We are pleased to publish the video of the Masterclass lectured by Coronel Philippe Rogers of the US Marine Corps. A lecture hold within the framework of the Area on Security and Defense and the Master’s Degree in Military History of INISEG, your International Institute for Studies on Global Security, and FUINMA, the International University Foundation of Madrid.

In this lecture, our distinguished speaker narrates in complete detail the Battle of Iwo Jima during the Pacific War in World War II. Coronel Rogers explains how the Battle of Iwo Jima marked a definitive turning point in the course of the war in the Pacific and how it became, not only in his opinion but also in that of most historians, a brutal military clash whose sole objective was the control of a strategic island for both Japan and the United States. Nearing the end of World War II, Japanese and Americans fought to the death over an island of small size but of great strategic value.

US Marine Corps Col. Philippe Rogers was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in 1986. As a Naval Aviator he went on to fly A-6E Intruders and F/A-18 Hornets, taking part in combat operations in the Persian Gulf War, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq. He also supported humanitarian missions to Haiti and Africa.

He has over 22 hundred hours in tactical jets and over 121 combat missions during 4 aviation combat tours and has a total of nine combat deployments. He is airborne qualified as well and has French, British, Czech, Slovak, Belgian and South African jump wings.

Col. Rogers was the Distinguished Honor Graduate at both the Expeditionary Warfare School and the Naval War College and also attended the French War College and MIT’s Seminar Twenty First Century. He holds four Master Degrees and speaks French and Spanish fluently. He served ten years at NATO both in the military and political delegations and was the Senior Marine at NATO. Currently, Col. Rogers is a business development consultant for military issues.

Blog GRIP will keep publishing a selection of Masterclasses and lectures on military history and armed conflicts, with a special emphasis, albeit not exclusive (as this lecture shows), on the Vietnam War, direct consequence and legacy of the First Indochina War, a conflict taught by Professor Juanjo Alarcón in the Master’s Degree in Contemporary Military Conflicts, whose video presentation is also available on Blog Grip. Incidentally, Prof. Juanjo Alarcón is the host of these lectures.

We really hope that this series of selected lectures may spark your interest in the topics presented in each one of them. And since they are all part of the Area on Security and Defense and the Master’s Degree in Military History of INISEG, we provide you with the links to INISEG’s academic offer directly related to the lectures we publish: