Understanding and leveraging the media has become critical for operational level commanders conducting urban combat operations. The insatiable public appetite for information has created conditions where tactical actions can have severe strategic...
Monograph examines the use of security barriers and delves into circumstances leading to the removal of security barriers. The purpose was to explore whether there existed specific conditions or criteria for removal of security barriers. Specific...
In November 2004, a combined USMC, US Army, and Iraqi Army offensive succeeded in eliminating the enemy in Fallujah in a destructive urban battle. This paper focuses on the ways in which Army and Marine forces operated together in the second Battle...
This essay is a compare and contrast mainly focused on Marine tactics used in both the failed attempt to take Fallujah, Iraq in April, 2004 and the successful attempt to take Fallujah, Iraq in November, 2004. The two components of the Marine’s...
Long having an interest in going and seeing for herself “the places that were being presented as the biggest challenges to American foreign policy,” journalist Anne Barnard – formerly the co-Iraq bureau chief for the Boston Globe in 2003-04...
"Central Command had published a concept brief on 4 October 2004 via email," Lieutenant Colonel John Reynolds recalled, "that had laid out the requirements to conduct full-spectrum counterinsurgency operations to destroy anti-Iraqi forces (AIF)...
In March 2004, Captain Jeff Jager joined 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment at Forward Operating Base Normandy in Iraq and, in early November, was sent over to Marine Regimental Combat Team 7 as the officer in charge of a liaison team "to assist...
Attached to Task Force 2-2 Infantry during Operation Phantom Fury, Captain Chris Boggiano was the 2nd Platoon leader in the 1st Infantry Division's 3rd Brigade Reconnaissance Troop and, in this November 2004 urban assault to retake the Iraqi city...
Many authors have begun to write that the heavy force has no role in the future contemporary operating environment – especially where internal political-militia groups rely on guerrilla tactics. The US heavy force is an integral part of...
The Supply Company commander for Combat Service Support Battalion 18 - part of Combat Service Support Group 15, 1st Force Service Support Group, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force - during the major combat phase of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, Major...
This interview with Army reservist Lieutenant Colonel John C. Curwen, formerly the commander of 2nd Battalion, 304th Regiment, part of 1st Brigade, 98th Division (Institutional Training), deals with his 2004-2005 deployment in support of Operation...
With operations in Iraq complete and an ongoing transition in Afghanistan, what is the role of the heavy armor force in the Army of 2020? This thesis analyzes the capabilities of the current heavy force through the lens of the current strategic...
Since the end of the Second World War most modern armies have been conventionally structured and equipped to fight high intensity conflicts against like armed nations. Congruently, there has also been many low intensity conflicts in which similarly...
During his 2004-2005 deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, "I was with III Corps," said Lieutenant Colonel Mark Tolmachoff, "which at the time was the base element of Multinational Corps-Iraq." In this interview focusing initially on...
Maj Robert Bodisch, USMC served as the company commander for Charlie Company, 2nd Tank Battalion during 2004 in Fallujah, Iraq in support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM (OIF). In this October 2009 interview, Maj Bodisch discusses the intensity of the...
Colonel (Ret.) Scott Thein served in Iraq from September 2003 through March 2004 as the Division Artillery commander with the 82nd Airborne. He worked primarily at the provincial level and his area of operations was Al Anbar Province. One of the...
Task Force 2-2 Infantry fought as part of the 1st Marine Division in Fallujah, Iraq from 08 November 2004 to 20 November 2004 in Operation Phantom Fury during Operation Iraqi Freedom II. Task Force 2-2 received an initial Warning Order in early...
Lieutenant General Richard F. Natonski, United States Marine Corps, commanded the 1st Marine Division and the ground combat element of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF), including substantial US Army forces, during Operation Al Fajr to...
Addendum: Anbar awakens. Colonel Sean MacFarland, U.S. Army; A major player in the Anbar Awakening recalls how joint-force cooperation led to the turnaround in Ramadi.
The most important thing: legislative reform of the national security...
An individual augmentee attached to Marine Regimental Combat Team 1 (RCT-1) from July 2004 to March 2005, for most of his deployment Major Any Dietz served as RCT-1's information operations (IO) officer. During Operation Phantom Fury (Al Fajr),...