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The War in Iraq: Tactics
USMC Issues "How To" Booklets
by James Dunnigan
May 23, 2005
Discussion Board on this DLS topic
Starting next month, marines headed for combat will be issued small “how to”
booklets, which are designed to fit into the pockets of their combat uniforms.
The U.S. Marine Corps, noting the development of new tactics and techniques
developed by marines fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, have speeded up the
creation of “how to” publications. The marines, and the army, have been putting
the latest techniques on their web sites. The troops themselves, who are avid
Internet users, exchange this information among themselves, often hours after
the new tricks were discovered in combat. The marines are taking this one step
further with their series of booklets (Marine Corps Warfighting Publication
Interims), because when you are in combat, you can’t refer to web sites or old
email to check details. The new booklets are illustrated, and written so that
marines in a combat zone will easily understand them under stressful conditions.
Some of the booklets will be classified (for electronic warfare and the like),
but most will give practical, and up-to-the-minute advice on street fighting,
patrolling and convoy operations.
As far back as World War II, the U.S. Army improvised booklets that were
prepared (from very current information about the enemy) and given out to the
troops. There were also paperback books (field manuals) with more abundant, but
more out of date, information on the enemy. This idea has come, and gone,
several times since. The U.S. Army (CALL, or the Center for Army Lessons
Learned) has been maintaining a special web site for this sort of thing for
years, and before that would pass around reports on lessons learned. During the
1991 Persian Gulf war, CALL issued booklets to the troops. Unless you get timely
material into the hands of the people doing the fighting, the usefulness of all
that collected knowledge is very limited.
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The Perfect Soldier: Special Operations, Commandos, and the Future of Us Warfare by James F. Dunnigan
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