENTAF), under the able leadership of Lt. Gen. Charles A. Horner, adopted the targeting philosophy of the plan and, after many modifications owing to new targets and an increased force structure, employed it with devastating effect. The author describes not only the outstanding performance of USAF men and machines but also the difficulties and complexities of coordinating the many elements of air and staff operations. Among these were the complex coordination of the fighters with their tankers, the speedy transmission of data from the allseeing eyes of AWACS and JSTARS aircraft, the multiple bomb runs over chemical and biological warfare bunkers, and the shortcomings of certain types of intelligence. All these factors impacted on mission effectiveness. The author also diagrams how outside influences-political pressure from neutrals, such as the Israelis, and from public news media-can affect the direction of the bombing effort. Although this account of the air campaign in the Persian Gulf concentrates on the operational history of a six-week war, it also places that war into its larger political and military context, especially in its tale of the interplay between the U.S. military and civilian leadership. It illustrates, with reference to actual missions, the operational advantages of stealth fighter bombers as well as their vulnerabilities. Davis presents the reader with a detailed account of one of the USAF's most important air operations in the last half of the twentieth century. In the decade after the conclusion of the Gulf War, the pattern of strategic air operations against Iraq became the template for USAF operations over Bosnia and during the air war over Serbia and, most recently, in Afghanistan as well. In planning for air operations in the Balkans, USAF officers were strongly influenced by John A. Warden's methodology and ideology with its emphasis on centers of gravity and strikes on leadership targets. Stealth air combat operations, inaugurated en masse in the Gulf War, became even more prevalent with the introduction of the B-2 bomber. Likewise, the use of precision weapons grew. The aversion of western democracies to both military and civilian casualties and their effect on targeting, tactics, and strategy first encountered over Iraq became more pronounced in subsequent conflicts-as did the continuing challenge in matching accurate intelligence to precision weapons.

A Portal in Space, set in Basra, Iraq, during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), follows the lives of Anwar, a newly minted architect, and the other members of his affluent family as they attempt to maintain a sense of normality during the frequent bombing attacks from Iran. When Anwar joins the Iraqi army and then goes missing in action, his family struggles to cope with uncertainty over his fate. His mother falls into depression and secludes herself in the family home, while his father shifts his attention from his duties as a judge to the weekly pilgrimage to Baghdad seeking information on his son-and to Zahra, the young widow he meets there. Emotionally engaging, A Portal in Space is a wry, wise tale of human beings striving to retain their humanity during a war that is anything but humane. Mahmoud Saeed succeeds brilliantly in bringing the sights and sounds of Iraq to life on the page-whether in a bunker on the front lines of the Iran-Iraq War or in the parlor of a fortune-teller in Baghdad. As Zahra says of the novel she is writing: "It is a normal novel that contains love, war, life, deceit, and death."

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.

The 24th Division and XVIII Airborne Corps performed the impossible in February 1991. In less than 100 hours, MG McCaffrey moved across 635 miles of desert, reached the Euphrates River from the border between Iraq and Saudi Arabi, turned east toward Basrah and Saddaam Hussein and his elite guard surrendered. An equally impossible feat, surgical support accompanied him throughout his attack, never more than 30 minutes from the fight. The Dream, is the story of how the medical plan came together. Never before in the history of the Armed Forces had the medical force been faced with such a challenge. The doctrine, the manuals that were supposed to provide the answers repeatedly came up short. The Dream provides the answers to how support never envisioned before not only stayed with the fighting force, but improved their survival rate almost 10% higher than previous conflicts.

Canada's six-year military mission in Afghanistan's Kandahar province was one of the most intense and challenging moments in Canadian foreign affairs since the Korean War. A complex war fought in an inhospitable environment, the Afghanistan mission tested the mettle not just of Canada's soldiers but also of its politicians, public servants, and policy makers. In Adapting in the Dust, Stephen M. Saideman considers how well the Canadian government, media, and public managed the challenge. Building on interviews with military officers, civilian officials, and politicians, Saideman shows how key actors in Canada's political system, including the prime minister, the political parties, and parliament, responded to the demands of a costly and controversial mission. Some adapted well; others adapted poorly or - worse yet - in ways that protected careers but harmed the mission itself. Adapting in the Dust is a vital evaluation of how well Canada's institutions, parties, and policy makers responded to the need to oversee and sustain a military intervention overseas, and an important guide to what will have to change in order to do better next time.

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. This monograph is the story of how that concept evolved and how it came to form a nexus with MNSTC-I that resulted in the use of a USAR training division for an overseas combat mission for the first time in US Army history. The monograph presents issues connected with the mobilization, deployment, training, and integration of Reserve Component (RC) units and personnel in general; the use of units to perform tasks not part of their mission essential task list (METL); and issues associated with the major task assigned to the 98th Division-training and advising a foreign army. It finishes with an analysis of the overall mission and provides conclusions and recommendations for consideration. The intent of this monograph is to expose leaders and soldiers to the issues described above, so in future conflicts, and perhaps even for the current conflict, they might gain insights that will enable them to develop solutions should similar problems arise.

This monograph provides a historical overview of Afghanistan's recent history, reviews the contemporary causes of internal instability, illustrates the international response, and analyses three existing approaches to PRTs: those of the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States. It also identifies and evaluates a number of PRT tactical and operational lessons learned. The monograph concludes by combining the pertinent lessons learned into a recommended PRT "blueprint" to meet the contemporary and evolving challenges of provincial security and reconstruction in Afghanistan.

Infidels in the Garden of Mesopotamia is an extensive work that provides the reader with an insiders look into the world of high threat protection operations in hostile and semi permissive environments worldwide.

WT Naud's book is a humorous heart-felt M*A*S*H type account of the unconventional lives of CODEBREAKERS fighting the Korean War from the back lines in OJI-JAPAN. Using his NEW YORK STREET SMARTS, Naud managed to serve his country with the help of the SON OF A MAFIA DON, seventeen EX-KAMIKAZE WAITERS, Tokyo's infamous BLACK MARKET SAM, twenty stunning MISS TOKYO CONTESTANTS, rigged BINGO GAMES, a bag full of GOLF CLUBS and a breathtaking JAPANESE GIRL with COBALT-BLUE EYES. Underlying the M*A*S*H type antics that kept him from getting shipped to the FRONT LINES, is a compassionate story of the devastation the JAPANESE PEOPLE experienced during WWII and five years later we find a country still pockmarked with physical and emotional scars. "Though I was more akin to BUGS BUNNY than JAMES BOND, I had somehow managed to end up in the ASA, the ARMY SECURITY AGENCY, an organization so SECRET it denied it's own existence. "At OJI, the most SENSITIVE ASA BASE in the FAR-EAST, COMMUNIST SPY-GIRLS were luring GI'S into TRYSTS to get TOP-SECRET DECODED information about MACARTHUR'S WAR PLANS. I was CHARGED with STOPPING them. CODEBREAKERS were turning up DEAD... A beautiful ORIENTAL COMMUNIST RECRUITER wanted to seduce me.... My FIRST SERGEANT wanted to kill me... The JAPANESE BLACK MARKETEERS wanted me to stop screwing up their business... My best friend, the SON OF A MAFIA DON, kept trying to SHOOT himself so he wouldn't get SHOT fighting on the front lines..... All I wanted to do was PLAY GOLF and stay out of the TRENCHES in KOREA... AND IT'S ALL TRUE "

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.