Date With History
Desert Redleg: Artillery Warfare in the First Gulf War
Visitors Center
Thursday, March 2
7:00 PM CDT
Hybrid program – view in person or online!
In person: Free event with paid parking.
Virtual: Free event registration is required.
Zoom Registration
About Date with History
Our Date with History series, now in its 16th year, features presentations by authors, historians, documentarians, and veterans on a variety of military history topics. Visit Cantigny or attend online to connect with these experts in a lecture and Q&A format.
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.
Desert Redleg: Artillery Warfare in the First Gulf War will be available for purchase and signing during the presentation.
MEET 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 forces since WW II.
A 1997 graduate of the US Army War College, Colonel Lingamfelter now devotes his time to writing professionally and routinely contributes to The Washington Times on national security topics.