“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.

• Front Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Author’s Note and Thanks
• Preface
• Introduction
• Part I: Retribution
  • 1 Into the Graveyard of Empires
  • 2 “We were witnesses to history”
  • 3 Ancient Roads to a New War
  • 4 “You get nightmares from the things you had the option not to do”
  • 5 Rearranging God’s Furniture
  • 6 “Holy shit, I just killed Afghanistan”
  • 7 “Some of those lessons are learned in blood”
• Part II: A New World War
  • 8 The Pivot
  • 9 The Battle of Debecka Pass
  • 10 Type of Control and Method of Engagement
  • 11 Shock and Awe
  • 12 Chasing Saddam
  • 13 Dragging a Nation out of a War
  • 14 Rescuing Jessica Lynch
• Part III: Evolving the Machine
  • 15 Building a Global Architecture
  • 16 “The insurgents turned that place into a meat grinder”
  • 17 In Iraq’s Shadow
  • 18 “You can’t politely ask permission to finish a war”
  • 19 “Our targeting was incredibly deliberate”
  • 20 The Birth of Digital Close Air Support
• Afterword
• Glossary
• Endnotes
• Selected Bibliography