Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2023, History (Arts and Sciences)

After the Vietnam War, the US Army pivoted from counter-insurgency in Southeast Asia towards the renewed possibility of war with the USSR in Central Germany. This shift in perspective coincided with dramatic shifts in Army policy, most importantly the transition from conscription to the All-Volunteer Force, as well as the introduction of new battlefield technologies which transformed the battlespace. This dissertation analyzes the complicated military relationship between the US Army and an important European ally. It argues that during this period of intense reform, the US Army and the West German Bundeswehr used both new and preexisting institutions to engage in a period of intense, sympathetic, and mutually inspired reforms which developed significant new concepts in land warfare. This is significant because this period of cooperation helped to reaffirm a special relationship between the US and West Germany, which transformed to become the most significant within NATO and Western Europe. The focus of this dissertation is on the mechanics of the transatlantic exchange and how this shaped both forces through the last decades of the Cold War.

Committee: Ingo Trauschweizer (Advisor); Mirna Zakic (Committee Member); Paul Milazzo (Committee Member); Nukhet Sandal (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; European History; History; Military History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, History

The Airborne Mafia analyzes the creation and transmission of values, beliefs, and norms from one subculture to the larger US Army bureaucracy and its impacts on Cold War institutional development. This project demonstrates the capacity for a military subculture to have an enormous effect on the behavior of its parent service and national strategic policy. I explore the impact of small groups within the military establishment on shaping military and national strategy—particularly during the Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson administrations through such general officers as Matthew B. Ridgway, Maxwell D. Taylor, and James M. Gavin. As this group ascended to control the US Army, they brought three key cultural tenets: operational flexibility, decentralization, and the efficacy of the aerial delivery of combat power. Most scholars have focused on the wartime exploits of parachute units while eschewing their impact on the post-war army. Others have posited that the atomic army, the Strategic Army Corps, and helicopter warfare are indicative of institutionalization and a fight for relevancy without developing the cultural origins of these ideas. Exploring the development of a distinctive airborne mindset through the lenses of organizational culture, psychology, and sociology, this dissertation argues that this tactical-level subculture thrust its leaders to prominence and undergirded significant policy and doctrinal changes during the Cold War.

Committee: Peter Mansoor (Advisor); Lydia Walker (Committee Member); Geoffrey Parker (Committee Member) Subjects: History; Military History; Military Studies

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2021, History

This thesis evaluates the 24th Infantry Division's combat effectiveness during its first two months of combat during the Korean War, July-August 1950. The existing literature on the Division's combat record in Korea point to poor individual training, low morale, and a lack of discipline as the causes for the Division's disastrous defeats in key battles against the Korean People's Army (KPA). This thesis critically examines these claims in light of documentary evidence and oral veteran accounts to argue that the existing literature's diagnosis of poor training and morale are rooted in opinion instead of fact. The thesis re-evaluates the Division's combat record in Korea using regimental and divisional war diaries to objectively measure its performance in its execution of contemporary doctrine, adaptation to the tactical situation, and displayed proficiency of arms. The thesis ultimately argues that the 24th Infantry Division performed adequately in combat, and that its defeat is attributable to failures in strategic and operational leadership.

Committee: Peter Mansoor (Advisor); Mark Grimsley (Committee Member) Subjects: History

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2020, History

From 1919 to 1924, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), supplied over 5 million German children with food aid that came to be known as the Quakerspeisung. Following four years of fighting and the British Blockade, Germany lacked proper food reserves and production to supply its ailing population. Amidst a concern of revolution and food riots, the German government appealed to the Allied Nations to support the nation with food. However, the American public was not ready to support Germany with humanitarian relief due to the recent fighting and as such the American Relief Administration (ARA) was not able to help the German people. Herbert Hoover, the director of the ARA, reached out to the Quakers and tasked the American Friends Service Committee with helping Germans. The Quakerspeisung which officially started in February 1920, would, in the words of AFSC co-founder Rufus Jones, "Americanize" the German nation and return the former war enemy into the international community. This thesis will show the motivations of US humanitarian relief to Germany and the impact of the Quaker feeding. Furthermore, the project will highlight the Weimar government's response to the aid and their plans to support national reconstruction by focusing on children.

Committee: Erik Jensen PhD (Advisor); Amanda McVety PhD (Committee Member); Steven Conn PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: European History; History

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2019, History (Arts and Sciences)

This dissertation analyzes military innovation through the lens of the US Army's Cold War aviation program and its development of tactical airmobility. Army planners originally conceived of the airmobility concept in the 1950s. Staff officers argued that helicopters allowed ground forces to assault rapidly into enemy territory with personnel, equipment, and supplies to seize and hold key objectives. Beginning in the 1960s, that revolutionary doctrinal concept triggered innovative approaches that transformed the aviation program and its aircraft into a cornerstone of the Army's way of warfare. The rise of the organization and the airmobility concept, therefore, provide a useful case study of modern military innovation. Due to the Army Aviation branch's unique history, this examination adds to existing scholarship on institutions. Despite conflicting pressures internally and dissent externally, the aviation program managed not only to establish itself, but exploited new opportunities, adapted, and reformed in ways throughout the Cold War that guaranteed its continued existence. This dissertation also finds that one of the largest hurdles on the road to an airmobile Army was technology. Until the state of the art met the demands of the concept, doctrinal development stalled. The gas turbine engine fitted to conventional helicopter designs unlocked the potential of an airmobile Army, not an ultra-complicated cutting-edge airframe. Finally, this dissertation asks what role industry plays in the process of innovation. Heretofore unmined archival records from the principal manufacturers that helped make airmobility possible reveals how the helicopter industry grew alongside the Army, partners in progress toward airmobility. Connected from the beginning, they have long considered their successes as mutual accomplishments. As this dissertation demonstrates, understanding the role that technology played in military innovation requires analysis of the relationship (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Ingo Trauschweizer (Advisor); John Brobst (Committee Member); Chester Pach (Committee Member); Matthew LeRiche (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; Armed Forces; Business Administration; History; Military History; Technology

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2018, History (Arts and Sciences)

This dissertation focuses on U.S. Army forces in Berlin from 1945 to 1994 and on broader issues of U.S. and NATO policy and strategy for the Cold War. It seeks to answer two primary questions: Why did U.S. officials risk war over a location everyone agreed was militarily untenable, and how did they construct strategies to defend it? Much of the Berlin literature looks at the city only during the two crises there, the Soviet blockade in 1948 and 1949 and Moscow's periodic ultimatum between 1958 and 1962 that the Americans, British, and French leave the city. These works maintain that leaders conceived of Berlin's worth as only a beacon of democracy in the war against communism, or a trip wire in the event that the Soviet Union invaded Western Europe. This dissertation looks beyond the crises, and contends that a long view of the city reveals U.S. officials saw Berlin as more than a liability. By combining military, diplomatic, political, and international history to analyze the evolution of U.S. diplomacy, NATO strategy and policy, and joint military planning, it suggests that U.S. officials, realizing they could not retreat, devised ways to defend Berlin and, when possible, use it as a means to achieve strategic and political ends in the larger Cold War, with both enemy and friend alike. This research is broadly concerned with national security, civil-military relations, and alliance politics. It focuses on the intersection of the military and political worlds, and tries to answer how governments analyze risk and form strategy, and then how militaries secure political and military objectives. Ultimately, it is a study of deterrence in modern war, an examination of how leaders can obtain objectives without harming friendships or instigating war.

Committee: Ingo Trauschweizer (Advisor); Steven Miner (Committee Member); Chester Pach (Committee Member); James Mosher (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; Armed Forces; European History; History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2016, History

This dissertation explores the idea that the heightened level of economic activity required to supply the army acted as a powerful force engendering economic change within early America. The central question driving my research places the supply of the early American army in conversation with the nation's financial development. How did efforts to supply the army evolve over time and what role did this activity play in influencing the nation's changing economic policy in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries? How indeed did military procurement impact American economic development during the early years of the republic? It is my argument that supply by contract emerged as the principal means by which to feed the army during the early republic due to expediency. Quite simply, early government officials reduced significant overhead procurement and distribution costs by turning over these responsibilities to credible bidders in a manner that fit well with the prevailing tenets of republican ideology yet acknowledged the advent of liberal motivations. Leaner government, for example, especially in those offices intimately connected with the military, appealed to those revolutionaries concerned about large standing armies. Reliance upon contractors, moreover, minimized in theory the likelihood that the military would need to forcibly impress supplies from the civilian population from which it so dearly needed support. These negotiated agreements shifted considerable burden away from the government while shielding it somewhat from any criticism accompanying failure. The relative merits of the system never endured sustained scrutiny—more often than not, the end of a campaign or conflict obscured those inadequacies of the system that continued war would likely have exposed. The interaction of government official, supply contractor, and army officer suggested a society struggling to reconcile values in a changing economic world. The triangular nature of the (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Mark Grimsley (Advisor); Peter Mansoor (Committee Member); John Brooke (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; Economic History; Finance; History; Military History

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2016, Leadership and Change

This research centered on the experiences of a dozen women who served in U.S. Army Reserve leadership positions. Although they served in dangerous contexts the Army had an exclusionary policy at the time that formally excluded the women from direct combat. The impetus for the research was Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta's announcement in January 2013 that the U.S. military would be eliminating the exclusionary policy. The purpose of this study was to gain insight into what individual, social, and organizational factors support women's effective leadership in dangerous contexts. The research utilized narrative inquiry in order to bring forth the essence of the lived experience of the women leaders. The research had two phases: phase one interviews, phase two panel discussion. In phase one, an unexpected outcome was that 75 % of interviewees discussed issues of gender bias and toxic leadership. In the second phase a panel of four military leaders (two men and two women who were not part of the first phase) offered validation for the interpretation and findings obtained from the interviews. The analysis of the interviews and panel discussion provided recommendations for individual, social, organizational, and cultural changes needed to correct dysfunctional gender and cultural biases and support women's leadership. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA: Antioch University Repository and Archive, http://aura.antioch.edu/, and OhioLINK ETD Center, http://etd.ohiolink.edu.

Committee: Alan E. Guskin Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Mitchell Kusy Ph.D. (Committee Member); Patrick Sweeney (Ret.) COL, Ph.D. (Committee Member); Mary Marcy Ph.D. (Other) Subjects: Military Studies; Women's Studies

Master of Arts in English, Youngstown State University, 2015, Department of Languages

The 1994 Direct Ground Combat Definition and Assignment Rule excluded women from specific assignments and occupational specialties that carried a high probability for direct contact and engagement with hostile enemy forces in ground combat. In January 2013, Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin E. Dempsey announced the elimination of the 1994 Direct Ground Combat Definition and Assignment Rule. The US Armed Forces' plan to integrate women into previously closed duty positions and military units will go into effect no later than January 1, 2016. In a separate memorandum, General Dempsey expressed the commitment of the Joint Chiefs to ensuring that all service members would be granted equal opportunity to succeed in their chosen career fields, and called for the reexamination of occupational performance standards across the board. During this time of significant institutional change, army soldiers of all ranks are called upon to reconsider and redefine their concept of leadership, particularly in the all-male combat arms branches. Further analysis of army rhetoric reveals ingrained obstacles to force integration and diversification. This thesis examines army rhetoric in terms of the linguistic processes we use to define, categorize, and evaluate what we perceive in our environment, and aims to determine the extant challenges associated with force integration beyond the superficial physiological differences between men and women.

Committee: Steven Brown PhD (Committee Chair); Jennifer Behney PhD (Committee Member); Jay Gordon PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Armed Forces; Gender; Rhetoric; Sociolinguistics

Master of Environmental Science, Miami University, 2013, Environmental Sciences

The purpose of this report is to describe my internship experience with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers working as a Natural Resource Specialist Park Ranger at Caesar Creek Lake in Waynesville, Ohio from June 2009 to April 2013. Caesar Creek Lake is a flood control reservoir constructed by the Corps of Engineers in the 1970s. The Lake is also a source of drinking water and a resource for both humans and wildlife. Along with my fellow park rangers and manager, I was responsible for the day-to-day operations and maintenance of the Caesar Creek Lake project natural and recreational resources. In my report I discuss the history of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Caesar Creek Lake area. I detail and reflect upon some of my experiences as a park ranger, and I relate my experiences back to my education at Miami University.

Committee: David Russell PhD (Committee Chair); Robbyn Abbitt (Committee Member); Sandra Woy-Hazleton PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Biology; Environmental Education; Environmental Science; Geographic Information Science; Geology; Natural Resource Management; Wildlife Management; Zoology