Motherlode of real-life military information

I’ve been using this resource for a while as a reporter, but I’ve recently become so overawed by it that I thought I’d share it here: The Army’s “Combined Arms Research Library” – I’d particularly recommend the Operational Leadership Experiences collection, which consists entirely of 10-20 page transcripts of interviews with recently returned Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. Just dip in at random; it’s worth it.

wow. thanks for the links! great stuff!

Awesome resource. Thanks for sharing :slight_smile:

Chris

Another good online reference is John Pike’s website www.globalsecurity.org; much of its content is replicated on the website of the Federation of American Scientists, which is where Pike worked before he went off on his own. (Pike, by the way, is one of the most quotable men I have ever interviewed). These sites are troves of material, including some basic “armies for beginners” primers and some very esoteric and advanced stuff, but their organization is often confusing, and Pike and his staff have a bad habit of copying and pasting from military publications without either giving clear attribution or even making it clear where one cut-and-paste ends and the next begins on the same page.

Oh, and deep in “not beginner-friendly” territory: www.d-n-i.net. This is the online HQ of a circle of very brilliant but also very cranky defense reformers who have some definite axes to grind, so take everything they say seriously and take nothing they say as Gospel.

Nice links. This is one I drop in on from time to time:

https://www.cia.gov/csi/studies.html

Its government sponsored, so watch for the POV. Still some eyeopeners in there.

I like this one too:

http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/

Some surprisingly heretical stuff makes it on this USG site, but this is the sort of thing that the Principals by definition never, ever read.

I’m going to toot (tout?) my own horn here: my article on troops awarded the Medal of Honor, Silver Star, etc. for Iraq is up online for free, at least the main piece (there are lots of graphics and additional profiles in the pay version).

Here’s another part of the Combined Arms Research Library I just discovered: entire works of military history available in downloadable PDF, for free.

Has anyone read Men Who Stare At Goats

These sites just remind me of that book as if one of the links is going be about the Army’s special operations using “the mind.”

It’s a good read. It has gave me some fun ideas when thinking about Psychologists in the military… that and B5, of course.

Holy Shit, that’s some cool stuff. The new BE game we’re gearing up for has a heavy military aspect to it so I will be absorbing as much as I can over the next few months.