Visual Friendlies, Tally Target: How Close Air Support in the War on Terror Changed the Way America Made War

With a new century and a new enemy came a new kind of war: low intensity and civilian-dominated, blending austere rural and dense urban environments alike. Into this new kind of war, the American military launched two invasions against terrorist networks and military rivals, relying on airpower-close air support (CAS)-at a scale never before seen in combat. The Global War on Terror was the “CAS war.” Forward Air Controllers were on the front lines from the very first moments of the war, directing airstrikes against enemies in their safe havens, safeguarding friendly forces and civilians alike to their utmost, and achieving unprecedented success with limited resources. This volume captures the heroic accounts of the first Tactical Air Control Party (TACPs) in Afghanistan and Iraq, and how Close Air Support fundamentally reshaped the American war machine in the first five years of the War on Terror. AUTHOR: Ethan Brown is an Air Force veteran, who served 11 years as a Tactical Air Control Party specialist. After leaving the service in 2020, he works as a policy analyst for a think tank in Washington D.C. and contributor to a variety of national security publications. His work has been featured in Diplomatic Courier, Modern War Institute, Task & Purpose and War on the Rocks.

"A magnum opus for the history of airpower and the war on terror--and for the brotherhood of the U.S Air Force Tactical Air Control Party. Ethan Brown masterfully weaves historical perspective with the kind of vibrant and gritty accounts that can only come from the men who directly control chaos on the battlefield. Visual Friendlies, Tally Target not only chronicles the modern evolution of close air support, and the true complexities and nuances involved in the control of precision strikes when stakes are at their highest, but gives us exhilarating accounts of heroism and remarkable stories that needed told."--Wes J. Bryant, author of "Hunting the Caliphate"
"One of the most important and least understood lessons of America's longest, post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is the revolution in precision airpower that came to define--and redefine--U.S. military operations. As former Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC) Ethan Brown convincingly details in dramatic fashion in Visual Friendlies, Tally Target at no point in human history has such precise and innovative close air support been applied as effectively and in such close proximity to U.S. and allied ground forces. Brown and his JTAC colleagues fought right alongside our troops and Special Forces, acting as airpower liaisons and truly serving as the "angels on their shoulders." This timely and important book also makes tragically clear that no amount of courage and tactical innovation could compensate for the failed strategy behind the "Global War on Terror." Recommended without reservation."--James Kitfield, author of "Twilight Warriors" and "In the Company of Heroes"

Ethan Brown is an Air Force veteran, who served 11 years as a Tactical Air Control Party specialist. After leaving the service in 2020, he works as a policy analyst for a think tank in Washington D.C. and contributor to a variety of national security publications. His work has been featured in Diplomatic Courier, Modern War Institute, Task & Purpose and War on the Rocks.

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