Books - Dragons at War (1986) [+] / The Battle for Hunger Hill (1997) [+]
Sep 18 2023
Lt General (ret) Daniel P Bolger wrote these two books about his units' experiences during two training tours in the USA.
Dragons at War: 2-34th Infantry in the Mojave (1986)
This book covers a battalions rotation (rotation 1-83, so first one in 1983) at the then new National Training Center in California. The first three chapters introduce the NTC (and how simulated battles are done using MILES, kind of like Laser Tag), OPFOR (a regular US Army unit assigned to Fort Irwin to be a Soviet mechanized battalion and serve for a year or two so they get really good about knowing the terrain and the tricks of NTC combat), and the Dragons (2nd Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division).
After that each chapter recounts one mission the unit did. Over the course of two weeks the unit had 11 missions, often one per day or night and only one or two breaks. The first half was against the OPFOR using MILES and the second half was on the live fire range where they got to use live weapons against remote-controlled stand up targets.
The unit gets their orders from brigade (which is their regular brigade command group who are also at NTC commanding a "brigade" though only the 2-34th is live and the of the brigade is partial and their actions are resolved by referees), then they have to plan, get ready, and do their mission within a few hours and often in the middle of the night. The book shows how little things (well, relatively little things) and misunderstandings can sabotage a mission though sometimes that applies to the OPFOR too.
Writing style is good and always from a third-person perspective. I think Captain Bolger was Company B commander which probably did the best and sometimes has a bit more of B's thinking in the text. Each chapter has footnotes and there is a bibliography.
The Battle for Hunger Hill: The 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment a the Joint Readiness Training Center (1997)
In this book Colonel Bolger is now commander of a light infantry battalion as they deploy in the 95-07 rotation at the JRTC which is the jungle warfare training center in Louisiana. NTC is more about fighting in the desert against a Soviet-style force (which turns out a lot like the Middle East though not sure that was the main intention) and JRTC is more about fighting an insurgency backed by regular forces in the jungles (so kind of like Vietnam).
Once again we have introductory chapters then each chapter is one mission written from the third-person perspective. You get a lot more insight into what the 1-327th's commander was thinking and how his intentions filtered down and changed in the subordinate units.
A bit better writing style and lot better graphics: Dragons at War has these maps which could have been screen shots from an Apple II whilst this book has maps generated by 1990's PCs.
Both books give a good account of what a unit goes through when doing a rotation at the Army training centers and shows the value of practicing as live as possible before a real war. I found both books interesting and worthy of keeping in my library.
Dragons at War: 2-34th Infantry in the Mojave (1986)
This book covers a battalions rotation (rotation 1-83, so first one in 1983) at the then new National Training Center in California. The first three chapters introduce the NTC (and how simulated battles are done using MILES, kind of like Laser Tag), OPFOR (a regular US Army unit assigned to Fort Irwin to be a Soviet mechanized battalion and serve for a year or two so they get really good about knowing the terrain and the tricks of NTC combat), and the Dragons (2nd Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division).
After that each chapter recounts one mission the unit did. Over the course of two weeks the unit had 11 missions, often one per day or night and only one or two breaks. The first half was against the OPFOR using MILES and the second half was on the live fire range where they got to use live weapons against remote-controlled stand up targets.
The unit gets their orders from brigade (which is their regular brigade command group who are also at NTC commanding a "brigade" though only the 2-34th is live and the of the brigade is partial and their actions are resolved by referees), then they have to plan, get ready, and do their mission within a few hours and often in the middle of the night. The book shows how little things (well, relatively little things) and misunderstandings can sabotage a mission though sometimes that applies to the OPFOR too.
Writing style is good and always from a third-person perspective. I think Captain Bolger was Company B commander which probably did the best and sometimes has a bit more of B's thinking in the text. Each chapter has footnotes and there is a bibliography.
The Battle for Hunger Hill: The 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment a the Joint Readiness Training Center (1997)
In this book Colonel Bolger is now commander of a light infantry battalion as they deploy in the 95-07 rotation at the JRTC which is the jungle warfare training center in Louisiana. NTC is more about fighting in the desert against a Soviet-style force (which turns out a lot like the Middle East though not sure that was the main intention) and JRTC is more about fighting an insurgency backed by regular forces in the jungles (so kind of like Vietnam).
Once again we have introductory chapters then each chapter is one mission written from the third-person perspective. You get a lot more insight into what the 1-327th's commander was thinking and how his intentions filtered down and changed in the subordinate units.
A bit better writing style and lot better graphics: Dragons at War has these maps which could have been screen shots from an Apple II whilst this book has maps generated by 1990's PCs.
Both books give a good account of what a unit goes through when doing a rotation at the Army training centers and shows the value of practicing as live as possible before a real war. I found both books interesting and worthy of keeping in my library.