Hammerhead Six Quotes

“Unconventional warfare isn’t a simple concept. Understanding it doesn’t come easily to everyone, and certainly not to journalists on the prowl for fireworks.”
― Ronald Fry, Hammerhead Six: How Green Berets Waged an Unconventional War Against the Taliban to Win in Afghanistan's Deadly Pech Valley

“Maybe that was because of my Special Forces training, where they inoculate you with the mantra “Failure is not an option.”
― Ronald Fry, Hammerhead Six: How Green Berets Waged an Unconventional War Against the Taliban to Win in Afghanistan's Deadly Pech Valley

“Injuries,” Machievelli writes, “ought to be done all at one time, so that, being tasted less, they offend less; benefits ought to be given little by little, so that their flavor may last longer.”
― Ronald Fry, Hammerhead Six: How Green Berets Waged an Unconventional War Against the Taliban to Win in Afghanistan's Deadly Pech Valley

“Eric likes to joke about this episode: “I desecrated a Koran and lived to tell about it.”
― Ronald Fry, Hammerhead Six: How Green Berets Waged an Unconventional War Against the Taliban to Win in Afghanistan's Deadly Pech Valley

“Teaching might not sound very Green Beret–like. In fact, this nonkinetic activity is at the very heart of what Special Forces are designed to do.”
― Ronald Fry, Hammerhead Six: How Green Berets Waged an Unconventional War Against the Taliban to Win in Afghanistan's Deadly Pech Valley

“Letting the Afghans do it, that was our goal. Teaching them how to do it, that was our job.”
― Ronald Fry, Hammerhead Six: How Green Berets Waged an Unconventional War Against the Taliban to Win in Afghanistan's Deadly Pech Valley

“I wanted to refine a standard procedure for any and all emergencies. What would we do if we lost a tire? Hit an IED? What if someone got shot? How would we approach a suspected target? In any given scenario, who would stand where with what weapon and be responsible for what job?”
― Ronald Fry, Hammerhead Six: How Green Berets Waged an Unconventional War Against the Taliban to Win in Afghanistan's Deadly Pech Valley

“winning and holding the human terrain is the true objective”
― Ronald Fry, Hammerhead Six: How Green Berets Waged an Unconventional War Against the Taliban to Win in Afghanistan's Deadly Pech Valley

“you had known knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns”
― Ronald Fry, Hammerhead Six: How Green Berets Waged an Unconventional War Against the Taliban to Win in Afghanistan's Deadly Pech Valley