Digital Collections

The MERLN Digital Collections is a portal to unique military collections that have been digitized by MERLN participants. It contains student papers, lectures, conference proceedings, personal paper collections, reports and legislation. These collections are a significant source for research and scholarship on military topics.

Admiral Bates Papers
The personal papers of Rear Admiral Richard W. Bates (1892-1973) cover the years 1915-1973 and consist of correspondence, subjects files, writings, speeches, and miscellaneous items. [Naval War College]

Air University (U.S. Air Force) Research Studies
This database contains information on all research being conducted at Air University (AU) and provides on-line access to over 2,500 selected papers written by faculty and students at AU or enrolled in the Air Force Fellows Program. [Air University]

Army JAG Corps Historical Monographs
Official history of the Army JAG Corps and other studies of judge advocates. [U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Legal Center & School Library]

Command & General Staff College Archival Collections
Five archival collections are available in full text. These include CGSC Annual Reports 1882-1936; Infantry and Cavalry School Lectures 1902-1910; Notebooks of COL Edmund J. Lilly (P.O.W. of the Japanese during World War II); Papers of MAJ Earl and Florence Hallgren (WWII); the Joseph J. Koch Collection; Diaries of Karl D. White, a soldier in the Philippine Insurrection. A number of finding aids to other collections are available on line. [Command & General Staff College]

Command & General Staff College Digital Library
The Combined Arms Research Library (CARL) digital collections, housed in CARL's Digital Library, contain these titles: Master of Military Art and Science Theses; School of Advanced Military Studies Monographs; World War II Operational Documents; Military History, 1900-1939; General Military History; Stability and Support Operations; Fort Leavenworth History; obsolete military manuals; and Operational Leadership Experience, an archive of firsthand, multi-service accounts from military personnel who planned, participated in, and supported operations in the Global War on Terrorism. [Command & General Staff College]

Command & General Staff College Historical Publications
The Combat Studies Institute is the historical arm of CGSC. It has published over a hundred works dealing with land warfare at the tactical and operational levels. The collection includes subject bibliographies, short monographs, and complete books. Digital versions of many of these works are available, and it is the aim of CGSC that all be digitally available in the near future. [Command & General Staff College]

Conduct of the Persian Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War was the first major conflict following the end of the Cold War. The victory was a triumph of Coalition strategy, of international cooperation, of technology, and of people. A proper understanding of the conduct of these military operations the extraordinary achievements and the needed improvements is an important and continuing task of the Department of Defense. This report discusses the conduct of hostilities in the Persian Gulf theater of operations. [National Defense University]

Donovan Research Library Digitized Monograph Collection
Donovan Research Library is currently in the midst of transitioning its massive 10,000+ collection of student papers to digital format. This collection includes after action reports, command diaries, case studies, battle accounts, and first-hand experiences from U.S. Army personnel during World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and other conflicts following 1980. It represents the intellectual talent of research and education that soldiers receive from the faculty and staff at the U.S. Army Infantry School and its divisions. [U.S. Army Infantry School]

Enactments and Approved Papers of the Control Council and Coordinating Committee
Allied Control Authority, Germany (1945-1948)
The Control Council and Coordinating Committee of the Allied Control Authority in post-World War II-occupied Germany issued a series of enactments and approved papers. This nine-volume series, compiled and printed by the Legal Division of the Office of the U.S. Military Government for Germany, represents the effort to rule an occupied country by unanimous agreement of representatives of the four occupying powers: The United Kingdom, the U.S.S.R., France, and the United States. The collection is not only of historical value, but is an important resource for current military legal scholarship. [U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Legal Center & School Library]

Goldwater-Nichols DoD Reorganization Act of 1986
In 1986, Congress enacted the Department of Defense Reorganization Act, directing how Services manage joint officers, in an effort to improve the quality of joint officers and operations. This collection now consists of 26 full text documents [over 1900 pages] and includes the Congressional Hearings, the full text of the law, and other supporting documents. These papers are searchable through MERLN. [National Defense University]

Information as Power
The U.S. Army War College Information as Power web site is an electronic library of current and historical articles and documents selected to facilitate understanding of the information element of national power. [U.S. Army War College]

Iraqi Perspectives Project
This report presents a comprehensive historical analysis of the forces and motivations that drove Iraqi decisions during Operation Iraqi Freedom. It draws upon dozens of interviews with senior Iraqi military and political leaders and makes extensive use of thousands of official Iraqi documents. It represents a substantive examination of Saddam Hussein's leadership and its effects on the Iraqi military decision-making process. It goes a long way toward revealing the inner workings of a closed regime from the insiders' point of view. [Joint Forces Command]

Irregular Warfare Special Study
This report provides study results, analysis, conclusions, and recommendations concerning doctrinal implications of Irregular Warfare (IW) as introduced/described in the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review report. Specifically, this study identifies current joint doctrinal treatment of IW and its aspects, to include content of ongoing revision efforts; identifies any joint doctrinal voids concerning IW and proposes courses of action for resolving identified voids; and identifies terminology mplications/doctrinal issues related to IW. [Joint Forces Command]

Lectures At the Industrial College of the Armed Forces
Transcripts of unclassified lectures given at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces (ICAF) between 1924-1942 and 1946-1965. [National Defense University]

Lessons Learned As A Result Of The U.S. Military Operations in Grenada HASC Hearings 98-43
An increasingly scarce document with important conclusions affecting future military operations. [ 3.8 mb ] [National Defense University]

Maxwell D. Taylor Papers
The papers contained in this inital collection reflect selected speeches and articles of Maxwell D. Taylor during the period 1955 through 1967. As the Army's twentieth Chief of Staff, 1955-1959, Taylor supported an increase in conventional forces to ensure a capability of flexible response and guided the reorganization of the standard Army division. Among the documents contained in this digital collection are Taylor's own official calendar/diary for the period 1955 - 1959 and many items which contain Taylor's own hand editing of the text. [National Defense University]

Naval Research Lab Technical Reports
This public collection includes thousands ot unclassified, unlimited NRL published research reports spanning back to the 1930's, in addition to archival reports from the Naval Submarine Medical Research Laboratory. It is available through the NRL Digital Archive called "TORPEDO Ultra". For more information on the complete NRL report collection, please contact the Research Reports Unit of the NRL Research Library at 202-767-7385. [Naval Research Lab]

Peace Agreements Digital Collection
The Peace Agreements Digital Collection, part of the Margarita S. Studemeister Digital Library in International Conflict Management, strives to contain the full text of agreements signed by the major contending parties ending inter- and intra-state conflicts worldwide since 1989. It is a collection constantly under development by the Jeannette Rankin Library Program as a means to strengthen worldwide access to information on peaceful means to end international conflict. [United States Institute of Peace]

President's Blue Ribbon Commission on Defense Management
This final report, also known as the Packard Report, and the four associated studies herein looked at defense contracting in an effort to reduce cost overruns in major acquisition programs. These papers are searchable through MERLN. [National Defense University]

Review of Unified and Specified Command Headquarters, Feb 1988
At the request of the Secretary of Defense a review was conducted of the Joint Staff, the Unified and Specified Command Headquarters and headquarters support activities, to include component commands. The primary objective of the review was to find ways to reduce manpower levels and overhead costs, paying particular attention to overlapping responsibilities, duplication of functions and excess layering of organization echelons. [National Defense University]

Sidle Panel Report on the Military and the Media
A scarce report on the topic of the media's interactions with the military - a more and more important topic daily. This was one of the first documented studies of the topic. [National Defense University]

Skelton Report on Military Education In The United States
A study of and recommendations for implementing the joint professional military education requirements of the Goldwater-Nichols Act. The ultimate objective is an educational system which will develop professional military strategists, joint warfighters and tacticians. [Complete Report 12.8 mb ] or [ Part 1 5.3 mb ] [ Part 2 5.7 mb ] [ Part 3 1.9 mb ] [National Defense University]

Selected Speeches, Testimony, and Interviews by General John M. Shalikashvili, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, October 1993 - September 1997
[ Complete Document 19.1 mb ] [pdf] or [ Table of Contents .3 mb ] [ 1993 .7 mb ] [ 1994 6.5 mb ] [ 1995 3.9 mb ] [ 1996 2.7 mb ] [ 1997 4.1 mb ] [ Appendixes A, B, C .9 mb ] [National Defense University]

Truth Commissions Digital Collection
The Truth Commissions Digital Collection, part of the Margarita S. Studemeister Digital Library in International Conflict Management, is a collection constantly under development by the Jeannette Rankin Library Program, containing decrees establishing truth commissions and similar bodies of inquiry worldwide, and the reports issued by such groups. [United States Institute of Peace]

Uniform Code of Military Justice Legislative History
The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) is a federal law enacted by Congress, and this site provides a comprehensive legislative history of one of the principal documents of military law. In addition to the full text of the 1950 edition of the UCMJ, this site provides many related and supporting historical materials that not only document the development of the UCMJ, but that can also be used to argue legislative intent. Hence, this resource can be an invaluable tool for lawyers and legal scholars involved in the nation's war on terrorism. [U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Legal Center & School Library]

United States Australia Report on Operational Level Interoperability
United States and Australia Report on Operational Level Interoperability is a comprehensive study in interoperability between the two defence forces. In July 2001, the Defence Ministers of Australia and the U.S. directed the Chief of the Defence Force, Australia and the Commander, U.S. Pacific Command to conduct a strategic review of interoperability between our armed forces. This review was accepted by the Ministers in 2002 and Ministers Hill and Rumsfeld further directed an operational-level review in July 2004. These reviews will shape the way we conduct training and capability development between the two forces as well as the methods to conduct information sharing and planning and conduct of coalition operations and security cooperation. [Australian Defence Headquarters]