With the 1st Marine Division in Iraq, 2003: No Greater Friend, No Worse Enemy - Marines of the Blue Diamond, Camp Pendleton, Iraq War to Oust Saddam Hussein

With the 1st Marine Division in Iraq, 2003, is a unit history written by the participants in the same vein as its predecessors—The Old Breed—written at the end of World War II and— The New Breed—authored during Korea. It is a narrative describing the actions of Marines in combat during the liberation of Iraq. Portions of the story have been told by embedded journalists—but this full account is told by those who made it happen.

The 1st Marine Division, in concert with the U.S. Army's 3d Infantry Division, captured Baghdad and toppled Saddam Hussein's dictatorship. The division's 28-day "march up" from Kuwait to Baghdad, a distance of 250 road miles, was a remarkable achievement. It represented a validation of the Corps' maneuver warfare strategy, particularly the seamless integration of air into the ground scheme of maneuver and the Marine logistics command's innovative support.

"Blue Diamond," the 1st Division's Operation Iraqi Freedom nom de guerre, consisted of some 20,000 Marines and sailors and 8,000 vehicles organized into three regimental combat teams. Designed to be light and self-sufficient, the regiments "conducted the longest sequence of coordinated overland attacks in the history of the Corps," according to Lieutenant General Wallace C. Gregson, then commander of Marine Forces Pacific. The authors of this account were somewhat more colloquial, preferring to state that it "focuses on the collective action of Marines who served as part of the 'Blue Diamond.' It is not a story of each of them, but the story of all of them." Their story is an authentic documentation of the feel, concerns, triumphs and tragedy of the campaign in Iraq.

Chapter 1 - Planning and Preparation * Chapter 2 - Force Planning and Planning Refinements * Chapter 3 - Adjustments to the Plan and Combat Rehearsals * Chapter 4 - The Opening Gambit * Chapter 5 - Bridgehead Over the Tigris * Chapter 6 - Attack to Secure Eastern Baghdad * Chapter 7 - Task Force Tripoli * Chapter 8 - Security and Stabilization Operations * Epilogue * Appendix A: Command and Staff List * Appendix B: Glossary * Appendix C: 1st Marine Division Honor Roll

Gathering of Commanders * Orienting on the Enemy: The Iraqi Battlespace * Providing Focus * Operational Planning * Force Deployment Planning * Fire Support Planning and Preparation * Intelligence Planning * Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical (NBC) Warfare * Training for War, Exercises in CONUS * Aggressive Training Schedules * First Reconnaissance Battalion Trains for a New Mission * Planning for Rotary Wing Aviation Support—Teaming with 3d MAW * Creative and Proactive Logistics Planning * A New Concept for Combat Service Support * Planning for Causalities * Personnel Augmentation Planning * Communications Planning * Public Affairs Planning Deployment Readiness * Deployment of the Forward Command Post and Planning Team * Chapter 2 - Force Planning and Planning Refinements * Intelligence Planning, The Changing Enemy Picture * Operational Planning, The Baghdad Option * Operational Planning, Refinement of the Base Plan * Development in Fire Support Planning * Operational Planning, The Opening Gambit * Getting the Force to the Fight * Continuing Mission, Security in the Pacific * Creation of the Division Administrative Center * "Sappers Up," Combat Engineers Organize for Combat * Building a Home for the Division in Kuwait, Camp Matilda * Embarkation, Deployment, and Off-load Operations * Fires Planning * Continuing Collaboration with the UK 1st Division * Intelligence Planning * Visit by Red Cell * Teaming with the 1st UK Armoured Division * Coordination with the Kuwaiti Land Forces * Major Hassan, A Combat Multiplier * Force Protection and the Atmosphere in Kuwait * Logistics Planning and Rehearsal * CSSG Planning and Rehearsal * Command and Control * Personnel Issues, Assigning Troops to Tasks * Public Affairs