U.S. Marines at the Battle for Sangin : Operation Enduring Freedom

"One of the purest tellings of a combat Marine's experience in warfighting I have ever read. This story strikes every emotion." PAUL LONGGREAR, Colonel ret. Army Special Forces,With the Marines at the Battle for Sangin is a battle-intensive and deeply personal war memoir following a small Marine quick infantry detachment who land in Afghanistan with acts of killing beginning immediately. Not a week goes by before the Marines experience firsthand deaths of friendly forces, Marine casualties, enemy combatants killed, numerous IED strikes, air strikes, straffing runs and around the clock patrolling in hostile territory where death is ever present. As the regional direct response Quick Reaction Force in the northern Sangin river valley of Helmand Province, the Marines are immediately put to the test narrowly avoiding one calamity after the next. The reader feels the authorangst, threat awareness, and a growing sense of hostility toward his elusive enemy. Combat operations greatly intensify as the Marines find

their battlefield rhythm. As body counts rise so does the emotional toll on the author. The reader is regularly taken into the authorexhilarations from persevering through fearsome battle scenes, but they are also submerged with him in the bitterness and shame that results from the deliberate and often hatred-filled harm that he and his Marines inflict on their enemy. There is a sober realization of the unavoidable dichotomy of war and the inner wounds that result from oneparticipation in its cruelty, whether the recipient or the doer of deeds. [Publisher's Text]