Not A Good Day To Die: The Untold Story of Operation Anaconda in Around the World in 80 Books

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Jan 13, 2012 Steve rated it really liked it

Shelves: war, history, journalism

Too many Chiefs...

And definitely, due to micro-management of the battlefield, not enough of our Indians. Not a Good Day to Die, by Sean Naylor, is just a terrific battle-book. It's almost overwhelming in detail, but Naylor is a fine writer taking you, with effective prose, to the mountains of Afghanistan. You as a reader are there as an Al Queda warrior studies mysterious ATV tracks in the mud while nearby he's being marked by a special ops sniper. You are there on the slopes as a few brave guy Too many Chiefs...

And definitely, due to micro-management of the battlefield, not enough of our Indians. Not a Good Day to Die, by Sean Naylor, is just a terrific battle-book. It's almost overwhelming in detail, but Naylor is a fine writer taking you, with effective prose, to the mountains of Afghanistan. You as a reader are there as an Al Queda warrior studies mysterious ATV tracks in the mud while nearby he's being marked by a special ops sniper. You are there on the slopes as a few brave guys, struggling for air in the high altitude, battle an Al Queda bunker complex.

The battle itself was a mess, highlighting all the problems, a lot of them self-inflected, on the modern battle-field. The plan for Anaconda was suspect anyway, with its reliance (due to politics) on Afghan fighters driving, at night with no headlights, down a bad road into enemy country. To some extent Naylor soft-peddles this. But as events turned out this was not an operation killer, as terrific recon work had our forces holding the high ground, while our troops in the Shahikot valley occupied static (but hot) positions. With air strikes taking a toll, the killing time for Al Queda had begun. But military technocrats a thousand miles away (Air Force General Gregory Trebon in particular) wanted a piece of the action. As a result, Americans died due to a series of bone-headed decisions by Trebon and his on the ground man, SEAL Vic Hyder. Don't get me wrong, Anaconda was a "victory," but it could of been more. What is amazing is how Naylor is able to plot all of this, the various calls from troops on the ground and in the air, wrong transmissions, screw-ups, heroism, virtually every moment of the battle is there for the reader. What cuts against the effectiveness however is the dizzying use of acronyms - without a good glossary, and what seems to be an incomplete index. For example, the above General Trebon is last referenced on page 94, even though his (notorious) role goes on pretty much until the end of this 377 page book. And after checking out the paperback version, I saw this has still not been corrected. One other caveat, Naylor really seems to have something against the SEALS, who come across as whiney cowboy prima donnas. I'm not sure I buy that, it just comes across as something personal and beyond the lines of the story. Finally, as much as you come away disliking Hyder and Trebon's roles in all of this, their silence in this account leaves you feeling you've not yet heard the full story - though as it stands now, the indictment is formidable.

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Feb 02, 2009 Tommy Ashman marked it as to-read

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Sep 05, 2013 Wes F rated it really liked it

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Around the World in 80 Books