Suggested Readings on Close Air Support (CAS)

Battelle Columbus Labs OH Tactical Technology Center, Proceedings of Seminar on Air Antitank Warfare Held at Springfield, Virginia on 25-26 May 1978, Ft. Belvoir Defense Technical Information Center 01 MAY 1979. (Interviews of WWII tank killing ace Hans Rudel.)

Brown, Matthew. "TacAir for the 21st Century." Marine Corps Gazette, March, 2011. (However, the link seems dead.) (Speaks to the value of observation/attack platforms that can closely integrate with a maneuvering force.)

Brulle, Robert V., Angels Zero: Close Air Support in Europe, Smithsonian Books, 2000. (Autobiography of a US WWII P-47 CAS pilot.)

Campbell, Douglas N., The Warthog and the Close Air Support Debate, Naval Institute Press, 2003.

Cooling, Benjamin Franklin, Case Studies in the Development of Close Air Support, Office of Air Force History, USAF, 1990. (Standard USAF history of CAS.)

Corum, James S. and Wray R. Johnson, Airpower in Small Wars, University of Kansas Press, 2003. (Explains how low-end, simple air power was often a better solution than fast jets in insurgencies.)

Crane, Conrad C., “The Lure of Strike,” Parameters, Summer, 2003. (The myths of the efficacy of precision strike.)

Darling, Paul, and Justin Lawlor, “Updating Close Air Support,” Armed Forces Journal, November, 2010. (On the self-serving confusion in the military services over what is "CAS.")

Davis, Richard G., The 31 Initiatives: A Study in Air Force – Army Cooperation, Office of Air Force History, USAF, 1987. (Strongly advocated for reading by Chuck Myers.)

Department of Defense, Joint Publication 3-09.3, Close Air Support, 8 Jul, 2009. (Official doctrine on CAS.)

Dilger, Col. Robert and Sprey, Pierre M., “Reversing the Decay of American Air Power,” in America’s Defense Meltdown: Pentagon Reform for President Obama and the New Congress, Stanford University Press, 2009. (Addresses myths about CAS versus strategic bombing and the survivability of CAS aircraft.)

Dorr, Robert F., and Jones, Thomas D., Hell Hawks: The Untold Story of the American Fliers Who Savaged Hitler’s Wehrmacht, Zenith Press, 2008. (P-47 CAS operations in WWII.)

Downs, Maj. William Brian, USAF, “Unconventional Airpower,” Air & Space Power Journal, Spring 2005. (The changes needed for the Air Force to perform effective CAS.)

Emelianenko, Vasily B, Red Star against the Swastika, Greenhill Books, 2005. (WWII CAS operations by Soviet Sturmovik pilots.)

Government Accounting Office, Operation Desert Storm: Evaluation of the Air Campaign, GAO/NSIAD-97-134, 1997. (Addresses the various myths of precision and strategic bombing surrounding the First Gulf War.)

Hallion, Richard P., Strike from the Sky: The History of Battlefield Air Attack, 1911-1945, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989. (Conventional USAF history of CAS.)

Harrison, Marshall, A Lonely Kind of War: Forward Air Controller, Vietnam, Presidio, 1997. (Vietnam War FAC operations by an OV-10 pilot.)

Hughes, Thomas Alexander, Overlord: General Pete Quesada and the Triumph of Tactical Air Power in World War II, The Free Press, 1995. (Airpower iconoclast and CAS originator Pete Quesada’s biography.)

Mark, Eduard, Aerial Interdiction: Air Power and the Land Battle I Three American Wars, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1994. (Separates the myth of interdiction from CAS.)

Moore , Cmdr Daniel (USN); Gattuso, Cmdr Joseph (USN); Geron, Cmdr Craig (USN);

Roberts, Maj Ross (USMC); Wilson, Col G.I. (USMCR); Roncolato, Cmdr Gerard (USN);

Wyly, Col Michael (USMC Ret.); Spinney, Mr. Franklin (OSD/PA&E), “Jaeger Squadron (X),” Marine Corps Gazette, May 1996. (A concept for modern CAS operations.)

Muller, Richard R, “Close Air Support: The German, British, and American Experiences, 1918-1941,” in Military Innovation in the Interwar Period, Williamson Murray and Allan R. Millet, ed.s, Cambridge University Press,1996. (Basic pre-WWII CAS history.)

Myers, Charles E. (“Chuck”), “Defense Transformation: Back to The Future?.” (One of many Chuck Myers monographs on CAS and MAS.)

Myers, Charles E. (“Chuck”), “Vintage Air Support: Should It Be Revived?,” August 2001.

Pape, Robert A.,"The Limits of Precision-Guided Air Power," Security Studies, Winter 1997/98, 92-117. (Self-explanatory title.)

Rudel, Hans Ulrich, Stuka Pilot: Air War on the Russian Front with Germany’s Foremost Pilot, Bantam, 1958. (Self-explanatory title.)

Shay M.D., Ph.D., Jonathan, Achilles In Vietnam: Combat and the Undoing of Character, Scribner, 1994.

Shay M.D., Ph.D., Jonathan, Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming, Scribner, 2002.

Smallwood, William L., Warthog: Flying the A-10 in the Gulf War, Brassey’s, 1993. (A description of the highly successful A-10 operations in the First Gulf War that the GWAPS and other official histories ignored.)

Smith, Peter C., Close Air Support: An Illustrated History, 1914 to the Present, Orion, 1990. (Basic CAS history.)

Sprey, Pierre M., Briefing: “Combat Effectiveness Considerations in Designing Close Support Fighters,” circa 1970s. (Characteristics and history of CAS the official version usually ignores.)

Sprey, Pierre M., “Notes on Close Air Support,” May 1974. (Exposition of the essentials for effective CAS.)

Thiele, Maj. Gregory A. and Rubinstein, Maj. Mitchell, “Air Cooperation and the Marine Corps: An Alternative Vision for the Employment of Marine Fixed-Wing Aircraft,” Marine Corps Gazette, 2013. (More insight on more effective CAS.)