Showing titles in Afghan & Iraq Wars

This awe-inspiring odyssey transcends the boundaries of time, culture, and the human spirit. Jo describes her participation in VETS (Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions) programs as she experiences the healing power of plant and animal medicines in Mexico. She writes about being a Sundancer on the Lakota and Menominee reservations. Her clear narrative delves deep into the portals of consciousness and realms of the sacred.

On 5 December 2002, trainee pilot Nathan Gray walked away from an 'unsurvivable' crash at RAF Wittering in Cambridgeshire. His instructor, seated behind him, was killed instantly. Despite the physical pain and mental scars, he found the strength and resilience to continue his flying career. Today Commander Nathan Gray is one of the UK's elite test pilots - the best of the best.

In July 2009 Geraint (Gez) Jones was sitting in Camp Bastion, Afghanistan, with the rest of The Firm - Danny, Jay, Toby and Jake, his four closest friends, all junior NCOs and combat-hardened infantrymen. Thanks to the mangled remains of a Jackal vehicle left tactlessly outside their tent, IEDs were never far from their mind. Within days they’d be on the ground in Musa Qala with the rest of 3 Platoon - a mixed bunch of men Gez would die for.

In Darkhorse, Amatangelo “AJ” Pasciuti delivers an entirely new war narrative: an intense exploration of authentic leadership, sacrifice, and the resilience of the human spirit. By challenging established notions of masculinity and authority, Pasciuti shows that true strength lies in our hidden potential. Driven to serve by the events of 9/11, AJ enlisted in the Marine Corps at 17 in 2001. He embarked on a 21-year odyssey through some of the most harrowing battles of the Global War on Terror.

Thousands of miles away from where her son was deployed, a powerful premonition is devastatingly confirmed by a knock on the door from two faceless strangers bearing the news that her son had stepped on an improvised explosive device in the poppy fields of Afghanistan. He had lost both of his legs and suffered multiple other injuries, including partial amputation of all the fingers of his left hand. For forty-eight days she stood at his bedside.

A candid and multifaceted look at life as a security contractor in Iraq in the early years after the American invasion. It’s not just a story of surviving IEDs and firefights while protecting American contractors—though those moments are vividly recounted—it’s also an exploration of the broader, often unexpected, experiences that defined the author’s two and a half years in Iraq.

A firsthand account of a young boy from Wolverhampton who joined the British Army for an adventure and his experiences of war in Iraq 2003 and Afghanistan 2006, which saw him and his fellow soldiers involved in some of the most intense combat since the Korean War.

American Heroes on the Homefront gives a unique perspective on the situation our nation faces and the qualities of those who protect us, as well as the true impact of their sacrifices on their families and loved ones.

L’auteur raconte son histoire personnelle en tant que fantassin québécois ayant vécu trois missions de combat consécutives dans les zones les plus dangereuses de l’Afghanistan entre 2007 et 2011. Il se livre corps et âme avec intensité dans ce récit où l’attrait de l’aventure guerrière l’amène à développer une dépendance à l’adrénaline. Le tout débute avec les attentats du 11 septembre 2001 pour se terminer 10 ans plus tard après avoir été plongé dans les abysses de l’horreur à travers son parcours.

In Helmand province in July 2006, Major Adam Jowett was given command of Easy Company, a hastily assembled and understrength unit of Paras and Royal Irish rangers. Their mission was to hold the District Centre of Musa Qala at any cost. Easy Company found themselves in a ramshackle compound, cut off and heavily outnumbered by the Taliban in the town.

In 2014, H was back in Afghanistan, providing security for the Japanese Embassy in Kabul. In 2021, when the chaotic evacuation of the Afghan capital began, it was a tough call for the Japanese government to leave behind their significant investment in Afghanistan’s future. When H finally got the go-ahead to extract the embassy’s diplomats and staff, he was leading the only security team remaining in a city rapidly filling with Taliban fighters.

General Stanley McChrystal, commander of international and US forces in Afghanistan, was living large, with staff calling him a rock star. Journalist Michael Hastings of Rolling Stone looked on as McChrystal and his staff let off steam, partying and openly bashing the Obama administration. When Hastings' piece appeared a few months later, it set off a political firestorm: McChrystal was ordered to Washington, where he was unceremoniously fired.

From Major General Jeffrey Schloesser - former commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division and Regional Command-East - comes a revealing memoir of leadership in the chaos and fog of the Afghanistan War.

At 5:58 a.m. on 3rd October 2009, Combat Outpost Keating, located in frighteningly vulnerable terrain in Afghanistan just 14 miles from the Pakistani border, was viciously attacked. Though the 53 soldiers stationed there prevailed against nearly 400 Taliban fighters, their casualties made it the deadliest fight of the war that year. Four months after the battle, a review revealed that there was no reason for the troops at Keating to have been there in the first place.

It takes a tough mind-set to be a successful sniper, to be able to dig in for days on your own as you wait for your target, to stay calm on a battlefield when you yourself have become the target the enemy most wants to take out. Craig Harrison has what it takes, and in November 2009 in Afghanistan, under intense pressure, he saved the lives of his comrades with the longest confirmed sniper kill - 2,475 metres, the length of 25 football pitches.

What is the price of freedom in the Land of the Free? Between 9/11 and the 2021 US withdrawal from Afghanistan, more than 1.9 million American troops served around 3 million tours of duty as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. Beyond this staggering statistic are stories of real men and women who became embroiled in a complex conflict that would change their lives forever. In At What Cost II: Voices from the Battlefield of Afghanistan, veteran J.J. Ainsworth gives voice to these troops while reexamining the effects of what has been infamously known as America's longest war. This second ...

The General’s dysfunctional home life drove him to apply to the Air Force Academy almost 40 years ago, where he was provided with a new family and sense of worth he had never gotten from his own father. This purpose has driven the General throughout his remarkable career, taking him to Alaska, the Pentagon, and Germany; to Florida during Hurricane Opal, and has also allowed him to work alongside Presidents Bush and Obama and Secretaries of Defense Leon Panetta and Ashton Carter. Journey is a book about leadership. It is packed with the General’s lessons from life in the military.

Snapshots of one soldier’s time overseas in Afghanistan and Iraq, Time Cap fearlessly lets listeners peer inside the windows at both the light and dark sides of military service. Many passages are lifted straight from the author Nick Rucker’s journal, shedding light on his battle with alcoholism and his struggle to maintain relationships and readjust to a “normal” life upon returning to the States. Relatable to soldiers and to any who’ve had their lives turned suddenly upside-down, Rucker offers a message of hope: you can turn your life back around, no matter how far you think you’ve fallen.

Captain Benjamin Tupper spent a year in Afghanistan in an Embedded Training Team, tasked with training, leading in combat, and mentoring the Afghan Army to victory against the brutal Taliban. Writing and recording from a remote outpost, Tupper's dispatches were posted on the blog The Sandbox and broadcast on NPR, bringing vivid snapshots of America's longest ongoing war to a wide audience back home.

On June 30, 2009, Private First Class Bowe Bergdahl left his post in eastern Afghanistan, about 25 miles from the Pakistani border. He was quickly captured by local tribesmen, who sold him up the Taliban's chain of command. In May 2014, after almost five years in captivity - the longest held and most brutalised prisoner of war since Vietnam - he was released. Within hours, however, some of Bergdahl's former platoon mates were denouncing him as a deserter. Bergdahl admits walking away from his guard post of his own volition. But what is the truth: is Bowe Bergdahl a traitor or a hero?