The Warfighter's Lounge: A Marine's Experience of Combat in Marjah, Afghanistan PDF Download

Author: Jeff Bodell
Publisher: Jeffrey R Bodell
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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Book Description
Lance Corporal Jeff Bodell recounts his harrowing experiences as a member of a Police Mentor Team during the brutal Battle of Marjah in 2010. In the scorching Afghan heat, amidst the chaos and bloodshed, this gripping first-person narrative unveils the raw realities of war and the unbreakable camaraderie forged in the crucible of combat. Join Bodell and the resilient members of Shadow One-Four as they confront a relentless Taliban force, fighting not only for survival but for the brotherhood that binds them.

Author: Jeff Bodell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Lance Corporal Jeff Bodell recounts his harrowing experiences as a member of a Police Mentor Team during the brutal Battle of Marjah in 2010. In the scorching Afghan heat, amidst the chaos and bloodshed, this gripping first-person narrative unveils the raw realities of war and the unbreakable camaraderie forged in the crucible of combat. Join Bodell and the resilient members of Shadow One-Four as they confront a relentless Taliban force, fighting not only for survival but for the brotherhood that binds them.

Author: Miles Vining
Publisher: Pen and Sword History
ISBN: 1526767872
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
Two marines share their experiences of serving in Afghanistan and dealing with the shock of returning home to civil society. The Marines of First Battalion, Ninth Marines earned their macabre moniker “The Walking Dead” in the Vietnam War. Into Helmand with the Walking Dead follows the experiences of two Marine infantrymen from 1/9 fighting in Afghanistan. Following the 11 September attacks in 2001, Operation Enduring Freedom catalyzed the longest war in United States history. The lives of thousands of Afghans, Americans, and many others were forever altered due to the ensuing war. The book is a brutally honest portrayal of life and death in the Marine infantry both at war in Afghanistan and upon returning to the home front, where issues of reintegration and suicide become a reality. This is the tale of the young Americans who became infantrymen and conducted America’s foreign policy in its most ruthless and straightforward manner. But war, in and of itself, is only playing a small part. The culture and environment from which they reentered civil society would leave them uncertain, and confused as to the cataclysm they had just left. This book is a testimony to their experience and the legacy of war on their generation.

Author: U S Marine Corps History Division
Publisher: St, John's Press
ISBN: 9781946411235
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
This volume presents a collection of 38 articles, interviews, and speeches describing many aspects of the U.S. Marine Corps' participation in Operation Enduring Freedom from 2001 to 2009. This work is intended to serve as a general overview and provisional reference to inform both Marines and the general public until the History Division completes monographs dealing with major Marine Corps operations during the campaign. The accompanying annotated bibliography provides a detailed look at selected sources that currently exist until new scholarship and archival materials become available. From the Preface - From the outset, some experts doubted that the U.S. Marines Corps would play a major role in Afghanistan given the landlocked nature of the battlefield. Naval expeditionary Task Force 58 (TF-58) commanded by then-Brigadier General James N. Mattis silenced naysayers with the farthest ranging amphibious assault in Marine Corps/Navy history. In late November 2001, Mattis' force seized what became Forward Operating Base Rhino, Afghanistan, from naval shipping some 400 miles away. The historic assault not only blazed a path for follow-on forces, it also cut off fleeing al-Qaeda and Taliban elements and aided in the seizure of Kandahar. While Corps doctrine and culture advocates Marine employment as a fully integrated Marine air-ground task force (MAGTF), deployments to Afghanistan often reflected what former Commandant General Charles C. Krulak coined as the "three-block war." Following TF-58's deployment during the initial take down of the Taliban regime, the MAGTF made few appearances in Afghanistan until 2008. Before then, subsequent Marine units often deployed as a single battalion under the command of the U.S. Army Combined Joint Task Force (CJTF) to provide security for provincial reconstruction teams. The Marine Corps also provided embedded training teams to train and mentor the fledgling Afghan National Army and Police. Aviation assets sporadically deployed to support the U.S.-led coalition mostly to conduct a specific mission or to bridge a gap in capability, such as close air support or electronic warfare to counter the improvised explosive device threat. From 2003 to late 2007, the national preoccupation with stabilizing Iraq focused most Marine Corps assets on stemming the insurgency, largely centered in the restive al-Anbar Province. As a result of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) taking over command of Afghan operations and Marine Corps' commitments in Iraq, relatively few Marine units operated in Afghanistan from late 2006 to 2007. Although Marines first advocated shifting resources from al-Anbar to southern Afghanistan in early 2007, the George W. Bush administration delayed the Marine proposal for fear of losing the gains made as a result of Army General David H. Petraeus' "surge strategy" in Iraq. By late 2007, the situation in Afghanistan had deteriorated to the point that it inspired Rolling Stone to later publish the story "How We Lost the War We Won." In recognition of the shifting tides in both Iraq and Afghanistan, the Bush administration began to transfer additional resources to Afghanistan in early 2008. The shift prompted senior Marines to again push for a more prominent role in the Afghan campaign, even proposing to take over the Afghan mission from the Army. . . .

Author: Ryan N. Rogers
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780578891224
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
"Lions of Marjah" is a book that I started while fighting the Taliban in the Helmand River Valley Province of Afghanistan. Living, eating and sleeping amongst the enemy. The book begins with an introduction to my history in the corps and drops the reader in when I re-enlisted and moved to 3rd Battalion 6th Marines where I was assigned to Kilo Company 2nd platoon as a infantry Squad Leader. It talks about the challenges that a new squad leader faces when entering a new platoon and the challenges faced by the new guys he means to lead. Next the book introduces the deployment to Afghanistan and the mission that our unit was tasked with. We would be going into Marjah and liberating the people there from the totalitarian grips of the Taliban. We would invade the city of Marjah by helicopter with one other company from 1st Battalion 6th Marines, while the rest of the Companies from both Battalions surrounded and squeezed the enemy in toward us. We would be tasked with seizing and holding Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB) objective (OBJ) number 2, which was a land bridge road intersection where a suspected Master Bomb Maker lived and operated. We were to clear and hold the area and await follow on instructions. With stiff resistance and next to constant fighting this took 3 days longer than it was supposed to. The book moves from firefight to firefight through the first 4 weeks of fighting and then breaks down the deployment in sections (chapters) and covers the experiences therein. The sections range from contact patrols to the emotions and experiences of killing another human being to losing one of my own guys. The book has a variety of after-actions and lessons learned from the different engagements throughout the time in Marjah, to share experiences and provide real situations to think about for the warfighters that protect the nation. This book drives at the heart of the infantry community and will really put the war fighting experience in perspective for those who have never been.

Author:
Publisher: Government Printing Office
ISBN: 9780160915574
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
Compares the reasons for and the responses to the insurgencies in Afghanistan and Pakistan since October 2001. Also examines the lack of security and the support of insurgent groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan since the 1970s that explain the rise of the Pakistan-supported Taliban. Explores the border tribal areas between the two countries and how they influence regional stability and U.S. security. Explains the implications of what happened during this 10-year period to provide candid insights on the prospects and risks associated with bringing a durable stability to this area of the world.

Author: Colonel Nathan S. Lowrey
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
ISBN: 1786256223
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1011

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Book Description
Includes more than 100 maps, plans and illustrations. “This monograph is more than the story of Marine expeditionary operations in Afghanistan. It describes who our nation’s enemies are; how America became involved in the Global War on Terrorism; and how the Marine Corps struggled to acquire a major role in Operation Enduring Freedom, as well as the actions of Marines and sailors who helped prosecute the air and ground campaigns against Taliban and al-Qaeda forces.”— Dr. Charles P. Neimeyer, Director of Marine Corps History

Author: Galen Peterson
Publisher: Koehler Books
ISBN: 9781646634361
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Strike Hard and Expect No Mercy is the story of boots on the ground in Iraq, as seen through the eyes of a tank platoon leader. Baqubah, on the eve of the Surge, and Sadr City, during the spring uprising of 2008, saw some of the darkest hours of the war. A tough dragon, the M1A2 Abrams tank and its crews were often called to crack the toughest nuts on the battlefield, and victory, even survival, was not guaranteed. It is a gritty and visceral dive into the combat experience, flavored with the anguish of loss, the exhilaration of victories, the frustrations of defeats, and the humor required to survive. Along the way, the story shares rarely told insights into the duties and expectations of an Army junior officer.

Author: David Bellavia
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1471105873
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 393

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Book Description
On 8 November 2004, the largest battle of the War on Terror began, with the US Army's assault on Fallujah and its network of tens of thousands of insurgents hiding in fortified bunkers, on rooftops, and inside booby-trapped houses. For Sgt. David Bellavia of 3rd Platoon, Alpha Company, it quickly turned into a battle on foot, from street to street and house to house. On the second day, he and his men laid siege to a mosque, only to be driven to a rooftop and surrounded, before heavy artillery could smash through to rescue them. By the third day, Bellavia charges an insurgent-filled house and finds himself trapped with six enemy fighters. One by one, he shoots, wrestles, stabs, and kills five of them, until his men arrive to take care of the final target. It is one of the most hair-raising battle stories of any age -- yet it does not spell the end of Bellavia's service. It would take serveral more weeks before the Battle of Fallujah finally came to a close, with Bellavia, miraculously, alive. In the words of the author: "HOUSE TO HOUSE holds nothing back. It is a raw, gritty look at killing and combat and how men react to it. It is gut-wrenching, shocking and brutal. It is honest. It is not a glorification of war. Yet it will not shy from acknowledging this: sometimes it takes something as terrible as war for the full beauty of the human spirit to emerge."

Author: Brian Michael Jenkins
Publisher: Rand Corporation
ISBN: 083305838X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 227

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Book Description
This book provides a multifaceted array of answers to the question, In the ten years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, how has America responded? In a series of essays, RAND authors lend a farsighted perspective to the national dialogue on 9/11's legacy. The essays assess the military, political, fiscal, social, cultural, psychological, and even moral implications of U.S. policymaking since 9/11. Part One of the book addresses the lessons learned from America's accomplishments and mistakes in its responses to the 9/11 attacks and the ongoing terrorist threat. Part Two explores reactions to the extreme ideologies of the terrorists and to the fears they have generated. Part Three presents the dilemmas of asymmetrical warfare and suggests ways to resolve them. Part Four cautions against sacrificing a long-term strategy by imposing short-term solutions, particularly with respect to air passenger security and counterterrorism intelligence. Finally, Part Five looks at the effects of the terrorist attacks on the U.S. public health system, at the potential role of compensation policy for losses incurred by terrorism, and at the possible long-term effects of terrorism and counterterrorism on American values, laws, and society.--Publisher description.