Profile | Edward J. Erickson, Ph.D

Edward J. Erickson's areas of expertise include:

• Gallipoli and the Middle East in WW1
• Ottoman military history
• Turkey as a contemporary military power
• History of military transformation
• British military and naval history
• Combat and military effectiveness

Mavi Boncuk |Edward J. Erickson, Ph.D

He was born in Norwich, New York, USA. After military service as an infantry non-commissioned officer, he was commissioned in the Field Artillery in 1975. During his career, Ed Erickson served with the 509th Airborne Infantry Battalion, the 8th Mechanized Infantry Division, the 24th Infantry Division, the 528th Field Artillery Group, and the 42nd Field Artillery Brigade. During the Persian Gulf War, he served as the Operations Officer (S3) of the 2nd Battalion 3rd Field Artillery in the 3rd Armored Division at the Battle of Wadi Al Batin. In the latter phase of his career, he served in NATO assignments in Izmir, Turkey and in Naples, Italy as a Foreign Area Officer specializing in Turkey and the Middle East. In 1995 he was assigned to the NATO Headquarters in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, where he served as a Military Assistant to COMIFOR.Dr. Edward J. Erickson is an Associate Professor of Military History at the Command and Staff College, marine Corps University. He served as an enlisted infantryman with the 1/509th Airborne and was commissioned in the field artillery in 1975. During his commissioned service, he served in artillery and general staff assignments in the United States, Europe and the Middle East. Dr. Erickson served in the Persian Gulf War of 1991 with the Third Armored Division as an artillery battalion operations officer, in Sarajevo in 1995 as a special assistant to ComIFOR, and in the invasion of Iraq in 2003 with the Fourth Infantry Division as General Odierno’s political advisor. After retiring Dr. Erickson worked as a school administrator and high school teacher in his hometown of Norwich, New York. He returned to Baghdad, Iraq in 2007 for a year to work as Professor of Political Science at the Ministry of Defense Training and Development College. Dr. Erickson is widely recognized as one of the foremost experts on the Ottoman Army during the First World War. Among the numerous books and articles he has written are Ordered To Die, A History of the Ottoman Army in the First World War; Defeat in Detail, The Ottoman Army in the Balkans, 1912-1913; Ottoman Army Effectiveness in WW1, A Comparative Study, and Gallipoli and the Middle East 1914-1918. He has master’s degrees from Colgate University and Saint Lawrence University and a Doctorate in History from the University of Leeds in the UK.

The Euphrates Triangle: Security Implications of the Southeast Anatolia Project, co-author with F.M. Lorenz, Natl Defense Univ Pr, (1999), ISBN 1579060218
Ordered to Die: A History of the Ottoman Army in the First World War, Greenwood Press (2000), ISBN 0313315167
Defeat in Detail: The Ottoman Army in the Balkans, 1912-1913, Praeger Publishers (2003), ISBN 0275978885
Ottoman Army Effectiveness in World War I: A Comparative Study, Routledge (2007), ISBN 978-0415770996
Gallipoli & The Middle East 1914-1918, London, Amber Books (2008), ISBN 978-1-906626-15-0
A Military History of the Ottomans, From Osman to Ataturk, co-author with Mesut Uyar, Westport, Connecticut, Praeger Publishers (2009), ISBN 978-0-275-98876-0
Gallipoli, The Ottoman Campaign, Barnsley, UK, Pen and Sword Books (2010)