After just four weeks of training, Colonel Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders-a regiment of cowboys recruited into the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry-fought in Cuba during the Spanish-American War with the skill of seasoned regulars. The unit reflected the future president's character as a wealthy Ivy Leaguer who went west to experience frontier life. Most of the Rough Riders were seasoned cowhands from the Southwest, but Ivy League athletes, sons of millionaires and lawmen filled out the ranks. Roosevelt molded this diverse group into a cohesive, efficient fighting force and led them to victory on San Juan Hill. Told from the perspective of the men in the regiment, this book traces the history of the Rough Riders from conception to disbanding, and Roosevelt's transformation into an American hero.

While there are many books on logistics which understand the concept of service and supply, none understand the important role of transportation in synchronizing logistics. Delivering Victory: The History of U.S. Military Transportation covers the evolution of military transportation in the U.S. Armed Forces from the Spanish American War until the recent humanitarian missions to Haiti and West Africa to show how military transportation both synchronizes and creates logistics operations and therefore shapes the conduct of contingency and combat operations. Based on a rich selection of both primary and secondary sources, this book explores how the role of military transportation in the U.S has evolved, from disparate organizations to a synchronized logistics approach which connects dots from end to end, from fort and factory, and to the foxhole. Chronicling the birth of a separate branch of the Army during the Second World War and the creation of a strategic logistics technique headed by a single organization, the author demonstrates how transportation created logistics operations due to its inherent moving nature which allowed military operations to change in scale and magnitude. To this end, this book demonstrates how the ability to deploy and sustain mass around the globe became the hallmark of American military transportation capability, and an essential part of delivering victory.

Circle the Wagons: The History of US Army Convoy Security is the 13th study in the Combat Studies Institute (CSI) Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) Occasional Papers series. Transportation Corps Historian Richard Killblane's manuscript on convoy security is another case study modern military professionals can use to prepare themselves and their soldiers for operations in the current conflict. This work examines the problems associated with convoy operations in hostile territory and the means by which units can ensure they are ready to deal with an enemy ambush or assault. Killblane provides a brief overview of the US Army's experience in convoy operations and convoy protection from the period of the War with Mexico up to and including the current conflict. He then presents an indepth look at the development of "hardened convoy" tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), focusing on the 8th Transportation Group's experiences in Vietnam. That group had the dubious honor of conducting its missions along Highway 19, arguably the most dangerous stretch of road during the Vietnam War. Killblane describes the group's initial experiences and how, over time, various commanders and soldiers developed methods and means of defeating the enemy's evolving tactics. The hardened-convoy concept is one that, frankly, receives little attention by Army leaders in peacetime-the lessons from which each new generation of soldiers seems painfully destined to relearn. Logisticians, contractors, and those military leaders responsible for such operations in the current struggle against terrorism will gain useful knowledge for developing hardened-convoy TTPs from this occasional paper. More important, we at CSI desire that this study be read by future generations of leaders, before they have to conduct such operations, so that their mission and the soldiers entrusted to them will prosper from the lessons of the past.

When the enemy adopts a policy to attack convoys, truck drivers become front line troops. Convoy commanders must then become tacticians. How to study war? The student of tactics studies previous fights and mentally places himself in the position of the participants. Knowing what they knew, how would he have reacted? In hind sight, what was the best course of action, remembering that there is no one perfect solution? Any number of actions would have succeeded. The tactician must learn what would have worked best for him. For this reason, I have pulled together all the examples of convoy ambushes. The 19th century, Vietnam War, and current war in Iraq provide a wealth of examples of convoy ambushes from which to study. Unfortunately, the US Army did not record many good accounts of ambushes during the Vietnam War. Much of what is presented in this text is based upon oral interviews of the participants, sometimes backed by official record, citations or reports. For this reason, some of the ambush case studies present only the perspective of a crew member of a gun truck or the convoy commander. Since this academic study works best when one mentally takes the place of one of the participants, this view of the ambush serves a useful purpose. After my own review of the ambushes, I have drawn my own conclusion as to what principles apply to convoy ambushes.

Provides detailed case studies from the Vietnam war and Operation Iraqi Freedom.