Aug. 12, 2025

Book Review: LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media

Social media is a double-edged sword. The Army can use it to its advantage in the information environment, and it can also be used equally and effectively by adversaries to cause harm and destruction. Peter W. Singer and Emerson T. Brooking published LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media in 2018. This non-fiction book is divided into nine chapters that address the evolution of social media and its use by the United States’ (US) strategic competitors as an information warfare (IWAR) tool.

Aug. 7, 2025

Going Above and Beyond the Battlefield: Elevating Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations in the SOF-Space-Cyber Triad

This article emphasizes the critical role of Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations within the evolving SOF-Space-Cyber Triad, a strategic framework designed to enhance U.S. military advantages across multi-domain operations. Civil Affairs units provide vital insights into civil environments, counter adversary influence, and support governance while Psychological Operations influence perceptions and shape narratives in the information environment. When integrated with cyber and space capabilities, these units create a comprehensive approach to modern warfare, especially against near-peer competitors.

Aug. 4, 2025

Transforming Dental Support to the U.S. Army Special Operations Center of Excellence

Special Operations Forces (SOF) operate in high-stakes, austere environments where dental emergencies can jeopardize operator readiness and mission success. The spectrum of support provided by Army dentists ensures operators remain deployable and effective in these dynamic environments. Army dentists, as critical medical enablers, must have a deep understanding of SOF's unique mission and culture to deliver timely, effective care and training. While Army dentists have historically contributed to unit readiness and operational outcomes, dental representation within SOF remains limited to Special Forces (SF) groups and the Civil Affairs brigade, leaving gaps in capability and mentorship. A dental officer assigned to the United States Army’s Special Operations Center of Excellence (SOCoE) would provide SOF medics and dentists with an advocate and mentor at this critical command level. This article examines the Army Dental Corps' engagement with SOF, identifies deficiencies in current dental support, and proposes a path to enhance the delivery of care, medical training, and force readiness. By integrating an experienced SOF dentist in a key position, the Army can strengthen operator health, improve training outcomes, and ensure mission success in any environment.

July 23, 2025

Book Review: Fighting by Minutes: Time and the Art of War By Robert R. Leonhard

Lt. Col. (Ret.) Robert Leonhard’s Fighting by Minutes: Time and the Art of War offers a compelling exploration of the critical role that time plays in military strategy and operations, making it an essential read for Army Special Operations Forces (ARSOF). The book’s core thesis emphasizes that mastery of time—how it is measured, how it is managed, and how it can be applied strategically—is paramount in achieving battlefield success. Leonhard masterfully ties together historical and contemporary examples to demonstrate that the effective use of time can make the difference between defeat and victory. As ARSOF units operate in complex, ambiguous environments where rapid adaptation is key, Leonhard’s insights provide invaluable guidance on the integration of time as a warfighting variable.

July 16, 2025

Understanding and Mitigating Subterranean Operational Threats on Human Health and Performance: The Fatigue-Hormone-Mood Triad

With the advent of large-scale combat operations (LSCO) and contemporary threat groups’ use of underground tunnels, it is essential to understand the impact of subterranean military operations on human health and performance. Subterranean operations are not rapid in execution. Rather, warfighters can expect to spend days, weeks, and possibly months operating underground with limited access to sunlight, potable water, food, medical evacuation, and the resupply of rations and other military equipment. In brief, subterranean operations directly challenge human endurance, physiologically and psychologically. While subterranean operations are predicted to acutely strain and chronically suppress most, if not all, physiological systems of the body, this article focuses on the fatigue-hormone-mood triad.

July 10, 2025

Book Review: Patton’s War: An American General’s Combat Leadership, Volume 1

George S. Patton, Jr. remains one of the most renowned leaders in American military history. This is the narrative any student of history will find, emblazoned by Patton’s own memoirs, the seminal works of Martin Blumenson, Carlo D’Este, and Stanley Hirshon, and autobiographies of Patton’s peers and superiors. Historian Kevin Hymel seeks to contextualize this narrative through the lens of another Patton, “the man mentioned in the letters and memoirs of the many soldiers he led into battle.”

July 1, 2025

The Algebra of Irregular Warfare: A Planning Methodology for Transregional Operations

How do special operations forces (SOF) plan operations against threats delineated in the National Security Strategy that transcend the geographic and legal boundaries imposed by the Goldwater-Nichols Act and Unified Command Plan? The Department of Defense (DoD) requires, but does not have, an entity that connects, integrates, and globally synchronizes irregular warfare across combatant commands and the interagency. The solution to fulfilling that requirement is to create an entity that can integrate and leverage all the instruments of national power, domestically within the U.S. and through international allies and partners throughout all phases of the conflict continuum.

June 20, 2025

Drop, Improvise, Win: The OSS in China

FORT BRAGG, North Carolina — At 4:30 a.m. on Aug. 16, 1945, six men flew into the unknown. By sundown, they’d been beaten, stripped, and installed in the nicest hotel in Mukden. None of them knew this was in front of them just seven days earlier. The end of World War II surprised the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). On Aug. 11, 1945, two days after the nuclear attack on Nagasaki, the OSS received the mission to dispatch Mercy Mission teams into China.01 The Japanese had badly treated American prisoners of war, and there were concerns that Japanese officers might execute prisoners rather than return them to American control. As an additional concern, the Soviet Union had invaded Manchuria in northern China on August 9 and were racing towards camps holding American prisoners.

May 15, 2025

Austere Resuscitative and Surgical Care Teams: Supporting Far-Forward Trauma Care on the Future Battlefield

FORT BRAGG, North Carolina — Over two decades of conflict in the Middle East, deployed military medical capabilities have made significant advancements in tactical combat casualty care, damage control resuscitation, and damage control surgery. Among these improvements include the austere resuscitative and surgical care (ARSC, pronounced ärsk) teams, whose history extends back to Operation Eagle Claw in 1980 when special operations forces (SOF) identified a need for far-forward surgical teams. The concept of ARSC teams expanded to conventional forces in the 1990s, later proving crucial during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. The ARSC can be defined as an “advanced medical capability delivered by small teams with limited resources, often beyond traditional timelines of care, and bridges gaps in roles of care to enable forward military operations and mitigate risk to the force.”01 The recent deployment of these highly skilled teams closer to the front lines has made combat surgical capabilities readily accessible in the most restricted operational environments.

May 1, 2025

Digital Twins for a Digital World: Data-Driven Training Optimizing the Ready Medical Force

FORT BRAGG, North Carolina — As the military transitions its focus to large-scale combat operations (LSCO) within the context of the multi-domain doctrinal concept, significant challenges facing the military health system were identified for which there are no immediate solutions.01,02 Alongside this shift in focus, strategic documents and senior military leaders suggest that ubiquitous data collection, robust cyber-secure networks, massive processing power, and scalable artificial intelligence (AI) constitute a technological revolution that is changing the character of war.03 The military health system’s ability to deliver tactical combat casualty care must evolve along with doctrinal and technological changes. The military health system needs to seize the opportunity to rapidly shift its priorities and resources to address these changes. This article helps address the imminent yet unwritten requirement to apply emerging technologies to military medical training.