Outlaw Platoon: Heroes, Renegades, Infidels, and the Brotherhood of War in Afghanistan
Rate it:
Open Preview
83%
Flag icon
I was forced to break bread with our betrayer.
84%
Flag icon
You’re wanted in the operations center,” said Greeson. He’d entered the chow hall and seen Yusef sitting with me. He’d come to my rescue.
84%
Flag icon
TWENTY-SIX
84%
Flag icon
SIX
84%
Flag icon
THE
84%
Flag icon
PLACE WHERE
84%
Flag icon
M...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
84%
Flag icon
G...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
84%
Flag icon
the insurgents we faced now had both hands free against us. Almost the moment the cease-fire went into effect, the enemy swarmed over the border after us.
84%
Flag icon
While we were out on patrol, the enemy skirmished with us constantly.
84%
Flag icon
We defeated the enemy every time they challenged us.
84%
Flag icon
We took to rounding up their dead after each firefight and delivering them to the local mosques.
84%
Flag icon
Their mangled bodies will be dumped like bloody trash at your houses of worship.
84%
Flag icon
a curious dynamic developed within Outlaw Platoon. Beaten down, weary, full of unfocused anger and lasting sadness, the men grew more selfless and devoted to one another.
85%
Flag icon
The stuff leaching from my ears and nose continued to grow more foul. I was told it was cerebrospinal fluid. Neurological symptoms had begun to manifest themselves while we were on patrol.
85%
Flag icon
We were scheduled to go home in January,
85%
Flag icon
Day after day, the enemy hammered us with indirect whose accuracy only increased.
85%
Flag icon
Toner coordinated a battalion-sized mission to clear the area behind Rakhah Ridge once and for all. From all over the area, reinforcements poured into Bermel,
85%
Flag icon
None of us had any illusions: the enemy would fight to the last man.
85%
Flag icon
Toner selected Outlaw Platoon to spearhead the battalion’s main assault.
85%
Flag icon
We had the power, the men, and the support to deliver a knockout blow to an enemy that had tormented us for almost a year.
85%
Flag icon
With the ANA advancing along them, we’d keep the enemy from hammering us from the high ground,
86%
Flag icon
The ANA went berserk. The entire company spontaneously charged after the insurgents,
86%
Flag icon
Those three men had been bait to lure our men over the ridge after them.
86%
Flag icon
Chris Cowen was on point that day, the very tip of the battalion’s spear. I ran to him and said, “Chris, take us in.”
86%
Flag icon
As soon as our last truck got on line, the enemy struck from concealed positions along the cliffs.
86%
Flag icon
Now, in his final earthly moments, his eyes betrayed
86%
Flag icon
nothing but loathing.
87%
Flag icon
“We’re up front. We’ll handle it.” His rig inched forward through the sea of tracers and lead sparking like fireflies off his Humvee. No luck. We couldn’t find the marine.
87%
Flag icon
Clearly, sitting here or wandering around in the kill zone was only going to get more of my men wounded.
87%
Flag icon
A pair of Apache gunships swung over the ridgeline, cannons blazing. Their strafing run caused the enemy fire to slacken long enough for us to finally escape.
87%
Flag icon
He ordered us to counterattack on foot over the ridge and down into the ANA’s position,
87%
Flag icon
The joint platoon attack slammed into the enemy and broke through the growing cordon around the trapped Afghan
87%
Flag icon
troops.
88%
Flag icon
Ignoring the danger, the Black Hawk crew flew through a hail of enemy bullets and roared into a hover over the battlefield.
88%
Flag icon
the
88%
Flag icon
enemy picked that moment to break contact.
88%
Flag icon
struck empty trenches and abandone...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
88%
Flag icon
n...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
88%
Flag icon
Once again, Galang’s old command had proven themselves to be formidable warriors.
88%
Flag icon
Little did they know that we’d be coming after them like a steamroller in the days ahead.
88%
Flag icon
Their counterassault had broken the insurgents’ grip on the ANA at a vital moment and probably saved our allies from being overrun.
88%
Flag icon
Outlaw Platoon together against all the forces that threatened to tear us apart.
88%
Flag icon
TWENTY-SEVEN
88%
Flag icon
SEVEN THE LAST LAST STAND FOR FIVE DAYS, WE PUSHED THE ENEMY EAST TOWARD THE Pakistani border.
88%
Flag icon
They stood toe-to-toe, displaying all the grit that we had demonstrated throughout the year.
88%
Flag icon
equipped with technology so significant the enemy simply could not hide. They moved, they died. Darkness gave them no respite.
88%
Flag icon
“Women! Come out and fight!” Such insults would inevitably trigger a response to us via radio: “American pigs! You will die like dogs!”
88%
Flag icon
We’d been under fire for almost a week. Filthy, reeking of gunpowder and body
88%
Flag icon
odor, constipated by the MREs,