Unsung

Ian Elliot of the Whig-Standard draws our attention to a book on combat logistics by LCol John Conrad, entitled What The Thunder Said -- Reflections Of A Canadian Officer in Kandahar:

"Combat logistics is not sexy and it is certainly not overcomplicated, but it will reach out and cut your throat if it is taken for granted in times of war," he writes in What The Thunder Said -- Reflections Of A Canadian Officer in Kandahar.

"And cut it did in Afghanistan in the early summer of 2006."

...

The battles that were fought in 2006 have been chronicled in a number of books from the point of view of the soldiers at the sharp end.

Conrad's take is unusual as it may be the first book in a generation written by a combat service support officer and for a general audience, rather than a technical military treatise.

Logistics has dramatically changed. In a war like Afghanistan, there are no front lines behind which supply units can safely operate -- every supply mission is a combat operation, and his book is a litany of improvised explosive devices, firefights and rocket attacks in which the only difference between the support units and the combat arms is that the logistics units never go on the attack, they always defend.

"We're like the linebackers," Conrad said.

Remarkably frank for a book by a serving officer, he also points out that logistics had been ignored or outright neglected until Afghanistan began to force a change in thinking, although one rather too incremental for his liking.

He is also frank about his own problems, such as when fighting flared in July 2006 and the Canadian Forces was in real danger of running out of bullets.

Conrad had been estimating that ammunition would be used at a steady rate, a planning concept that transfers poorly to a rapidly-changing war. He points out that on most Canadian deployments, the biggest danger is having ammunition go stale, because guns are rarely fired on peacekeeping tours.

With a major Taliban offensive ongoing and Canadian soldiers returning daily in armoured vehicles up to their knees in spent brass, Conrad had to arrange an emergency airlift of ammunition from Canada after a humiliating sorting out by a general that he details in the book.

This looks like it would be quite an interesting read.