On Point: the United States Army in Operation Iraqi ... - Boekje Pienter

timelines at the beginning of each chapter are designed to help the reader through anyconfusion in the sequence of events and helps to retain operational context. Moreover,times noted in the text have been adjusted from Greenwich Mean Time (“Zulu”) tolocal Kuwait time (+ 3 hours).Throughout the work, the soldier stories and vignettes serve a variety of purposes.First, they help the reader better understand the trials and tribulations of soldiers on thebattlefield. Second, they offer a detailed discussion of a particular aspect of the war asan example of the actions occurring all across the battlefield. And finally, the storiesand vignettes introduce the reader to the individual soldiers who fought the battle. Themen and women who served in Iraq represent a cross-section of America and illustrateall that is good about the American soldier and citizen. Their success is the Army’ssuccess and America’s success.The final section of On Point is a discussion of some of the campaign’simplications. Operation IRAQI FREEDOM marks the most integrated joint force andjoint campaign American armed forces have ever conducted. It is also the second warof the new millennium and carries weight as such. For the Army, it marks the firstmajor campaign since Operation DESERT STORM. It is the first time the decade’sworth of investments in digitization and interservice interoperability has been put tothe test. This quick look at the war from an Army perspective suggests implicationsfor the Army’s continued transformation to the future force. These implications areorganized in the broad categories discussed earlier and may serve as a starting point forfurther discussions and ultimately, programmatic decisions.As of this writing, the campaign in Iraq continues. Soldiers continue to work withother agencies and organizations to help stabilize Iraq and assist with the transitionto civilian rule. Yet despite the declared end of major combat operations, soldierscontinue to fight—and die—as they pursue the remnants of the Ba’athist regime andother groups who oppose the coalition’s presence. This mission is neither new norunique to the Army’s tradition. In this sense, the Army continues its role as the serviceof decision—ensuring that battlefield victories translate into strategic success.xxxii