Military History Book Club – June 11, 2026
DATE: June 11, 2026 from 7:30 am to 9:00 am CST
LOCATION: Prestonwood CC, 15909 Preston Rd, Dallas, TX 75248
Expectation of Valor: Planning for the Iraq War
Prestonwood CC, 15909 Preston Road, Dallas, TX.
Please arrive by 7:30 am to order from the menu. Breakfast is $15.
Discussion starts at 7:30 and ends at 9:00.
Thomas Woloszyn – Colonel Tom Woloszyn, USA, (Ret.) reOred aPer a 30-year Army career and recently reOred from the Department of the Army where his last assignment was the Civilian Deputy of Dugway Proving Ground, Utah. Tom is a specialist in Nuclear, Chemical, Biological weapons Radiological Defense officer and an Army strategist.“Expecta)on of Valor is a master class in opera)onal planning and high-level staff work. It is a must-read for field grade officers and planners of all services. It also will reward any reader interested in the mechanics of large-scale conflict.” ― ARMY Magazine
Given the length of -me the United States spent in Iraq, there is a percep-on that there was no considera-on before the war of what should be done a=er coali-on forces arrived in Baghdad and removed Saddam Hussein. However, as this unofficial history reveals, there was a great deal of planning to address how to achieve the policy objec-ves for Iraq set by the Bush administra-on. Kevin Benson—director of plans for the United States Third Army, the ground forces command headquarters for GEN Franks’ Central Command, at the start of the war— details the development of the invasion plan and its subsequent execu-on from D-Day in March 2003 un-l the change of command of opera-ons in Iraq and the departure of Third Army in June 2003.
He addresses the persistent trope that “the Army did no planning” for “Phase IV,” revealing that extensive plans were proposed, and were met with very little interest in Washington. The book covers the difficulties encountered in dealing with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, from getting his approval on the number of forces requested to conducting the campaign to find the
“smoking gun” of WMD; the instructions given to Army, Marine and coalition forces; and the daily secure video teleconferences with Central Command and the Pentagon, and the rather
remarkable conversations and guidance that came from these meetings.
RSVP to Bob Epstein at: macabee1948@gmail.com
