The mythology surrounding the 1389 Battle of Kosovo Polje, in present-day Serbia, is the foundation for the Serbian cultural identity and is a prism through which Serbs view and interpret the past, present, future. The mythology, created out of necessity to cope with Ottoman conquest and the hardships of peasant life, began with early eulogies to the Serbian knights who were defeated on the Kosovo plain. It evolved through oral folklore tradition, epic poetry, and literature while being preserved and cultivated by the Serbian Orthodox Church. Epic themes of Serbian religious sacrifice,...

The events of September 11, 2001, catapulted America's military into two wars with others looming on the horizon. The type of warfare they are conducting is far different from what they had trained for the last quarter of a century. The enemy and environment in which they fight is different and the expectations placed on them have changed as well. In order to guide its actions the Army in concert with the Marine Corps has produced a new counterinsurgency doctrine with the creation of FM 3-24 Counterinsurgency. Although new to today's military, the type of conflict in which they are engaged is...

This book examines the moral permissibility of First Sergeant Hatley's decision to kill, and influence others to kill, four unarmed detainees near Baghdad Iraq in the spring of 2007. Ethics is an important topic for all members of the profession of arms to engage. With the seemingly constant news reports of ethical indiscretions by US Army Soldiers, many of them by senior US Army leaders, the need for continued PME dialogue within the ranks has become exceedingly clear. This Book will strive to do more than simply understand what took place next to that Baghdad canal; it will evaluate and...

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 War. It was, however, avoidable. This Chinese victory was partially the result of one of the most glaring failures in U.S. military intelligence history. The officer most responsible for this failure was the Far East Command Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence (G2), Major General Charles Andrew Willoughby. His inaccurate intelligence picture...

This book examines three manhunts from the United States Army's past. The manhunts highlighted in this book are the Punitive Expedition to capture the Mexican revolutionary leader Francisco Pancho Villa, Operation Just Cause to capture the Panamanian strongman Manuel Antonio Noriega, and the intervention in Somalia to capture the warlord Mohammed Farrah Aideed. A comparison of the three case studies yields four characteristics that are applicable to military manhunts. The characteristics are the necessity of detailed intelligence, the desirability of neutralizing the group to isolate the...

Nearly a century after his death, the influence of Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan continues to fuel debate, discussion and research. As a prolific author, Mahan used the print media, the dominant form of communication in the early twentieth century, to influence the American public, government and the United States Navy. Although many studies have addressed his influence upon a specific topic, none have examined his influence through a single print media outlet. This study focuses on Mahan's use of the United States Naval Institute's magazine, Proceedings, from 1900-1914. An examination of...

The Kopassus (Indonesian Army Special Forces) populate the highest ranks of the Indonesian military and political leadership. The unit and its leadership committed human rights violations and finally in the late 1990s their actions incited a global condemnation of Indonesia during East Timor's fight for independence. The U.S. subsequently ceased military engagement with the Indonesian military and specifically focused on the Kopassus. The Kopassus, however, are more than just a special operations element within the Indonesian military. Many former and present Indonesian military general...

The recent institutionalization of women in combat reignites a long standing debate on their roles in the military; a debate that elicits emotionally charged responses by proponents and critics alike. While much of the current discourse concerns hypothetical discussions of women in direct combat, there is a population of female soldiers that have contributed as front line "trigger pullers" throughout the course of the past 12 years of war in both Iraq and Afghanistan. These women are Army aviators who have served in attack aviation roles, without restriction, since the beginning of major...

In Vietnam, the III Marine Amphibious Force used Combined Action Platoons (Cap's) as one part of its operational level counterinsurgency campaign. These platoons provided security assistance to the South Vietnamese Popular Forces and civic action to the village based population. To measure the operational effectiveness and the current relevancy of this specific type of combined action their activities are evaluated against current Army counterinsurgency doctrine. This book demonstrates the value of the CAPs as one element in the context of a counterinsurgency campaign, and how this form of...

This book is an historical analysis of the amphibious operations of the 46th Indiana. The primary research question is whether the amphibious operations of the 46th Indiana were effective towards the Union's success in the Mississippi River valley. Using Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication 1-3, Tactics, this book will compare the 46th Indiana's employment of tactics to the Marine Corps' current use of tactics according to doctrine. Tactical concepts that achieve success on the battlefield are achieving a decision, gaining an advantage, being faster, adapting, cooperating, and exploiting...