The Chronicles
Blog
Essays, field notes, and short pieces — history, leadership, doctrine, and the rest.
15 posts · page 1 of 2
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Doctrine · October 7, 2025
Understanding Battle Strategies Through History
A survey of military strategy across eras — from phalanx and siege to cyber warfare — and the timeless principles that connect them.
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History · July 4, 2025
The USS Indianapolis: A Final Mission and Naval Tragedy
After delivering the atomic bomb to Tinian, the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis was torpedoed and sank in 12 minutes — leading to the deadliest sea disaster in U.S. Navy history and a decades-long fight to clear her captain's name.
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Doctrine · January 9, 2025
Vietnam's 'Search and Destroy' Tactics: A Critical Reflection
Westmoreland's attrition strategy proved air mobility doctrine — and not much else. A critical look at why search-and-destroy failed strategically and corroded American morale.
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History · January 8, 2025
Key Decisions That Led America into Vietnam
Two bookends pressed America into Vietnam: the post-WWII decision to bankroll the French in Indochina, and the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that handed LBJ a blank check.
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History · January 3, 2025
How French Failures in Vietnam Foretold the U.S. Struggles
The French had ninety-six years to learn lessons in Indochina — and lost anyway. Every misread that broke them at Dien Bien Phu, the U.S. would repeat a decade later.
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History · December 26, 2024
Operation Commando Lava: The U.S. Attempt to Sabotage with Soap
In 1967 the Pentagon decided that if monsoon mud slowed the enemy, the answer was to make more mud — by dropping nineteen-and-a-half tons of detergent on the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
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Doctrine · December 24, 2024
Wild Weasels in Vietnam: Suppressing Enemy Air Defenses
How the U.S. Air Force and Navy invented modern SEAD doctrine in the deadliest skies of the Cold War — the aircraft, the missiles, the cat-and-mouse against Soviet SAMs.
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History · November 20, 2024
Celebrating the Legacy of the UH-1 Huey
From Bell Model 204 to the modern UH-1Y — the most recognized helicopter in the world and the doctrine of air mobility it carried into Ia Drang and beyond.
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Biographies · October 29, 2024
Born to Lead, Forged in Battle: Lewis Burwell 'Chesty' Puller
Lewis Burwell 'Chesty' Puller — five Navy Crosses, the legend at Henderson Field and Chosin, and the complicated, compassionate man behind the most decorated Marine in Corps history.
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Leadership · September 30, 2024
The Art of Leadership: Lessons Beyond Warfare
Sun Tzu's principles applied to business, sports, and personal development — with a few hard-won lessons from the hangar floor and the youth-football sideline.
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Leadership · September 10, 2024
Are Sage Commanders Nurtured or Born?
Battlefield wisdom is forged, not gifted. The Captain on lifelong learning, leading from the front, and the leaders — Moore, Rickover, Puller, Eisenhower — who proved it.
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Campaigns · August 6, 2024
Could the Allies Have Prevented the Fall of France and Poland?
France had better tanks, a comparable air force, and a fortified line. They lost anyway. A short reckoning with leadership, doctrine, and the Maginot delusion.