A Soldier Supporting Soldiers

A Soldier Supporting Soldiers is the second in a series of works by distinguished U.S. Army logisticians that focus on firsthand experience in the organization of combat service support. These studies seek to describe and analyze problems still familiar to those who provide the materials and other support required by today's Army. Their authors also clearly underscore the challenges that their successors will face in an era of limited resources. With active careers that span the last half century of Army history General Carter B. Magruder, in the recently published Recurring Logistic Problems As I Have Observed Them and Lt. Gen. Joseph M. Heiser, Jr., in the pages that follow, have much to say to the student of military operations about what constitutes efficiency and effectiveness in military logistics. General Heiser's study marks a clear departure from the Center of Military History's policy of refraining from publishing biographies or memoirs. Although we believe that the compelling reasons for establishing such a policy fifty years ago still pertain, we also think an exception should be made in this case. General Heiser has a unique skill in conveying important logistical lessons through personal anecdotes. Especially in his early chapters, he uses specific incidents from his own career to illuminate for his reader larger principles of logistics. Thus in this special instance our audience is treated to an extended, personal account that in some ways has just as much to say about military leadership and ethic as it does about logistics. The logistical principles discussed in this study appear especially vital to today's military students, given the recent massive challenges tologisticians posed by operations in the Persian Gulf and possible future contingency operations. I urge them to study and reflect on the insights provided in the engaging chapters that follow. Harold W. Nelson Washington, D.C.Brigadier General, USA December 1990Chief of Military History