On Point at politburo diktat 2.0

On Point

On Point - The United States Army in Operation Iraqi Freedom

Here’s a useful study of the military operations in OIF, a little dry and bureacratic in its writing style, but very comprehensive and with very detailed maps.

From the Forward:

On Point is a study of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM (OIF) as soon after the fact as feasible. The Army leadership chartered this effort in a message to the major commands on 30 April 2003. In his guidance, Army Chief of Staff General Eric K. Shinseki directed “a quick, thorough review that looks at the US Army’s performance, assesses the role it played in the joint and coalition team, and captures the strategic, operational, and tactical lessons that should be disseminated and applied in future fights.”

For those of us in the Operation IRAQI FREEDOM Study Group (OIF-SG),this translated into three separate products. A “quick look” lessons-learned briefing produced in July, less than 30 days after returning from the theater. On Point - this work - is the second product and was largely completed by January 2004. Finally, the most significant product is the archive of 119,000 documents, some 2,300 inter-views and 69,000 photos archived with the support and assistance of the Combined Arms Research Library at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

We had straightforward guidance and a short time horizon. Simply put, On Point tells the Army’s story in the only context possible - a combined-arms ground force operating in a joint environment. There is no other way for the Army to tell its story - the Army cannot get to a theater of war, let alone fight, in any context but that of a joint operation.

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