Visual Friendlies, Tally Target: How Close Air Support in the War on Terror Changed the Way America Made War

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. AUTHOR: Ethan Brown is an Air Force veteran, who served 11 years as a Tactical Air Control Party specialist. After leaving the service in 2020, he works as a policy analyst for a think tank in Washington D.C. and contributor to a variety of national security publications. His work has been featured in Diplomatic Courier, Modern War Institute, Task & Purpose and War on the Rocks.