by Jake Tapper
TacSat— a tactical microsatellite system enabling sophisticated communications on the battlefield.
Taliban— an extremist militant Muslim political and religious group that ruled over much of Afghanistan from 1996 until the U.S. invasion in October 2001, imposing strict interpretations of Muslim law.
TIC— “troops in contact,” meaning a firefight.
Notes and Sourcing
For this book, I interviewed more than 225 individuals over the course of nearly two years, many of them multiple times. Some of those interviews were conducted in person, some by phone, some via Skype, and some by email. I have made use of primary documents, where noted; throughout, I have employed the term “memo” to mean any military document, though technically, different kinds have their own complicated names.
Many of those with firsthand experiences of the events related here were invited to read sections of the manuscript to double- and triple-check passages for accuracy. I have chosen not to list sources in the military by their rank because such titles are ephemeral.
Although most of the information presented in this book comes from firsthand interviews and Army documents, I have drawn from some other sources as well. Specific citations are listed in the endnotes for individual chapters, but additional books not listed below on which I relied for general information and inspiration included the following:
Adamec, Ludwig, and Frank Clements. Conflict in Afghanistan: An Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, Inc., 2003.
Barrington, Nicholas, Joseph Kendrick, and Reinhard Schlagintweit. A Passage to Nuristan. London: I. B. Tauris, 2006.
Bowden, Mark. Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War. New York: Grove, 1999.
Cloud, David, and Greg Jaffe. The Fourth Star: Four Generals and the Epic Struggle for the Future of the United States Army. New York: Crown, 2009.
Grau, Lester, ed. The Bear Went over the Mountain: Soviet Combat Tactics in Afghanistan. Fort Leavenworth, Kansas: National Defense University Press Publications, 2005.
Hankin, Erin, and Steven Jeffrey. “Challenges of Treating Modern Military Trauma wounds.” Wounds International, May 2011.
Harnden, Toby. Dead Men Risen: The Welsh Guards and the Real Story of Britain’s War in Afghanistan. London: Quercus, 2011.
Herr, Michael. Dispatches. New York: Vintage, 1991.
Jalali, Ali Ahmad, and Lester Grau. The Other Side of the Mountain: Mujahideen Tactics in the Soviet-Afghan War. Fort Leavenworth, Kansas: Books Express, 2010.
Junger, Sebastian. WAR. New York: Twelve, 2010.
Krakauer, Jon. Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman. New York: Doubleday, 2009.
Marlantes, Karl. Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2010.
Marlantes, Karl. What It Is Like to Go to War. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2011.
Moore, Lieutenant General Harold (Retired), and Joseph Galloway. We Were Soldiers Once… and Young: Ia Drang—The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam. New York: Random House, 1992.
Naylor, Sean. Not a Good Day to Die: The Untold Story of Operation Anaconda. New York: Berkley, 2005.
O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York: Broadway, 1998.
Raddatz, Martha. The Long Road Home: A Story of War and Family. New York: Penguin, 2007.
Stewart, Rory. The Places in Between. New York: Harcourt, 2004.
Strand, Richard. Nuristan Web site: http//:www.nuristan.info.
Tanner, Stephen. Afghanistan: A Military History from Alexander the Great to the War Against the Taliban. Philadelphia: Da Capo, 2009.
Woodward, Bob. Obama’s Wars. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010.
Sources for Book One
For book 1, the following individuals were interviewed:
Nick Anderson
Kevin Jonathan “Johnny” Aruajo
Ross Berkoff
Terry Best
Adam Boulio
Rhonda Bradbury, mother of Brian Bradbury
Frank Brooks
Michael Callegan, father-in-law of Buddy Hughie
Chris Cavoli
Moises Cerezo
Matt Chambers
Jenny Claiborn, sister of Buddy Hughie
Dennis Cline
Matthew Cole, then of Salon.com, who was generous enough to share with me some of his recordings as well as his thoughts about his time embedded with 3-71 Cav
Ryan Coulter
Judy Craig, widow of Heathe Craig
Chris Cunningham
Darian Decker
Pat Donahue
Karl Eikenberry
Kristen Fenty, widow of Joe Fenty
Tony Feagin
David Fisher
Adones Flores
Matt Gooding
Chris Grzecki
Jason Guthrie
Matt Hall
John Hawes
Scott Heintzelman, brigade operations officer for Colonel Mick Nicholson
Michael Hendy
Mike Howard
David Katz, U.S. State Department
Beth Keating, mother of Ben Keating
Ken Keating, father of Ben Keating, who like his wife, Beth, was incredibly generous in sharing with me their son’s emails and letters home, which helped me explain his point of view. Thoughts attributed to Ben were either expressed in letters or stated to individuals who relayed those thoughts to me.
Dustin Kittle
Jessica Lewis, sister of Ben Keating
Daniel Linnihan
Heather McDougal, girlfriend of Ben Keating
Tim Martin
William Metheny
Matt Meyer
Dr. Gerald Meyerle, a research analyst in CNA’s Stability and Development Program. Meyerle is one of three authors of Counterinsurgency on the Ground in Afghanistan: How Different Units Adapted to Local Conditions, published by CNA in November 2010.
Charlee Miller, mother of Joe Fenty
Brian Molby
Paul Monti, father of Jared Monti
Matt Netzel
John “Mick” Nicholson, Jr.
Javid Nuristani
Tamim Nuristani
Cheryl Lee Nussberger, mother of Pat Lybert (now Cheryl Lee Patrick)
Shawn Passman
Aaron Pearsall
Nick Pilozzi
Terry Raynor
Josh Renken
Jeremiah Ridgeway
Kevin Roland, who knew Buddy Hughie from the Oklahoma National Guard
Donald Rozman, who investigated the helicopter crash that caused the death of Lieutenant Colonel Fenty and nine others
Jessica Saenz
Michael Schmidt
Adam Sears
Steve Snyder (not his real name)
James Avant Smith
Sean Smith
Pete Stambersky
Jesse Steele
Richard Strand, Nuristan expert
Dennis Sugrue
Thom Sutton
Aaron Swain
Richard Timmons
Gretchen Timmons, wife of Richard Timmons
Unnamed Special Forces officers
Tracy Vaillancourt, mother of Brian Moquin, Jr.
Jason Westbrook
Jeffrey Williams
Dave Young
Everyone I interviewed informed the book in some way, even if he or she is not specifically cited in the chapter-by-chapter endnotes that follow.
Prologue: Focus
Information about the conversation between Whittaker and Lockner came from interviews with both men.
Donahue’s thoughts about Nuristan were expressed in an interview with him.
David Katz and Richard Strand were both incredibly helpful sources not only for the prologue but for the entire book. Their expertise about Nuristan may be unparalalled in the Western world.
Interviews with Nicholson and Warheit also informed this chapter.
“The Man Who Would Be King,” by Rudyard Kipling, first appeared in The Phantom Rickshaw and
Other Eerie Tales (part of the Indian Railway Library), published in 1888 by A. H. Wheeler & Co of Allahabad. The ebook version was posted in 2003 and may be downloaded through Project Gutenberg.
Information about the attack on Combat Outpost Keating was taken from the Army’s investigation into the attack and the author’s myriad interviews (see notes on book 3.)
The quotes from insurgents came from videos of the attack posted on the Internet by enemy forces. They were translated by Javid Nuristani.
Chapter 1: Every Man an Alexander
Memories of Mefloquine nightmares were recounted by many interviewees. In 2009, the Army issued a policy directive listing the drug as the third choice to combat malaria. See Patricia Kime, “New Concerns Rising over Antimalaria Drug,” Army Times, April 11, 2012.
Information about the convoys came from interviews with Berkoff, Decker, Gooding, Johnson, and Pilozzi. Ken Keating and Heather McDougal shared emails and photographs from Ben.
Information about the attacks in March 2006 came from the Pentagon’s public-affairs office.
Information about Ben Keating’s thoughts and past came from his family and his emails home.
The quote “… allies and enemies were often indistinguishable until it was too late” is from Frank Holt, Into the Land of Bones: Alexander the Great in Afghanistan (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005).
The Spartan mother’s admonition to her son to return “with your shield or on it” originated in an essay by Plutarch, “Sayings of Spartan Women,” which was included in his miscellany Moralia: “Another, as she handed her son his shield, exhorted him, saying, ‘Either this or upon this.’ ” In 2003, a fact-checker for “The Straight Dope” column and Web site investigated how likely it was that the anecdote was historically accurate, given that Plutarch was not writing contemporaneously with the Spartans’ era of military glory. He ultimately concluded that the quote was “anecdotal, uncorroborated, and far removed from the source” but nevertheless “plausible.” (“The Straight Dope,” September 23, 2003.)
Information about Nicholson’s views and background came from multiple interviews with him.
The fact that briefings often relied on Wikipedia references was taken from 3-71 Cav background materials obtained by author.
The statement “I changed my mind” can be found in George W. Bush, Decision Points (New York: Random House, 2010). President Bush spoke at the Virginia Military Institute on April 17, 2002. The quote “had a strategic interest in helping the Afghan people build a free society” is also taken from Decision Points.
The strategy for 3-71 was related in interviews with Donahue, Nicholson, Berkoff, Timmons, and Eikenberry.
The stories about Keating at a U.S. base and then in a marketplace were related in emails written by Keating in May 2006. The base was then a PRT in Jalalabad and is now a U.S. base called Finley-Shields.
Chapter 2: “Major Joe Fenty, Hard Worker”
Information about Fenty’s convoy came from an interview with Berkoff.
Biographical information about Fenty was taken from interviews with Kristen Fenty, Miller, and Cavoli.
Biographical information about and emails from Berkoff were provided by Berkoff.
Information about HIG was provided by Berkoff, Strand, and Katz.
George Crile’s Charlie Wilson’s War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History was published in 2003 by the Atlantic Monthly Press, New York.
Michael Crowley, “Our Man in Kabul? The Sadistic Afghan Warlord Who Wants to Be Our Friend,” New Republic, March 9, 2010.
“U.S. Bombing Raid in North Afghanistan ‘Targeted Fugative Hekmatyr,’ ” Agence France Presse, December 13, 2003.
Information about and emails to and from Fenty were provided by Kristen Fenty; further information came from interviews with Byers and Cavoli.
Chapter 3: Like Just Another Day on the Range
Information about 3-71 Cav’s arrival at Forward Operation Base Naray came primarily from interviews with Snyder, Stambersky, and Berkoff.
As mentioned, one useful book on Operation Redwing is Marcus Luttrell and Patrick Robinson, Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 (New York: Little, Brown, 2007).
Information about Nuristan and Kunar Provinces, and Afghanistan in general, came from many sources, including Katz and Strand as well as Richard Strand, Nuristan Provincial Handbook: A Guide to the People and the Province, ed. Nick Dowling and Tom Praster (Arlington, Virginia: IDS International, 2009). Additional information came from Jerry Meyerle, Megan Katt, and Jim Gavrilis, Counterinsurgency on the Ground in Afghanistan: How Different Units Adapted to Local Conditions (CNA Stability and Development Program, November 2010).
Information on the problematic borders was provided by Berkoff and Strand as well as by Joshua Foust, “Sub-National Administrative Boundary Discrepancies in Eastern Afghanistan,” Cultural Knowledge Report, August 7, 2008, Human Terrain System–Research Reachback Center.
Information about the insurgent attack on the three Marines came from an interview with the one survivor, Brian Molby.
Accounts of the mission in the Kotya Valley were provided by myriad interviewees, including Berkoff, Swain, Byers, Hawes, Cunningham, and Fisher.
George Scott Robertson’s book The Kafirs of the Hindu Kush was first published in 1896, in London, by Lawrence & Bullen.
Information about the Dawlat was taken from Daan Van Der Schriek, “Nuristan: Insurgent Hideout in Afghanistan,” Terrorism Monitor 3:10, (May 2006), published by the Jamestown Foundation of Washington, D.C., as well as from Barnett Rubin, The Fragmentation of Afghanistan, 2nd ed. (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2002).
Information about ethnic groups, as well as other details about the people of Nuristan, came from the aforementioned Nuristan Provincial Handbook: A Guide to the People and the Province, plus Strand and Katz.
Information on the presentation by the Foreign Military Studies Office at Fort Leavenworth was provided by 3-71 Cav officers.
Chapter 4: War, Fate, and Wind
Descriptions of the mountaintop landing were provided by Pilozzi, Netzel, and Gooding.
Information about the Korangal Valley came from Nicholson, Katz, Strand, and Berkoff.
Information about Moquin and Netzel came from Netzel and from Vaillancourt, Moquin’s mother, who also shared the letter he wrote her.
Details about the hike were gathered from interviews with Hendy, Larson, Netzel, and Passman.
Details about the flora and fauna of the region came from interviews with troops from all four years covered in this book, as well as from Wildlife Surveys and Wildlife Conservation in Nuristan, Afghanistan, Including Scat and Small Rodent Collection from Other Sites, published in August 2008 by the Wildlife Conservation Society/United States Agency for International Development, Afghanistan Biodiversity Conservation Program.
Information about the operation at Chalas was provided by Brooks and Jorgensen.
Accounts of Fenty’s conversations were provided by Kristen Fenty and Nicholson. Information about Kristen’s delivery came from her and Miller.
The story of the L-RAS incident that Keating investigated is drawn from Keating’s “Memorandum for the Record: AR 15-6 Investigation Concerning the Destruction of LRAS, Serial Number: 0582, on Abbas Ghar Ridge,” obtained by the author, and from letters Keating wrote to his father describing his feelings about the matter.
With a script by Iva Hoth and illustrations by Andre Le Blanc, The Picture Bible was published by David C. Cook in 1978.
Keating’s conversations were drawn from his emails home as well as from interviews with Beth Keating and Timmons.
Chapter 5: “This Whole Thing Is a Bad Idea”
Accounts of the Chalas operation were provided by Brooks, Jorgensen, Netzel, and Berkoff.
Details about the helicopter crash were drawn from the Army’s investigation into the incident, as well
as from interviews with Nicholson, Metheny, Rozman, Berkoff, Timmons, Brooks, Pilozzi, Cavoli, and Sears. The comments that Task Force Centaur’s commanders had done the troops “an injustice by sending them to war before they were ready,” that the “proficiency of crew members is not up to standards,” and that the Task Force was “at best marginally prepared to conduct air operations” in Afghanistan were taken from the report on the Army’s investigation into the helicopter crash.
Descriptions of the conversation between Joe and Kristen Fenty were provided in interviews with Kristen Fenty and Miller.
Chapter 6: Maybe That’s Just the Wind Blowing the Door
The aftermath of the accident was described by Brooks, Pilozzi, Timmons, and Nicholson. Information about thermal imaging and other details came from the report on the Army’s investigation into the crash, obtained by the author.
The account of Kristen Fenty’s hearing the news came from interviews with her, Richard and Gretchen Timmons, Nicholson, and Howard.
The emails from Ben Keating were provided by his father.
Chapter 7: Monuments to an Empire’s Hubris
Information about the plans to go to Kamdesh District and the meeting with the Kamdesh elders was taken from interviews with Swain, Snyder, Howard, Fisher, Byers, Timmons, and Berkoff.
The differences between Donahue’s and Nicholson’s views were extrapolated from interviews with both men.
Biographical information about Tamim Nuristani came from an interview with him.
Information about Snyder’s mission and subsequent ambush was provided in interviews with Snyder, Swain, Howard, Fisher, and Nicholson.
Information on the village-hopping plan was furnished by Howard and Berkoff. Details about the specific mission to Hill 2610 came from interviews with Howard, Flores, Schmidt, Brooks, Cunningham, and Grzecki.
Information on the illegal timber industry came from Yaroslav Trofimov, “Taliban Capitalize On Afghan Logging Ban,” Wall Street Journal, April 10, 2010, in addition to interviews with Lieutenant Colonel Chris Kolenda (source for book 2) and Lieutentant Colonel Brad Brown (source for books 2 and 3).
