Summary of Malcolm MacPherson's Roberts Ridge

Summary of Malcolm MacPherson's Roberts Ridge PDF Author: Everest Media,
Publisher: Everest Media LLC
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 32

Get Book Here

Book Description
Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 Mack was flying a Chinook helicopter along with Razor 03, code-named Razor, to drop off special operations teams in the mountains on both sides of the Shah-i-Kot valley. He was tasked with delivering the SEALs to their offset LZ. #2 Slab and his teammates were stuck with a broken helicopter and the threat of daylight, which they dreaded. The other pilots in the area proposed an easy solution: a front-end swap, in which the pilots and their passengers would switch to a healthy aircraft. #3 The team was delayed in reaching the LZ by 2200 Zulu, which meant they would have to climb 2,000 feet to an upper ridge and find a defensible position in which to hide and observe the peak before taking it over. #4 The team was not able to reach the mountaintop in time, so Slab decided to push forward with the mission anyway, despite the risks. He called back to Bagram to his highest commander, Air Force General Gregory Trebon, who was deputy commander of JSOC and the commander of Task Force 11.

Summary of Malcolm MacPherson's Roberts Ridge

Summary of Malcolm MacPherson's Roberts Ridge PDF Author: Everest Media,
Publisher: Everest Media LLC
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 32

Get Book Here

Book Description
Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 Mack was flying a Chinook helicopter along with Razor 03, code-named Razor, to drop off special operations teams in the mountains on both sides of the Shah-i-Kot valley. He was tasked with delivering the SEALs to their offset LZ. #2 Slab and his teammates were stuck with a broken helicopter and the threat of daylight, which they dreaded. The other pilots in the area proposed an easy solution: a front-end swap, in which the pilots and their passengers would switch to a healthy aircraft. #3 The team was delayed in reaching the LZ by 2200 Zulu, which meant they would have to climb 2,000 feet to an upper ridge and find a defensible position in which to hide and observe the peak before taking it over. #4 The team was not able to reach the mountaintop in time, so Slab decided to push forward with the mission anyway, despite the risks. He called back to Bagram to his highest commander, Air Force General Gregory Trebon, who was deputy commander of JSOC and the commander of Task Force 11.

Roberts Ridge

Roberts Ridge PDF Author: Malcolm MacPherson
Publisher: Dell
ISBN: 0553586807
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 390

Get Book Here

Book Description
Afghanistan, March 2002. In the early morning darkness on a frigid mountaintop, a U.S. soldier is stranded, alone, surrounded by fanatical al Qaeda fighters. For the man’s fellow Navy SEALs, and for waiting teams of Army Rangers, there was only one rule now: leave no one behind. In this gripping you-are-there account–based on stunning eyewitness testimony and painstaking research–journalist Malcolm MacPherson thrusts us into a drama of rescue, tragedy, and valor in a place that would be known as... ROBERTS RIDGE For an elite team of SEALs, the mission seemed straightforward enough: take control of a towering 10,240-foot mountain peak called Takur Ghar. Launched as part of Operation Anaconda–a hammer-and-anvil plan to smash Taliban al Qaeda in eastern Afghanistan –the taking of Takur Ghar would offer U.S. forces a key strategic observation post. But the enemy was waiting, hidden in a series of camouflaged trenches and bunkers–and when the Special Forces chopper flared on the peak to land, it was shredded by a hail of machine-gun, small arms, and RPG rounds. A red-haired SEAL named Neil Roberts was thrown from the aircraft. And by the time the shattered helicopter crash-landed on the valley floor seven miles away, Roberts’s fellow SEALs were determined to return to the mountain peak and bring him out–no matter what the cost. Drawing on the words of the men who were there–SEALs, Rangers, medics, combat air controllers, and pilots–this harrowing true account, the first book of its kind to chronicle the battle for Takur Ghar, captures in dramatic detail a seventeen-hour pitched battle fought at the highest elevation Americans have ever waged war. At once an hour-by-hour, bullet-by-bullet chronicle of a landmark battle and a sobering look at the capabilities and limitations of America’s high-tech army, Roberts Ridge is the unforgettable story of a few dozen warriors who faced a single fate: to live or die for their comrades in the face of near-impossible odds.

The Blood of His Servants

The Blood of His Servants PDF Author: Malcolm MacPherson
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0307817008
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 405

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Blood of His Servants is a remarkable true story. In the whole range of Holocaust literature it stands apart, for it recounts the search by one survivor for the single Nazi murderer of his family—a man who had once been their friend. In prewar Poland, Bibi Krumholz, the nephew of prosperous Jewish landowners, is befriended by the wealthy Dutchman Pieter Menten. Largely due to Menten’s wordly influence, Bibi leaves for Palestine in 1935. In the years before the war, Menten establishes a business partnership with Bibi’s family; in a legal battle over timber rights, Menten is publicly embarrassed and swears retribution. It comes swiftly. In 1945, Bibi is desperate for news of his family. Wisps of rumor drift to Tel Aviv about the fate of his village. Then Bibi learns from survivors that Menten exacted a hideous revenge, that as an adviser to an SS killer squad, Menten directed the execution of all Jews in the village—including every member of Bibi’s family. Bibi vows vengeance and his hunt begins.

Not a Good Day to Die

Not a Good Day to Die PDF Author: Sean Naylor
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101204613
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 476

Get Book Here

Book Description
Award-winning combat journalist Sean Naylor reveals a firsthand account of the largest battle fought by American military forces in Afghanistan in an attempt to destroy al-Qaeda and Taliban forces. At dawn on March 2, 2002, America's first major battle of the 21st century began. Over 200 soldiers of the 101st Airborne and 10th Mountain Division flew into Afghanistan's Shah-i-Kot Valley—and into the mouth of a buzz saw. They were about to pay a bloody price for strategic, high-level miscalculations that underestimated the enemy's strength and willingness to fight. Naylor, an eyewitness to the battle, details the failures of military intelligence and planning, while vividly portraying the astonishing heroism of these young, untested US soldiers. Denied the extra support with which they trained, these troops nevertheless proved their worth in brutal combat and prevented an American military disaster.

Takur Ghar

Takur Ghar PDF Author: Leigh Neville
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1780962002
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 180

Get Book Here

Book Description
On March 4, 2002, a team of SEALs was choppered onto a hostile Afghan mountain peak as part of Operation Anaconda. The largest operation by US forces since Vietnam, it was intended to bring to battle foreign al-Qaeda fighters who had fled after the overthrow of the Taliban and the battle of Tora Bora. But when their special ops Chinook was hit by RPGs, it marked the beginning of the SEALs' epic day-long battle for survival, which involved Coalition special forces, gunships and Predators in a 17-hour firefight against the al-Qaeda guerrillas.

Time Bandit

Time Bandit PDF Author: Andy Hillstrand
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0345504127
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Get Book Here

Book Description
Every Alaskan king crab season, brothers Andy and Johnathan Hillstrand risk their lives and seek their fortunes upon the treacherous waters of the Bering Sea. Sons of a hard-bitten, highly successful fisherman, and born with brine in their blood, the Hillstrand boys couldn’t imagine a life without a swaying deck underfoot and a harvest of mighty king crabs waiting to be pulled from the ocean floor. In pursuit of their daily catch, the brothers brave ice floes and heaving waves sixty feet high, the perils of thousand-pound steel traps thrown about by the punishing wind, and the constant menace of the open, hungry water—epitomized in the chorus of a haunting sailors’ sing-along: “Many brave hearts are asleep in the deep, so beware, beware.” By turns raucous and reflective, exhilarating and anguished, enthralling, suspenseful, and wise, Time Bandit chronicles a larger-than-life love affair as old as civilization itself—a love affair between striving, willful man and inscrutable, enduring nature.

The Battle of Mogadishu

The Battle of Mogadishu PDF Author: Matt Eversmann
Publisher: Presidio Press
ISBN: 0345459660
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Get Book Here

Book Description
“No matter how skilled the writer of nonfiction, you are always getting the story secondhand. Here’s a chance to go right to the source. . . . These men were there.” –MARK BOWDEN (from the Foreword) It started as a mission to capture a Somali warlord. It turned into a disastrous urban firefight and death-defying rescue operation that shocked the world and rattled a great nation. Now the 1993 battle for Mogadishu, Somalia–the incident that was the basis of the book and film Black Hawk Down–is remembered by the men who fought and survived it. Six of the best in our military recall their brutal experiences and brave contributions in these never-before-published, firstperson accounts. “Operation Gothic Serpent,” by Matt Eversmann: As a “chalk” leader, Eversmann was part of the first group of Rangers to “fast rope” from the Black Hawk helicopters. It was his chalk that suffered the first casualty of the battle. “Sua Sponte: Of Their Own Accord,” by Raleigh Cash: Responsible for controlling and directing fire support for the platoon, Cash entered the raging battle in the ground convoy sent to rescue his besieged brothers in arms. “Through My Eyes,” by Mike Kurth: One of only two African Americans in the battle, Kurth confronted his buddies’ deaths, realizing that “the only people whom I had let get anywhere near me since I was a child were gone.” “What Was Left Behind,” by John Belman: He roped into the biggest firefight of the battle and considers some of the mistakes that were made, such as using Black Hawk helicopters to provide sniper cover. “Be Careful What You Wish For,” by Tim Wilkinson: He was one of the Air Force pararescuemen or PJs–the highly trained specialists for whom “That Others May Live” is no catchphrase but a credo–and sums up his incomprehensible courage as “just holding up my end of the deal on a bad day.” “On Friendship and Firefights,” by Dan Schilling: As a combat controller, he was one of the original planners for the deployment of SOF forces to Mogadishu in the spring of 1993. During the battle, he survived the initial assault and carnage of the vehicle convoys only to return to the city to rescue his two closest friends, becoming, literally, “Last Out.” With America’s withdrawal from Somalia an oft-cited incitement to Osama bin Laden, it is imperative to revisit this seminal military mission and learn its lessons from the men who were there and, amazingly, are still here.

Hocus Potus

Hocus Potus PDF Author: Malcolm MacPherson
Publisher: Melville House Publishing
ISBN: 9781933633282
Category : Iraq War, 2003-
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
THE CATCH-22 OF THE IRAQ WAR What’s driving the ultra-dedicated State Department staffers nuts in the former Republican Palace in Baghdad’s Green Zone? Is it the rising insurgency? The lack of power and water? The tide of utter chaos? The sinking feeling that the adventure is going south? No. What bothers them is WMDs. Without one, how can their beloved POTUS (security shorthand for President of the United States) justify this mess? Not finding a single WMD to justify it all is making POTUS look bad. Real bad. Enter Rick Gannon, Ambassador Goodhair’s advisor-turned-war profiteer, recently imprisoned but now on the lam. Little does the Ambassador and his staff know that Rick––along with his pickup band of brigands, including a homesick Air National Guard pilot, a sourpuss Defense Intelligence agent, a jaded TV cameraman, and an aging Iraqi soccer star––may hold the key to POTUS’ salvation. Written by the man who covered Ambassador Paul Bremer in Iraq for Time magazine, Hocus POTUS is a novel rich in real-life details and thinly veiled portrayals. It's also a hysterically irreverent—and masterfully crafted—antiwar satire that will keep you guessing to the end.

The Chosen Few

The Chosen Few PDF Author: Gregg Zoroya
Publisher: Da Capo Press
ISBN: 0306824841
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 400

Get Book Here

Book Description
The never-before-told story of one of the most decorated units in the war in Afghanistan and its fifteen-month ordeal that culminated in the 2008 Battle of Wanat, the war's deadliest A single company of US paratroopers--calling themselves the "Chosen Few"--arrived in eastern Afghanistan in late 2007 hoping to win the hearts and minds of the remote mountain people and extend the Afghan government's reach into this wilderness. Instead, they spent the next fifteen months in a desperate struggle, living under almost continuous attack, forced into a slow and grinding withdrawal, and always outnumbered by Taliban fighters descending on them from all sides. Month after month, rocket-propelled grenades, rockets, and machine-gun fire poured down on the isolated and exposed paratroopers as America's focus and military resources shifted to Iraq. Just weeks before the paratroopers were to go home, they faced their last--and toughest--fight. Near the village of Wanat in Nuristan province, an estimated three hundred enemy fighters surrounded about fifty of the Chosen Few and others defending a partially finished combat base. Nine died and more than two dozen were wounded that day in July 2008, making it arguably the bloodiest battle of the war in Afghanistan. The Chosen Few would return home tempered by war. Two among them would receive the Medal of Honor. All of them would be forever changed.

Operation Anaconda

Operation Anaconda PDF Author: Lester W. Grau
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700618015
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 480

Get Book Here

Book Description
Long before it became "Obama's War," the long-running conflict in Afghanistan was launched by President George W. Bush in retaliation for the 9/11 attacks on the United States. Only a few months later, Operation Anaconda sent American-led coalition forces into their most intensely brutal confrontation with Al Qaeda and their Taliban hosts in the Shar-i Kot Valley near the Pakistan border. The result was an unexpected set piece of conventional fighting in what has become an era of guerrilla warfare. Drawing upon previously unavailable or neglected sources, Lester Grau and Dodge Billingsley give us the most complete and accurate account of this thirteen-day firefight waged in mountainous terrain nearly two miles above sea level. They describe how allied troops fought a fierce and well-entrenched enemy to a standstill, close to an old Soviet battlefield, and then drove them completely out of Afghanistan. Grau and Billingsley's account also highlights problems encountered in Anaconda and the lessons we should learn from their in-depth study. The Army and Air Force operated under conflicting views regarding the appropriate application of Close Air Support, and airpower both crippled and aided the overall effort. In addition, severe shortages of transport, attack helicopters, and artillery hampered the effort, while the acquisition and timely sharing of intelligence barely occurred at all and coalition relations frayed under the intense pressures of combat. As an added bonus, the authors also include with the book a documentary on DVD that features interviews with soldiers who fought in Anaconda, provides additional information concerning major phases of the battle, and presents insightful commentary by Grau and by Billingsley, who was on the ground with U.S. forces for the operation. Providing the richest description and critique of all the forces involved-including those that fought on the enemy side-the combined book-and-DVD surpasses all previous accounts of this landmark engagement and is an essential volume in the literature on our war in Afghanistan.