During the first year of the Korean War, United States Marine Corps aircraft employed effective Close Air Support (CAS) for infantry near the frontlines. This thesis examines the Marine air-ground team, a vital communication element between the striking aircraft and forward controllers on the ground. The air-ground teams improved their CAS system with each major battle of 1950, culminating during the Chosin Reservoir campaign. Despite the Air Forces focus on strategic bombing, thus hindering Navy CAS sorties, Marine air-ground teams continued to provide the critical and effective link between aircraft and infantry units.
Before detailing the Korean War, this thesis describes the development of the Marine air-ground teams in World War II, and the subsequent training of aviators between the two conflicts. From inter-war training, both Marine air and infantry units gained a mutual respect for each other, as aviators became riflemen, or grunts, first. This camaraderie between air and ground elements carried into the Korean War and helped to solidify the effectiveness of Marine CAS in 1950.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TCU/oai:etd.tcu.edu:etd-05052006-084736 |
| Date | 05 May 2006 |
| Creators | Southard, John |
| Contributors | Mark T Gilderhus |
| Publisher | Texas Christian University |
| Source Sets | Texas Christian University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf, application/msword |
| Source | http://etd.tcu.edu/etdfiles/available/etd-05052006-084736/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to TCU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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