Operation AL FAJR: A Study in Army and Marine Corps Joint Operations: Occasional Paper 20

Matt M. Matthews joined the Combat Studies Institute in July 2005 after working for 16 years as a member of the World Class Opposing Force (OP-FOR) for the Battle Command Training Program at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Mr. Matthews graduated from Kansas State University in 1986 with a B.S. in History. He served as an Infantry enlisted man in the Regular Army from 1977 to 1981; a Cavalry officer in the US Army Reserve from 1983 to 1986; and as an Armor officer in the Kansas Army National Guard from 1986 to 1991. Mr. Matthews has coauthored numerous scholarly articles on the Civil War in the Trans-Mississippi to include ＂Shot All To Pieces: The Battle of Lone Jack,＂ ＂To Play a Bold Game: The Battle of Honey Springs,＂ and ＂Better Off in Hell: The Evolution of the Kansas Red Legs＂; he is a frequent speaker at Civil War Roundtables; and he recently appeared on the History Channel as a historian for Bill Kurtis’ Investigating History. Mr. Matthews was the mayor and city commissioner of Ottawa, Kansas, from 1993 to 1999.