Showing titles in Afghan & Iraq Wars

"DAMN THE VALLEY" was a phrase regularly uttered by the men that spent any amount of time in the Arghandab River Valley during the deployment of 2 Fury to Afghanistan in 2009-2010. The valley has claimed bodies from the troops of Alexander the Great, the British Empire, and more recently, the Russian Army. Operating in the valley was like nothing the men could have envisaged, they called it the "meat grinder." It was a deployment that the media didn't talk about, and the government doesn't acknowledge.

Lt. Michael Patrick Murphy, commander of Navy SEAL Team 10, posthumously received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroic actions on 28 June 2005 during a fierce battle with Taliban fighters in the remote mountains of eastern Afghanistan. Michael was the first recipient of the nation’s highest military honor as a result of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan. He was also the first naval officer to earn the medal since the Vietnam War, and the first SEAL to be honored posthumously.

In 2010, the Army created Cultural Support Teams, a secret pilot program to insert women alongside Special Operations soldiers battling in Afghanistan. The Army reasoned that women could play a unique role on Special Ops teams: accompanying their male colleagues on raids and, while those...

A harrowing exploration of the uniquely dangerous experience of men whose survival depends on their absolute commitment to one another—from the bestselling author of The Perfect Storm. "Incisive ... absorbing ... original." —New York Times Book Review Sebastian Junger turns his brilliant and...

General Frank McKenzie oversaw some of the most important—and controversial operations in modern US military history. McKenzie provides an honest assessment of his time in command-describing decisions that were sound, as well as some outcomes he wishes were different.

Discover true stories of the silent heros that live among us with these moving and powerful recollections of war, told by the men and women who lived them. “The stories America needs to hear” —Admiral William H. McRaven, US Navy (Ret.) Walk in my Combat Boots is a powerful collection...

The founder of Blackwater offers the gripping, previously untold story of the world’s most controversial military contractor Blackwater is one of the most misunderstood companies of our time. As Erik Prince, its founder and former CEO, writes: “Hundreds of American citizens employed...

They landed in a dust storm so thick the pilot used dead reckoning and a guess to find the ground. Welcomed by a band of heavily armed militiamen, they climbed a mountain on horseback to meet the most ferocious warlord in Asia. They plotted a war of nineteenth-century maneuvers against a twenty-first-century foe. They trekked through minefields, sometimes past the mangled bodies of local tribesmen who'd shared food with them hours before. The men they helped called them brothers. Hollywood called them the Horse Soldiers. They called themselves Green Berets—Special Forces ODA 595.

A highly entertaining account of a young woman who went straight from her college sorority to the CIA, where she hunted terrorists and WMDs "A thrilling tale...Walder’s fast-paced and intense narrative opens a window into life in two of America’s major intelligence agencies" —Publishers...

The companion volume to the multimillion-copy bestseller No Easy Day by former Navy SEAL Mark Owen reveals the evolution of a SEAL Team Six operator. Mark Owen’s instant #1 New York Times bestseller, No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Osama bin Laden, focused on the...

With a Foreword by Bill O’Reilly, here is the incredible memoir of a former Marine who returns to combat in Iraq and Afghanistan three decades after leaving the Corps. Terry McGowan had been a beat cop, a Marine captain, and a Special Agent for the FBI before retiring at the age of fifty. But...

An “essential” (Kevin Maurer, #1 New York Times bestselling author) memoir of a young Air Force linguist coming of age in a war that is lost. When Ian Fritz joined the Air Force at eighteen, he did so out of necessity. He hadn’t been accepted into colleges thanks to an indifferent high...

Lance Corporal Jeff Bodell recounts his harrowing experiences as a member of a Police Mentor Team during the brutal Battle of Marjah in 2010. In the scorching Afghan heat, amidst the chaos and bloodshed, this gripping first-person narrative unveils the raw realities of war and the unbreakable camaraderie forged in the crucible of combat. Join Bodell and the resilient members of Shadow One-Four as they confront a relentless Taliban force, fighting not only for survival but for the brotherhood that binds them.

A Times Best Audiobook of the Year 2025 Listeners are LOVING The Accidental Soldier: 'One of the funniest books you will ever read' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'I've spent 15 years waiting for a book which entertainingly brings to life the humour, mundanity & absurdity of serving in Iraq . . . Thankfully...

Not even old enough to drink, Corporal Savannah Cannon is a young enlisted United States Marine deployed to support Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan in 2010. As a tactical data networking specialist, she is sent away from everyone she knows and attached to a Regimental Combat Team where women are not allowed to repair communications. Her experiences over the next few months shed light on the unique and difficult positions women are placed in when supporting combat roles, while offering a raw look at the painful choices women must sometimes make.

It takes a tough mindset 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 meters. In this unflinching autobiography, Craig catapults us into the heat of the action as he describes his active service in the Balkans, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

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.

One weekend a month and two weeks each summer. For as long as any of them could remember, that was all it took for this small group of Tennessee National Guardsmen to serve their country from the comforts of home.

In his gripping narrative, we meet General Tommy Franks, who bridles at CIA control of "his" war; General "Jafar Amin", a gruff Pakistani intelligence officer who saves Grenier from committing career suicide; Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan's brilliant ambassador to the US, who tries to warn her government of the al-Qaeda threat; "Mark", the CIA operator who guides GulAgha Shirzai to bloody victory over the Taliban.

When most Americans think of acts of courage, elected office is rarely the first place they look. And while more Americans than ever reject party labels, the political arena remains dominated by the loudest voices at each extreme. This moment demands leaders willing to govern across party lines, resist the incentives of modern politics, and choose courage over outrage. One group is uniquely suited to meet that challenge: America’s veterans.