Study in Command Series by Tom Clancy
Study in Command #1
Into the Storm: On the Ground in Iraq sic-1
Tom Clancy
In his brilliant, bestselling novels, Tom Clancy has explored the most dramatic military and security issues of our time. Now he takes readers deep into the operational art of war with this insightful look at one of America's most important military engagements in recent years: the Gulf War. Never before has the art of maneuver warfare been explored so incisively and in such rich, provocative detail. Clancy and General Frederick M. Franks, Jr.-commander of the main force that broke the back of the Republican Guard-take us deep inside the war councils and command posts and up to the front lines. They give us a war that few people really knew-and that television never showed.
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Study in Command #2
Every Man a Tiger: The Gulf War Air Campaign sic-2
Tom Clancy
General Chuck Horner was the right man in the right place at the right time. Combining a broad experience of all aspects of aerial warfare with a deep respect for and knowledge of Arab culture, Horner commanded the U.S. and allied air assets during Desert Shield and Desert Storm — the forces of a dozen nations — and was responsible for the design and execution of one of the most devastating air campaign in history. Never before has the Gulf air war and its planning, a process filled with controversy and stormy personalities, been revealed in such rich, provocative detail. Beyond that, however, Air Command is the story of two revolutions: of how a service damaged by Vietnam reinvented itself through vision, determination, and brutally hard work — in Horner's words, "We had to learn how to be an Air Force all over again" — and of how war changed fundamentally in the last decade of this century, not only in the new dominance of air power but in all aspects. It is a story of speed, accuracy, efficiency, decentralization, information, and initiative, as well as smoke, fear, courage, and blood. It is a front-row seat to a man, an institution, a war, and a way of war that together make this an instant classic of military history.
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Study in Command #3
Shadow Warriors: Inside the Special Forces sic-3
Tom Clancy
The training, resourcefulness and creativity of the US Special Forces soldier make him capable of jobs that few other soldiers could handle, in situations where traditional arms and movement do not apply. Tom Clancy traces the transformation of the Special Forces from the small core of outsiders of the 1950s through the cauldron of Vietnam and to the rebirth of the SF in the late 1980s and 1990s as the bearer of the largest, most mixed and most complex set of missions in the US military. From Vietnam to Laos to Panama and El Salvador to Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq, these are stories of raids, counter-terrorism, hostage rescues, reconnaissance, counter-insurgency and psychological operations — and also of building settlements, teaching civilians, cleaning up water supplies and saving lives.
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Study in Command #4
Battle Ready sic-4
Tom Clancy
In his first three Commanders books, Tom Clancy teamed with Generals Fred Franks, Jr., Chuck Horner, and Carl Stiner to provide masterful blends of history, biography, you-are-there narrative, insight into the practice of leadership, and plain, old-fashioned storytelling. Battle Ready is all of that-and it is also something more. Marine General Tony Zinni was known as the "Warrior Diplomat" during his nearly forty years of service. As a soldier, his credentials were impeccable, whether leading troops in Vietnam, commanding hair-raising rescue operations in Somalia, or-as Commander in Chief of CENTCOM-directing strikes against Iraq and Al Qaeda. But it was as a peacemaker that he made just as great a mark-conducting dangerous troubleshooting missions all over Africa, Asia, and Europe; and then serving as Secretary of State Colin Powell's special envoy to the Middle East, before disagreements over the 2003 Iraq War and its probable aftermath caused him to resign. Battle Ready follows the evolution of both General Zinni and the Marine Corps, from the cauldron of Vietnam through the operational revolution of the seventies and eighties, to the new realities of the post-Cold War, post-9/11 military-a military with a radically different job and radically different tools for accomplishing it. It is an eye-opening book-a front-row seat to a man, an institution, and a way of both war and peace that together make this an instant classic of military history.
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