This issue of Proceedings focuses on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), formerly known as remotely piloted vehicles (RPVs), that have been transformed into missile-firing, bomb-dropping joint combat air systems (J-UCAS). Thanks to miniaturization but mostly to the Global Positioning System—that boon to amateur sailors and desert warriors—the vehicles have become operationally effective. Lieutenant Colonel Jay Stout, a former Marine F/A-18 pilot, discusses the possibilities of no-risk (to aircrews) close air support, a proposal echoed by Ensign Nathan Brasher, who ventures farther into the realm of air-to-air combat with unmanned vehicles. Lieutenant Commander Donn Keels even sees a place for unmanned combat search-and-rescue vehicles when downed aircrews need a helping hand from above.
A cartoon by Eric Smith opens our lead article, "Time to Tell Our Kids It's Okay to Shoot." Eric's latest contribution rivals the one he came up with last month of Marines celebrating the elevation of General Peter Pace to Joint Chiefs chairman by raising the Marine Corps colors Iwo Jima-style over the Pentagon. Senior Designer Faith Stewart dramatized both drawings with her skillful colorizing. The picture here shows Eric and Faith hard at work, making sure they get it right.
The issue the cartoon illustrates is not funny. A team of authors who conduct courses on the Rules of Engagement for troops deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan say many of these young men and women are confused about when they can squeeze the trigger. This is nothing new. Problems interpreting ROE haunted American forces in Vietnam. A decade later, in October 1983, a suicide bomber drove a yellow Mercedes-Benz stake-bed truck laden with explosives into the lobby of the Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 Americans. As every Marine knows, the bomber sped right past a sentry who did not even have a magazine in his rifle because of orders from above.
In an odd confluence of events, this issue marks the first appearance in Proceedings in a decade for Robert C. McFarlane, who reflects from the vantage point of bitter personal experience on the aftermath of Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon this spring. He knows the territory only too well. As Ronald Reagan's special Middle East envoy, Bud McFarlane spent the summer of 1983 in Lebanon, working with the Syrians and fractious religious sects, trying to hammer out a peace settlement among them. He was named the president's national security advisor six days before the barracks bombing.
In the late 1980s, Mr. McFarlane, a retired Marine lieutenant colonel, was swept up in the Iran-Contra affair, arguably the most complex and misunderstood of Washington's many scandals. He had some difficult years, but has since rebuilt his life and again become a respected advisor and commentator on foreign policy. His Commentary, "Lebanon's Cedar Revolution: Be Careful What You Wish For," demonstrates his mastery of complicated international issues.
In a special feature, Michael Slattery and Gordon Peterson take you on a heart-wrenching ride in "Spence Dry: A SEAL's Story," as they recount the final mission of a young naval officer who died trying to help POWs to freedom during the Vietnam War. What actually happened on the classified mission did not emerge for years—and then only because of the persistence of a father searching for meaning in his son's death.
Hats off to the Naval Institute Press. Two of its books recently won national awards: Spencer Tucker's Stephen Decatur: A Life Most Bold and Daring has been named the recipient of the Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt Naval History Prize, awarded by the New York Council of the Navy League in cooperation with the Roosevelt Institute and the Theodore Roosevelt Association.
Kathleen Williams' Grace Hopper: Admiral of the Cyber Sea has won the John Lyman Award, sponsored by the North American Society for Oceanic History for the best biography published in 2004. This issue showcases the winners of the Commander William Earl Fannin Capstone Essay Contest for graduating Naval Academy midshipmen, sponsored by the Class of 1945. Freshly commissioned Ensign Brasher is one, with his previously mentioned piece on UAVs. His classmate, Second Lieutenant Lacey Ainsworth, details leadership lessons gleaned from the Vietnam memoir of celebrated Marine Colonel Gerry Turley.
Editor's Page
By Robert Timberg