Date with History Desert Redleg: Artillery Warfare in the First Gulf War Colonel (Retired) L. Scott Lingamfelter Thursday June 4, 6pm Space is limited, advance registration is required. Join us for a presentation by Colonel (Retired) L. Scott Lingamfelter, as he discusses his experience as an artilleryman in the First Gulf War through the lends of his book, Desert Redleg: Artillery Warfare in the First Gulf War. When Saddam Hussein’s Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, triggering the First Gulf War, a coalition of thirty-five countries led by the United States responded with Operation Desert Storm, which culminated in a one-hundred-hour coordinated air strike and ground assault that repelled Iraqi forces from Kuwait. But there is much more to that story. Though largely forgotten in descriptions of the war, an eight-day barrage of artillery fire made this seemingly rapid offensive possible. At the forefront of this offensive were the brave field artillerymen known as “redlegs” in support of the Big Red One’s initial assault on the Iraqi 26th Infantry Division and the onward attack by the division of Iraqi Republican Guards positions deeper inside Iraq and Kuwait. In Desert Redleg: Artillery Warfare in the First Gulf War, a veteran and former redleg of the 1st Infantry Division Artillery, “Big Red One”, Colonel (Retired) L. Scott Lingamfelter, recounts the logistical and strategic decisions that led to a coalition victory. Drawing on original battle maps, official reports, and personal journals, Lingamfelter describes the experience of the First Gulf War through a soldier’s eyes and attempts to answer the question of whether the United States “got the job done” in its first sustained Middle Eastern conflict. Part military history, part personal memoir, this book provides a boots-on-the-ground perspective on the largest U.S. artillery bombardment since World War II. Register About the Speaker Colonel (Retired) L. Scott Lingamfelter lives in Woodbridge, Virginia, and attended the Virginia Military Institute, where he earned a B.A. in History in 1973. After graduating from VMI, he was commissioned in the Regular Army and began a career as a Field Artilleryman and a Middle East Foreign Area Officer. In 1981, he completed his M.A. in Comparative Governments of the Middle East and Soviet Foreign Policy from the University of Virginia. After many assignments in Europe, Asia, and Middle East, both in command and staff positions, he retired in 2001 to pursue a second career as a legislator in the Virginia General Assembly where he served from 2002 to 2018. Colonel Lingamfelter accumulated significant experience in the war-torn Middle East as a military observer with the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization in Israel, Lebanon, and Syria. He later served with the 1st Infantry Division during Operation Desert Storm as the Executive Officer of the Division Artillery that planned and executed the largest field artillery assault on enemy fo...
