LESSONS ENCOUNTERED

Acknowledgments
Military History Institute (MHI), Combat Studies Institute (CSI) at Fort Leavenworth,
and Chief of Staff of the Army’s Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) Study
Group. We would like to thank Dr. Donald Wright of CSI, Dr. Conrad Crane
of MHI, Colonel E.J. Degen, USA, of CMH, the leader of the Army’s operational
study of Operation Enduring Freedom, and Colonel Joel Rayburn, USA,
the leader of the Army’s OIF study, for their assistance in facilitating access to
these interviews, which allowed the authors to exploit previous research on
Afghanistan and Iraq, thus saving months of work in the process.
As always, the Center for Complex Operations (CCO) staff earned our
deepest appreciation. Some commented on chapters, while others transcribed,
took notes, edited, scheduled, or pointed out errors. CCO Deputy Bernie Carreau
provided management and expert commentary. Giorgio Rajao, Nathan
White, Fulbright scholar Hiram Reynolds, Maxwell Kelly, Michael Davies, and
Major Claude Lambert, USA, a graduate student at George Mason University,
took notes, made expert comments, and worked on formal summaries or
transcripts of multiple interviews. Captain Sam Rosenberg, USA, a graduate
student in Georgetown’s Security Studies Program, did excellent work on the
timelines and fact-checking. The CCO staff who participated in this project
also include Michael Miklaucic, Dale Erickson, Sara Thannhauser, Christoff
Luehrs, Talley Latimore, Connor Christensen, Ryan Lester, and Jonathan Reich.
Becky Harper worked tirelessly behind the scenes to direct support to the
project, the project’s workers, and two complex conferences.
In addition to the authors and the support staff, the team wants to extend
its appreciation to the many people who read the manuscript and commented
on the chapters. We owe our special gratitude to our senior reviewers, who not
only commented on the manuscript as a whole but also sat with us for a long
day discussing it in detail, the academic version of trench warfare. Our senior
reviewers were Professor Richard Betts of Columbia University; Professor
Dan Caldwell of Pepperdine University; Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster,
USA, of the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC); Major
General Rick Waddell, USAR, who is both director of the NDU renowned
Capstone Course and Deputy Commander of U.S. Southern Command; and
Lieutenant General David Deptula, USAF (Ret.), who is is the Dean of the
Mitchell Institute of Aerospace Power Studies.
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