Boots on the Ground: Troop Density in Contingency Operations

Boston native John McGrath has worked for the United States Army in one capacity or another since 1978. A retired Army Reserve officer, Mr. McGrath served in infantry, field artillery, and logistics units, both on active duty and as a reservist. Before coming to work at the Combat Studies Institute, he worked for four years at the US Army Center of Military History in Washington, DC, as a historian and archivist. Prior to that, Mr. McGrath worked full time for the United States Army Reserve in Massachusetts for more than 15 years, both as an active duty reservist and as a civilian military technician. He also served as a mobilized reservist in 1991 in Saudi Arabia with the 22d Support Command during Operation DESERT STORM as the command historian and in 1992 at the US Army Center of Military History as a researcher and writer. Mr. McGrath is a graduate of Boston College, holds an MA in history from the University of Massachusetts at Boston, and is currently a PhD candidate at Kansas State University. He is the author of numerous articles and military history publications. He has published several books including Theater Logistics in the Gulf War published by the Army Materiel Command in 1994, The Brigade: A History published by the US Army Combat Studies Institute (CSI) in 2005; and Crossing the Line of Departure, also published by CSI in 2006. He served as the general editor of the published proceedings from CSI s 2005 Military History Symposium, An Army at War: Change in the Midst of Conflict. Aside from a general interest in things military and historical, his areas of particular interest include modern military operations, the German army in World War II, August 1914, and the Union Army in the Civil War. He also has a keen interest in ancient history, historical linguistics, the city of Boston, and baseball."

Global War on Terrorism Occasional Paper 16. Provides a concise historical study of the numbers of troops needed in contingency operations. Discusses past military operations, including the Philippines, 1899-1901, post-World War II Germany and Japan, the Malayan Emergency, 1948-1960, the Balkans in the 1990s, and Iraq, 2003-2005. Also discusses troop density of several United States city police departments.