Visual Friendlies, Tally Target: How Close Air Support in the War on Terror Changed the Way America Made War: Volume I - Invasions

“Brown has taken an incredibly complex subject and made it accessible and readable, all while retaining the gravity of history and the sheer intensity of these battlefields. Airpower became a fundamental warfighting tool in the Global War on Terror, and its success depended on the community of JTACs whose experiences populate this important work. They are the unsung heroes of the post-9/11 wars America needs to meet.” ― David L. Goldfein, General (Ret.), USAF, 21st Chief of Staff

With a new century and a new enemy came a new kind of war: low intensity and civilian-dominated, blending austere rural and dense urban environments alike. Into this new kind of war, the American military launched two invasions against terrorist networks and military rivals, relying on airpower—close air support (CAS)—at a scale never before seen in combat.

The Global War on Terror was the “CAS war.” Forward Air Controllers were on the front lines from the very first moments of the war, directing airstrikes against enemies in their safe havens, safeguarding friendly forces and civilians alike to their utmost, and achieving unprecedented success with limited resources. This volume captures the heroic accounts of the first Tactical Air Control Party (TACPs) in Afghanistan and Iraq, and how Close Air Support fundamentally reshaped the American war machine in the first five years of the War on Terror.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction

PART I: Retribution
Afghanistan: 2001–2003
1 Into the graveyard of empires
2 Ancient roads to a New War
3 Rearranging God’s furniture
4 Know thine enemy

PART II: A New World War
Iraq: 2003
5 The Pivot
6 Shock and Awe
7 Chasing Saddam
8 Dragging a nation out of a war

Part III: Evolving the Machine
Two distinct Wars: 2004-2006
9 Building a global architecture.
10 In Iraq's shadow
11 Rebuilding in ashes
12 Digitally aided Close Air Support

Afterword: Scratching the surface

Ethan Brown is an Air Force veteran, who served 11 years as a tactical air control party specialist. Since leaving the service in 2020, he works as a policy analyst for the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress (CSPC) in Washington, D.C. He contributes to a variety of national security publications. His work has been featured in Diplomatic Courier, Modern War Institute, Task & Purpose, and War on the Rocks.