Reviewed by: By Steve Hreczkosij, Lt Col (Ret), USAF

In the twenty-three years since the attacks of September 11, there has been a multitude of books published on nearly every aspect of the Global War on Terror. Gallons of ink have been spilt by generals and grunts, on grand strategies and on single battles, however, to my knowledge, there has been a distinct lack of books about the Air Force’s role in the recent wars, and specifically about those men who became emblematic of our air wars, the Joint Terminal Air Controllers, aka JTACs. Finally, that lack has been addressed by the forthcoming book Visual Friendlies, Tally Targets: How Close Air Support in the War on Terror Changed the Way America Made War (Volume 1 – Invasions) by Ethan Brown.

Mr. Brown’s book marks a timely contribution to the historical record of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but most importantly it is a riotously fun read. The book is constructed as an escalating narrative, alternating between chapters on the technical development of close air support doctrine, followed by riveting chapters full of “there I was” stories. The narrative positively soars with the types of war stories that we used to hear in the squadron bar. Most of our readers are familiar with the term “force multiplier”, and these war stories demonstrate how that bloody math works out on the ground.

Mr. Brown has the credibility to bring these stories to life. He spent eleven years in the USAF as a Tactical Air Control Party NCO assigned to the 75th Ranger Regiment, where he mastered the craft of controlling close air support attack aircraft. After leaving the USAF he entered the world of academia, serving as a fellow with the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress while also completing master’s degrees from both Georgetown and Johns Hopkins. His resume aside, the man is a fine author. His narrative voice seamlessly transitions from the esoteric explanations of joint doctrine, right back to the “down-in-the-dirt” war stories.

Those battlefield stories are the heart and soul of the book, and readers with an interest in the grist of combat will find them thrilling. He begins, unsurprisingly, in Afghanistan. The 12-man teams who parachuted into that graveyard of empires found themselves outnumbered, but not outgunned. It was the JTACs that served to even the odds, bringing American firepower to bear on enormous enemy formations. He recounts the assault on Mazer-e-Sharif, where three well-placed JTACs called in a hailstorm of iron-borne destruction. The Northern Alliance found themselves stunned by the American’s ability to utterly destroy battalion sized Taliban units, and soon enough the invasion of Afghanistan was complete, thanks to the B-52s, and the REI handheld GPSs personally bought by the airmen as they ran out the door.

The action in the book quickly moves on to Iraq, where the scene changes from austere to urban. Once again, Mr. Brown shares compelling story after story of how the embedded airmen enabled the ground forces to precisely dispatch enemy forces. In one vignette, he writes of a small friendly force charged with holding the Haditha Dam. The Army O-3 posted his CP right on the top center of the dam itself, with defensive positions on either side. The Iraqi Army commenced to assault the position from every direction, and it was only the JTAC and his access to airpower that saved the day. This story serves to demonstrate the complexity of close air support. Unlike Call of Duty, air attacks in the real world cause real effects. The JTAC found himself balancing the destructive forces needed to eliminate the enemy with the very real threat of destroying the dam itself which they were charged to protect. Using inventive vectoring and the precise application of the right size of munitions, he was able to engage his targets while preserving the dam.

The ingenuity of the JTACs to solve these problems comes through again and again throughout the book. Many of the JTACs were under 30 years old and had never been in combat prior to 2001. They had been trained on Gulf War tactics, with Cold War equipment. As the GWOT progressed, the JTACs found themselves re-writing their manuals as they redeployed and trained their replacements.

In just such an episode, a JTAC was accompanying the force that rescued POW Jessica Lynch. The close quarters battle and fluid dynamic of the fight meant that fixed wing air attack was not necessarily the best solution. The JTAC found himself controlling not just A-10s in the air, but coordinating for helicopter fires, mortars, and vehicle mounted weapons as well. When the GPS and laser designators proved inadequate for marking targets in urban combat, the JTACs utilized anti-tank Javelin rockets to “mark” the IDs, a tactic which had never been employed before.

The book is more than just war stories. In the alternating chapters, the author walks the reader through the evolution of close air support. He describes how the doctrine evolved from a Cold War mentality of pre-programmed target sets, through the dynamic fight with laser designators and crew-programmable GPS weapons, and ending the book with the rise of video feed ISR platforms and the “digital” JTAC. Doctrine development can be a little dry and academic, but the author moves through the topics efficiently. I found myself eager to get through the “lesson” so I could get to the next chapter which described the new tactic in action.

Visual Friendlies, Tally Target is a fun engaging read, and the author is to be commended for providing such a fresh perspective on a well tread topic. Having read many past books on the battles of Afghanistan and Iraq, I was unsure if I could learn anything new. I am pleased to say that I was quite mistaken, and that Mr. Brown’s tale of gutsy airmen scrambling through mountain passes and hanging out top-floor windows both quickens the pulse and delights the mind. I highly recommend the book to our Air Commando readers, and I eagerly look forward to Volume II.

About the Author: Lt Col, retired, Steve Hreczkosij was commissioned into the Air Force in 1998 from AFROTC. He flew conventional C-130s with Air Mobility Command for eight years before joining AFSOC and becoming a Combat Aviation Advisor at the 6th SOS. He was CAA for the next 13 years before retiring from active duty in 2019. After his retirement he was briefly employed as an airline pilot and also served in the legislative liaison office at HQ AFSOC. He resides in Niceville, Florida, with his beautiful wife and fellow Air Commando, Lt Col Amber Hreczkosij, their children, and one very spoiled French bulldog.