The Rucksack War : U.S. Army Operational Logistics In Grenada, 1983

by U.S. Department of Defense

The Rucksack U.S. Army Operational Logistics in Grenada, 1983, the second volume in the U.S. Army Center of Military History's Contingency Operations Series, provides an account of how Army logistics affected ground operations during the Grenada intervention and, in turn, how combat influenced logistical performance. Noteworthy is the book's emphasis on the role of individuals and of the decisions they made based on the necessarily incomplete and sometimes misleading information available at the time. The narrative ranges through all levels of war-from the meetings of the National Security Council, where the president grappled with the question of whether to intervene in the wake of a bloody coup, to the jungles of Grenada, where a sergeant in combat coped successfully with a Cuban ambush despite a lack of hand grenades. The Rucksack War identifies many issues that may well influence the conduct of U.S. forces in future short-notice contingency operations.

Genres: History

681 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 10, 2015

Reviews

[Paul]

Outstanding review of the intervention in Grenada which began in late 1983. Never knew much about this operation, but this book gave an incredible review of the mission and how the tactics were planned and executed. Woven throughout was an intense review of the logistics that supported all parts of the operations from Depots, Ft. Bragg, Barbados, and on the island of Grenada. As an Army engineer, there were several mentions of how elements of the 307th EN BN completed some overall small but valuable tasks in support of the operation. I also found it interesting that after disaster at Desert One in 1980, and the helicopters lost due to accidents in Urgent Fury's Calivigny mission that the military did not lose faith in combat helicopter operations. Maybe it lead to the aviation's community intense focus on safety. Overall, this book is an excellent read and I finished it much faster than I anticipated.