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  • The Atlantic

    Modern Wars Are a Nightmare for the Army's Official Historians

    The researchers compiling the U.S. Army’s accounts of Iraq and Afghanistan have an unprecedented—and overwhelming—volume of material to work through.
    by Adin Dobkin Jun 14, 2017 5 minutes
    Source: Alaa Al-Marjani / Reuters

    When Major Spencer Williams was ordered to “shut down shop and move out” of Afghanistan in 2005, he closed his final message from the field as he always did—quoting a long-dead historian. “Plant yourself not in Europe but in Iraq; it will become evident that half of the roads of the Old World lead to Aleppo, and half to Bagram.”

    Williams made up one-third of the U.S. Army’s historical field staff in Afghanistan—a team directed to cover the breadth of the country, vacuuming up media, documents, and oral histories so that some future soldier or academic could better understand the course of the war and how one might respond to circumstances should they arise again. The war offered more than enough material to keep Williams and the others busy, but they weren’t able to communicate the importance of that work to those leading the mission in the country. Following

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