From Burma to Baghdad

<p>The recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq displayed two very powerful and versatile elements of our nation's armed forces working together in close harmony. The combination of land-based Special Operations Forces (SOF) and joint combat air forces quickly overpowered the Taliban regime and contributed significantly to the defeat of Saddam Hussein's regime. Synthesizing SOF and combat airpower represents an evolution in the operational art of employing forces. SOF-assisted targeting has become an increasingly important method for prosecuting the armed forces' precision strike concept and will continue to be important for the foreseeable future. This paper examines the evolution of ground-based SOF integration with combat air forces and explores how the United States Special Operations Command and the United States Air Force should effectively synchronize their operations to attack high-value time-sensitive targets in support of the Joint Force Commander's objectives.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>