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Tip of the Spear

US Marine Light Armor in the Gulf War

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Tip of the Spear

By: G. J. Michaels
Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
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About this listen

Images of U.S. Marines assaulting Pacific beaches in World War II have stereotyped the service's roles and personnel for more than 50 years. This frank firsthand account of Marines sweeping over sands of a different sort in fast armored vehicles retires that popular legend and recasts the Corps as the modern, professional fighting force it was in Desert Storm. Battling a savage environment; an unknown enemy brandishing threats of nuclear, gas, and biological attacks; and a host of technological and tactical snafus, Alpha Company of the 1st Light Armored Infantry Battalion pushed forward at the "tip of the spear" past burning oil fields, hundreds of Iraqi tanks and vehicles, and heartrending friendly casualties to help liberate Kuwait City and drive the Iraqis back to Baghdad. Here G. J. Michaels, a section leader and vehicle commander, provides a vivid, personal chronicle of events as they unfolded. Michaels further draws on his 13 years of LAV experience to examine lessons learned from the war as well as its controversies, including the confusion over use of the LAV as both recon scout and infantry support and the lack of effective identification/friend-or-foe systems.

©1998 G.J. Michaels (P)2012 Audible, Inc. Middle East Military Military Science War Gulf War
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This is a great study of company- and platoon-level leadership in the USMC, but there is plenty of action (and a little humour). There are real lessons to be learned that can be applied in all walks of life, not just the military. Listening to it for the third time, and still learning something new. The narration could be a little more low-key for my liking, but given the subject matter (Marines at war) it is probably appropriate. Recommended for historians, wargamers and modellers.

Compelling tale of tactics and leadership

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This is an ok book, it covers the activities of the Marine Corps in the first Gulf War and concentrates on their light armour, according to this book apart from an couple of skirmishes, they had nothing to do except collect prisoners

America in the Gulf

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