Copyright © 2021 by Jessica Donati
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Donati, Jessica, author.
Title: Eagle down : the last special forces fighting the forever war / Jessica Donati.
Description: First edition. | New York, NY: PublicAffairs, Hachette Book Group, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020036573 | ISBN 9781541762558 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781541762572 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: United States. Army. Special Forces—History—21st century. | Afghan War, 2001– | Special forces (Military science)—United States.
Classification: LCC DS371.412 .D66 2021 | DDC 958.104/78—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020036573
ISBNs: 978-1-5417-6255-8 (hardcover); 978-1-5417-6257-2 (ebook)
E3-20201209-JV-NF-ORI
CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
The Special Forces (Green Berets)
Military Acronyms
Characters and Places
Maps
Preface
PART ONE: WITHDRAWAL CHAPTER 1 Back to War—Hutch
CHAPTER 2 The Helmand Job—Caleb
CHAPTER 3 Gridlock in Washington
CHAPTER 4 “Insider Attack! Insider Attack!”
CHAPTER 5 We’ll Play It Safe—Hutch
CHAPTER 6 The Fall of Kunduz
CHAPTER 7 Kunduz Clearing Patrol—CONOP
CHAPTER 8 Battle for Kunduz—Hutch
CHAPTER 9 “I’m Sorry, Mom”—Dr. Cua
CHAPTER 10 They’re Calling It a War Crime—Hutch
PART TWO: REVERSAL CHAPTER 11 Damage Control in Washington
CHAPTER 12 Obama Changes the Plan
CHAPTER 13 The Taliban Must Shoot First—Helmand
CHAPTER 14 Mission to Save Marjah—Caleb
CHAPTER 15 Internally Inconsistent, Implausible—Hutch
CHAPTER 16 Sangingrad—Caleb
CHAPTER 17 Eagle Down—Andy
CHAPTER 18 Get Back Out There—Andy
CHAPTER 19 This Isn’t Afghanistan Anymore—Caleb
PART THREE: RAMP-UP CHAPTER 20 President Obama Ramps Up the War
CHAPTER 21 No Good or Bad Men in War—Hutch
CHAPTER 22 Lobster and Canapés with the Taliban—Doha
CHAPTER 23 Thank You for Your Service—Caleb
CHAPTER 24 Trump Inherits the Afghan War
CHAPTER 25 You Don’t Believe in Winning?—General McMaster
CHAPTER 26 Green Berets Unleashed—Josh
CHAPTER 27 Special Forces to the Rescue—Josh
PART FOUR: ENDINGS CHAPTER 28 Back to War, Again—Hutch
CHAPTER 29 Recovery—Caleb
CHAPTER 30 Ending (and Trump Gets the Deal)
Acknowledgments
Discover More
About the Author
Author’s Note
Bibliography
Praise for Eagle Down
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THE SPECIAL FORCES (GREEN BERETS)
THERE ARE FIVE active duty Special Forces Groups in the US Army. Historically, each has a primary geographic area of responsibility:
1st Special Forces Group: Asia Pacific
3rd Special Forces Group: Sub-Saharan Africa
5th Special Forces Group: Middle East and Central Asia
7th Special Forces Group: Latin America
10th Special Forces Group: Europe, North Africa
The National Guard has two Special Forces Groups:
19th Special Forces Group
20th Special Forces Group
Each active duty Special Forces Group is made up of four battalions.
Operational Detachment Alpha or A-Team
An Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) is the twelve-man team that makes up each building block of the Special Forces. There are usually six ODAs in a Special Forces company. Each team member has a specialized role, denoted by a number and letter, often described as below:
Team leader (18A): captain, or detachment commander
Team sergeant (180A): senior enlisted member of the detachment, oversees operations and personnel
Warrant officer (18Z, or “Zulu”): executive officer implementing plans, advises captain on operations and intelligence
Intelligence sergeant (18F, or “Fox”): intelligence collection and analysis
Two weapons sergeants (18B, or “Bravo”): specialized in a range of weapon systems
Two engineer sergeants (18C, or “Charlie”): combat and construction engineering
Two medical sergeants (18D, or “Delta”): trauma and routine medical care
Two communications sergeants (18E, or “Echo”): radio and other communication
Operational Detachment Bravo or B-Team
The Special Forces team that commands and supports the ODAs or A-Teams in the company.
Operational Detachment Charlie or C-Team
The Special Forces battalion headquarters that commands and supports the companies in the battalion.
MILITARY ACRONYMS
Useful acronyms to know in Afghanistan:
ANA-TF: Afghan National Army Territorial Force
AOB: advanced operations base, the headquarters for an area
CONOP: concept of operations, the plan for the mission
GFC: ground force commander, the commander of all forces involved in an operation
IED: improvised explosive device
NDS: National Directorate of Security, the Afghan intelligence agency
ODA: Operational Detachment Alpha, the twelve-man team that makes up the fighting blocks of US Special Forces
OFS: Operation Freedom’s Sentinel, the unilateral US counterterrorism mission in Afghanistan
RPG: rocket-propelled grenade launcher
RS: Resolute Support, the US and NATO mission in Afghanistan
SOF: US Special Operations Forces, includes US Air Force, US Army, US Marine Corps, and US Navy Special Operations Forces
SOJTF: Special Operations Joint Task Force, leads US and NATO Special Operations forces in Afghanistan
SOTF: Special Operations Task Force, leads US Army Special Forces in Afghanistan
VSO: Village Stability Operations, a US military program that ran from 2010 to 2014 that tasked Green
Berets with raising village-level militias to fight the Taliban
CHARACTERS AND PLACES
Parts One and Two
Military Characters
US Commanders
Gen. John F. Campbell: US and NATO forces commander in Afghanistan
Maj. Gen. Sean P. Swindell: Special Operations Joint Task Force–Afghanistan (SOJTF) commander
Brig. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind: Special Operations Joint Task Force–Afghanistan (SOJTF) deputy commander
1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne)
Lt. Col. Jason Johnston: 1st Battalion commander
Kunduz
Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne)
Maj. Michael “Hutch” Hutchinson: Charlie Company commander
ODA 3111, Camp Pamir, Kunduz
Josh Middlebrook: Delta
Benjamin Vontz: Echo
ODA 3133, Bagram Airfield, Parwan
Patrick Harrigan: captain
ODA 3135, Camp Morehead, Kabul
Helmand
Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 19th Special Forces Group (Airborne)
Maj. Ronnie Gabriel (pseudonym): Alpha Company commander
ODA 9123 (Attachment from Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 19th Group), Camp Antonik, Helmand
Caleb Brewer: Fox
Chris Clary: Bravo
ODA 9115, Camp Morehead, Kabul
Andy MacNeil: captain
Dan Gholston: team sergeant
Matthew McClintock: engineer
Jordan Avery: Bravo
ODA 9114, Camp Brown, Kandahar
Jeffrey McDonald: captain
Civilian Characters
Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders)
Dr. Evangeline Cua: surgeon, Kunduz Trauma Hospital
Dr. Masood Nasim: medical director, Kunduz Trauma Hospital
Guilhem Molinie: country director, Kabul
National Security Council
Susan Rice: national security adviser (2013–2017)
Peter Lavoy: South Asia director (2015–2017)
Fernando Lujan: Afghanistan director, South Asia director (2015–2017)
State Department (US Envoys for Afghan Peace)
Rick Olson: special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan (2015–2016)
Parts Three and Four
Military Characters and Places
US Commanders
Gen. John W. Nicholson: US and NATO forces commander in Afghanistan (until 2018)
Gen. Austin “Scott” Miller: US and NATO forces commander in Afghanistan (2018 onward)
3rd Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne)
Lt. Col. Joshua Thiel: 3rd Battalion commander
ODA 1331, Camp Blackbeard, Nangarhar
David Kim: captain
Civilian Characters
National Security Council
H. R. McMaster: national security adviser (2017–2018)
Lisa Curtis: South Asia director (2017 onward)
State Department (US Envoys for Afghan Peace)
Laurel Miller: acting special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan (2016–2017)
Zalmay Khalilzad: special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation (2018 onward)
PREFACE
Thanks to the extraordinary sacrifices of our men and women in uniform, our combat mission in Afghanistan is ending, and the longest war in American history is coming to a responsible conclusion.
—President Barack Obama1
THIS BOOK follows several teams of Green Berets from their arrival in Afghanistan in 2015, the first year after most US troops had left, through the many changes in policy that occurred over the next five years of war. It ends with the US signing of a deal with the Taliban in February 2020, which once again set the United States on a path for the complete withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.
I lived in Kabul during the first years covered in the book, working as The Wall Street Journal’s Afghanistan bureau chief. I later moved to Washington, DC, to cover foreign policy for the paper. During both the Obama and Trump presidencies, Afghanistan policy seemed to be in constant flux. Both presidents sought to exit the long-running war, and both faced resistance by the national security establishment.
On December 28, 2014, President Barack Obama announced that the Afghan war was over and promised to deliver on a campaign pledge to end the costly engagement in Afghanistan, with all remaining troops scheduled to return home within two years. Less than a year later, the Taliban swept into the northern city of Kunduz and captured their first province. It was a stunning defeat for the US-backed government and a sign of the decline in security to come. The collapse exposed the flawed plan to turn over the war to the Afghan government and extract the United States from the long conflict. The reconstruction effort had empowered local warlords and made an industry out of corruption. The government was weak, and injustice fueled the Taliban insurgency. US Special Forces and Afghan commandos were dispatched to save the province. Ripple effects were felt across the country, and Helmand nearly fell next.
The situation left President Obama with a difficult choice. There were still ninety-eight hundred US troops in Afghanistan. He could pull them out as planned by 2017 or stay in and hand the war over to his successor. The original mission that had launched the war, to hunt down Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda, along with many of his supporters, was complete. But an abrupt US exit raised the specter of the civil war of the 1990s, which took place after the Soviet withdrawal and had led to the rise of the Taliban in the first place.
Iraq was another lesson that loomed large. President Obama ordered a unilateral withdrawal of US troops in 2011, which accelerated the country’s descent into chaos and gave rise to Islamic State. The extremist group inspired one of the greatest movements of jihadists the world had seen in years and soon pulled US troops back to Iraq and into neighboring Syria. In Afghanistan, an Islamic State affiliate had quickly taken root as this was playing out in the Middle East.
Ultimately, President Obama abandoned the plan to withdraw from Afghanistan and turned the war over to secretive US Special Operations Forces (SOF) while denying that this amounted to a break in his campaign pledge. US SOF, which operate in the shadows with little accountability to the public, have kept the Kabul administration on life support ever since. The US mission in Afghanistan is no longer framed as a war. It is now called a training and assistance mission, and its purported goal is to help the government achieve self-reliance. As a foreign correspondent in Afghanistan, I found reporting on the role of US SOF in the conflict at this new stage in the war to be my greatest challenge.
At the WSJ bureau in Kabul, I was lucky to work with a great team of two reporters: Habib Khan Totakhil and Ehsanullah Amiri. They were both in their twenties, were passionate about journalism, and remembered watching the US invasion as children, when they were living as refugees across the border in Pakistan. Our bureau was located in a house that must have once belonged to a wealthy Afghan family; we shared it with the Washington Post’s Kabul bureau to save costs. Our offices were in rooms at the back of the garden, and I converted the garage into a gym, where we had an old Chinese treadmill that would stop dead during power outages.
The US military rarely granted embeds with US Army Special Forces, known as the Green Berets. The few reporters that were granted access were based in Washington, DC, and even then, embeds were limited. Foreign correspondents never got to embed, probably because we were too critical of the mission. But as I discovered, there was another way to get in: through the Afghan forces that operated as the Green Berets’ partners, fixers, and translators.
US Special Forces worked with a range of Afghan partners, depending on the circumstances and the location, from ragtag village groups to elite Afghan army commandos.
If we wanted to find out what was going on in the east against the new Islamic State affiliate, we traveled with village militias in Achin or Kot district. Whe
n Kunduz fell a second time, we embedded with the Afghan commandos that partnered with Green Berets to recapture the city in 2016. It was a riskier way to work. The US military used helicopters to shuttle personnel among their many bases, including those located barely a mile apart in different locations in Kabul. Afghan forces generally moved by road and expected us to drive to them, no matter how remote the location. Hitching a ride on an Afghan army helicopter was possible, but rare. Our Afghan hosts often displayed extraordinary bravery and hospitality, but they necessarily had a cavalier approach to safety, adding to the dangers we faced during embeds.
We prepared for trips as best we could. Information was critical. The same highway might be under police control between ten a.m. and four p.m., and then under Taliban control at night. Luck played a part as well. I was once caught in a Taliban ambush in the Surobi valley in broad daylight, an area known to be a death trap for Afghan forces traveling east out of Kabul.
I would sit in my blue burqa in the backseat of the vehicle, typing away under the folds of the flowing fabric. My Afghan colleague, Habib, was more likely to be stopped by the police than by the Taliban. He had long, jet-black hair and a beard, and he towered over six feet. He looked like a Taliban in the pale blue salwar kameez that he wore for such expeditions, with large, dirty, white sneakers. The advantage of traveling like this, of course, was that we had much greater freedom and flexibility than a closely controlled embed with the US military would get.
As the war worsened, so did the anger and frustration of the Afghan soldiers and villagers who spent time with us. Insider attacks, in which Afghans turned on their US or coalition partners, were common and never far from our minds. In 2014, an Afghan policeman had fired at two Associated Press colleagues in Khost province just before the presidential elections, killing photographer Anja Niedringhaus and severely wounding reporter Kathy Gannon.
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