Even early successes could have been a bit rocky: The Army’s landing in North Africa as part of Operation Torch was both a triumph for the Navy, as well as a very sharp pain point on lessons learned as part of the first long-distance landing operation the Navy conducted. This sort of thing wasn’t confined just to just the Second World War, of course: Half the forces landing at Inch’on in Korea were Army, and even in the Persian Gulf and Grenada conflicts, the Army was conducting flight operations off Navy ships. Schwartzkopf’s book relates an incident where in the middle of the Grenada operation, the Pentagon told the Navy not to refuel Army helicopters as they hadn’t figured out the budget process yet. He ignored it.

Direct Support

Direct support is exactly what it sounds like: naval personnel or vessels providing direct combat support to Army land operations. The river Patrol Boats such as in Vietnam, or the Brown-Water Navy, were right in the thick of things on the two-way firing range. More common, though, is fire support, either air or gunfire. Not that there’s anything wrong with a battery of Army 105mm on the other end of the radio, but when there’s a battleship ship with nine 16-inch rifles, or a modern cruiser with two 5” guns each firing off a round every three seconds, that puts the possible boom into perspective. And of course, that’s not counting the possibilities from aircraft carriers.