The 31st Regimental Combat Team (RCT) was created on 24 November 1950. On 27 November it had the mission of relieving the Marines of the 1st Marine Division East of the Chosin reservoir and attacking to the North towards the Yalu River. The...
The purpose of this monograph is to inquire whether or not the traditional explanation of poor peacetime training and unit readiness is adequate to account for U.S. Army defeats during the first month of the Korean War. General histories of the...
More than 60 years since the outbreak of war on the Korean Peninsula, the United States Armed Forces continue to stand by the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines of the Republic of Korea in an effort to deter further North Korean aggression. The...
From 1945-1950, the United States Army transitioned from a conventional force designed for maneuver warfare in Europe to a role, which supported the Air Force in their delivery of nuclear weapons. This secondary role emerged from strategic studies...
The purpose of this paper is to determine the utility of the 2d Infantry Division as a platform for decisive operations on the Korean Peninsula. Based on an unclassified North Korean campaign plan, a model CFC campaign plan was constructed that...
Historical examples are an expedient way to develop an understanding of operational art theory and concepts. A historical illustration of both operational success and failure is the Korean War. Several aspects of the Korean War remain relevant to...
This monograph seeks to determine the adequacy of current U.S. Army doctrine as it pertains to the planning and execution of attacks by an armored force in restrictive terrain. Many circumstances and possible threats will require the use of a...
The rise of industrialization coupled with the growth of technology have contributed to creating a complexity to modern warfare that far exceeds the primitive conditions of earlier periods. Defined as the creative use of distributed operations for...
This monograph reviews the experiences of the US Army in planning and conducting rear operations during the Korean War and examines our current rear operations doctrine in light of these experiences. This review is significant because doctrine is...
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....
This monograph examines the role of the operational level commander in rebuilding combat effectiveness in the force. For the purpose of this monograph, the author defined combat effectiveness as the ability of an army to impose its will on enemy...
In November, 1950, the United States Army suffered one of its most devastating defeats ever, in the frozen mountains of North Korea at the hands of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. This defeat fundamentally changed the nature of the Korean...
The exercise of operational leadership becomes increasingly difficult as technology makes the battlefield more lethal, as the pace of combat accelerates, and as combat forces become more joint and combined. U.S. Army senior level leadership...
Five years after emerging victorious from World War II, the United States became embroiled in the Korean War. In August of 1950, despite the relative industrial and technological disadvantages suffered by the enemy North Korean Peoples’ Army, the...
An unstable global environment where the threat is ambiguous requires warfighters to recognize the difference and interrelationship between seeing and understanding the enemy. This monograph provides an alternative definition which emphasizes the...
The grand strategy of the United States is that of the Open Door. Since 1787, the END of U.S. grand strategy have remained constant--to achieve the purpose laid down in the Preamble to the Constitution. For the last two-hundred twenty years the...
This monograph investigates operational defense with particular emphasis on future major regional contingencies. Theory, history, and modern U.S. Army doctrine and training are explored. The first portion of the monograph investigates what three...
The United States Army is deeply involved in advisory missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, efforts that have met with mixed success. As the Army searches for new and innovative approaches to the problems of advising indigenous forces, it may be useful...
Complexity theory has attracted considerable interest from operational artists in recent times. However, because it is still an emerging field, there are few -- if any -- historical case studies that show how complexity applies to military...
Trained to fight a linear war in Europe against conventional Soviet forces, field artillery units were unprepared for combat in Korea, which called for all-around defense of mutually supporting battery positions, and high-angle fire. Pacific...