Press Release
☷Klingenberg Logistics key to expeditionary operations warfighting
U.S. Army ( By Press Release office)
May 06,2022
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Mitchell Klingenberg , Ph . D . , talks about logistics as key to expeditionary operations and warfighting in award - winning essay . Events unfolding in the Russia - Ukraine War demonstrate that logistics and sustainment are not small tactical considerations but operations that significantly impact strategic objectives . A USAWC research fellow , in his award - winning article , examined logistics and supply in a historic campaign , and why these aspects of military operations matter today . Mitchell Klingenberg , Ph . D . , received the 2021 Early - Career Paper Prize from the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Military History and Historiography and Brill Publishing for his article , “‘In the Character of their Material , Animate and Inanimate , the Troops of the United States Excelled’: American Theatre - Level Logistics and Supply in the China Relief Expedition of 1900 . ” Klingenberg reviewed the U . S . experience in supplying , on short notice , two regiments of infantry , a cavalry troop and artillery battery - - in addition to U . S . Marines , sailors , and humanitarian aid - - to save missionaries and diplomats under attack by Boxer insurgents in China in 1900 . The article developed from a case study that Klingenberg authored for the Department of Military Strategy , Planning , and Operations . “I hope the article and case study will help USAWC students think through the projection of military power in time and space . “Although there are more contemporary case studies in the curriculum , I was drawn to this expedition because it is at once old and modern , ” he said . Logistics are critical to enabling the projection of military power , said Klingenberg . How Americans got forces on the ground in China; how they operated national and international supply networks; how they moved animals , fodder , subsistence , and war materiel to soldiers in the field – all mattered for a successful campaign . “There is a temptation to think that because a fight or a war is old , it was easy or simpler in the execution . But , when adding up the details—transporting equipment across the ocean on steam - powered ships , the food , the medevac , the triage—to get to the center of this military problem , it is not easy , ” he said . “Proper attention to these details enables military forces to prevail in armed conflict . It is the business of everyone , working in concert , to make sure that the little things that appear easy in war are feasible . ” The China Relief Expedition was significant . Not only did it represent the projection of U . S . military power on a hemispheric scale , but the experience of operating in a multi - national coalition was new for American servicemembers . At the turn of the 20th century , the U . S . military had moved beyond its Civil War experience , learned lessons in the Spanish - American War , and was looking to an uncertain future . The expedition forced the U . S . military , operating far away from North America , and in China and the Philippine Islands simultaneously , to work through counterinsurgency , combined arms operations , and joint warfighting . “This expedition was a microcosm for what warfighting would be … WWI , WWII , and even what we are seeing today , ” said Klingenberg . The China campaign presented complexity to expeditionary forces who had to achieve their mission far from home , with slow communications and imperfect intelligence , all while encountering friction in war . Klingenberg joined the USAWC faculty in 2020 as a post - doctoral fellow . He co - teaches the Military Strategy and Campaigning core course and several electives: Unleashing a Century of War: The Military Campaigns of WWI , The Commander’s Art: Critical Thinking about Great Battles and Campaigns , and Online Presence and Publication for Strategic Leaders . Klingenberg earned a Ph . D . in U . S . History from Texas Christian University and a B . A . in German and History from Hillsdale College .
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