In this episode, we discuss:

-What drew Col Reynolds to studying history 

-The value of history for the military professional

-Avoiding traps and pitfalls in studying and using history

-Studying at Oxford

-German General Ludwig Beck

-Doctrine in the German army (1914-1945)

-How the Marine Corps used history while Col Reynolds was a company-grade officer

-His time as a student at The Basic School (TBS)

-The state of the Marine Corps in the mid to late 1970s

-The decision to leave the Marine Corps and transitioning

-Col Reynold’s time in the Central Intelligence Agency

-His experiences at TBS as an individual mobilization augmentee

-How TBS had changed since his time as a student

-Tactical decision games (TDGs) and sand table exercises as intellectual revelations

-Writing good TDGs

-Col Reynold’s contest-winning article, “Turn on Your Lights!”

-Criticisms of studying and drawing from the 20th-century German military tradition

-Researching and writing Just Cause and A Skillful Show of Strength

-Serving as the officer-in-charge of Marine Corps Field History in Operation Iraqi Freedom-I

-Interviewing Marine and Coalition leaders in Iraq

-Writing Basrah, Baghdad, and Beyond

-Areas where Marine forces in Iraq could have improved

-The relief of Colonel Joe Dowdy, the commander of Regimental Combat Team-1

-The turnover of Tikrit from Task Force Tripoli to the US Army’s 4th Infantry Division

-The U.S. failure to adequately prepare for Phase IV (stability) operations

-How Marine Corps historians seem less critical of Marine leaders compared to Army historians writing about Army generals

-The controversy and conversation surrounding Force Design 2030 

Links

Colonel Reynold's website: https://www.nicholasreynoldsauthor.com

"Turn on Your Lights!" by Major Nicholas E. Reynolds, USMCR, Proceedings, November 1991

Fighting Power: German and U.S. Army Performance, 1939-1945 by Martin van Creveld

Just Cause: Marine Operations in Panama, 1988-1990 by Lieutenant Colonel Nicholas E. Reynolds, USMCR

A Skillful Show of Strength: US Marines in the Caribbean, 1991-1996 by Colonel Nicholas E. Reynolds, USMCR

U.S. Marines in Iraq, 2003: Basrah, Baghdad, and Beyond by Colonel Nicholas E. Reynolds, USMCR (Rett)

Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy: Ernest Hemingway's Secret Adventures, 1935-1961 by Nicholas Reynolds

Need to Know: World War II and the Rise of American Intelligence by Nicholas Reynolds