On the morning of March 20, 2005, then-Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester was tasked with assisting a supply convoy moving east of Baghdad, a job that meant scanning and clearing the route of any improvised explosive devices.
She'd done this job countless times before, getting shot at on almost a daily basis and seeing vehicles blown up more times than anyone would like to remember.
Executing daily patrols as a member of the National Guard's Kentucky-based 617th Military Police Company meant guaranteed exposure to combat, something the Pentagon, until an order was signed in 2013, was not even allowing women to officially engage in as an occupational specialty.
"It was that one job where you can get out there and get dirty and be in an infantry-type environment," she told the Tennessean in 2015.
"I guess it was one of the more exciting jobs in the military for women when I enlisted, and it still is now."
As such, Hester's resolve in the environment was battle-tested, and it showed when the supply convoy her team was assisting was ambushed by waves of AK-47 fire, RPK machine gun fire, and rocket-propelled grenades.
It didn't take long for the lead supply vehicle to bear the brunt of the onslaught, quickly catching fire and trapping the rest of the convoy in the kill zone.
Unshaken, Hester directed her team away from the enemy's concentrated fire and into a flanking position that exposed multiple irrigation ditches and an orchard the enemy was using to stage the attack.
With enemy fire peppering the convoy, the 23-year-old sergeant directed her gunner to send MK19 rounds downrange into a ditch containing more than a dozen heavily armed insurgents.
Hester then dismounted her vehicle, lobbing rounds from her M203 grenade launcher and tossing two fragmentation grenades into the trench line before storming the area on foot.
Joined by her squad leader, Sgt. Hester quickly cut through two additional trenches, personally killing three enemies to her front in close-quarters combat with her M4.
With the irrigation ditches cleared, a cease-fire was called. Forty-five minutes of sheer pandemonium had transpired.
Twenty-seven insurgents lay dead, six wounded and one captured.
Every member of Hester's unit survived. For her actions, Hester was awarded the Silver Star, making her the first woman in the Army to receive the award since World War II and the very first to ever earn it for combat valor.
Once she returned from Iraq, Hester became a police officer, a job she wanted since childhood. But military service was still calling, and before long, she rejoined the National Guard.
"I'm glad that I took a break. I really am," Hester told NPR in 2011.
"It made me realize that I really enjoyed being a soldier, and it's something that I missed, and it's something that I'm good at. And I look forward to getting deployed again."
And deploy she would.
In 2014, Hester spent 18 months in Afghanistan, where she earned a promotion to sergeant first class. And in 2017, she was sent to the Virgin Islands as part of the international humanitarian effort in the wake of Hurricane Maria.
Throughout it all, Hester's selfless devotion to service took precedence over the notoriety deservedly afforded to a true pioneer - like having her own Leigh Ann Hester action figure developed.
"You'd never know of her accomplishments when you meet her, but you soon realize that she is the type of soldier you want next to you in combat," then-Sgt. 1st Class Jason Bucklew, who worked with Hester from 2012 to 2014, told the Tennessean.
"I'd trust her with my life."
A number of soldiers trusted Hester with their lives that day in 2005 and are alive to talk about it because of her actions, something she still casually downplays.
"You know, it's just something that happened one day, and I was trained to do what I did, and I did it," she told NPR.
"We all lived through that battle."
The Allied invasion of North Africa is a convoluted tale of politics, diplomacy, grand strategy, and a military campaign.
Operation Torch introduced the Americans to the swings and roundabouts of land combat against the Axis Powers and showed up some of the military inconsistencies of their allies - the British. The great partnership was underway on the rocky road to total victory in 1945.
The invasion pitted Frenchman against Frenchman and culminated in the total defeat of Germany and Italy on the continent of Africa. Victory buoyed the Allies, setting them on course for the invasion of Italy.
None of this satisfied Stalin, of course, but we’re too far down the road to get entangled in debating the rights and wrongs of the Allied strategy. There was a victory at the end of the campaign, and this is what mattered more than anything else.
The team at After the Battle continues its mission to cover the legacy of the Second World War with this predictably efficient look at Operation Torch. Jean-Paul Pallud shows no sign of slowing his pilgrimage down, and this book represents another well-crafted notch in his literary bedpost.
Torch is forever linked to a number of legendary events from Longstop to Kasserine and beyond. There are Tiger tanks and other icons added to the mix.
But the campaign is far more complex than casual glances suggest. The Anglo-Americans had to deal with a fractious Vichy regime and the ambitions of the Free French in addition to accommodating each other. They also had to beat the enemy.
This book covers Operation Torch in admirable detail, offering the usual mix of superb archive photography mixed with modern impressions.
Mr. Pallud makes a sad point of explaining how traveling to essential wartime locations, let alone photographing them in Algeria, Libya and Tunisia, has been the subject of immense difficulty in the period that followed the Arab Spring.
Some places are dangerous in the extreme, and this confirms that it is the ‘now’ that eclipses the ‘then’ for perhaps the first time in this epic series of books. I can imagine the frustration. A friend of mine was working in Libya before the Gadaffi regime fell, and he mentioned the allure of a country where so much had taken place out in the desert.
He had been out to a number of locations and had notions of finding rusty old weapons and other treasure. But a new conflict saw him scuttling home, leaving all that promise undone.
The book does absolutely everything we have come to expect from After the Battle. Wonderful to look at, it combines a steady mix of essential reference and battlefield nous, and it will fit in well with the earlier volume looking at the Desert War.
It never ceases to amaze me just how much survives in the shape of buildings and other features extant seventy-odd years ago, even though a great deal had been swept away by the likes of Muammar Gadaffi and his regime.
One thing that gave me great pleasure was discovering a reunion of sorts between the photographers Geoffrey Keating and Reggie Coote of the long-lost Daily Sketch newspaper. Their pictures appear on several pages of this book.
They both left the paper for war service in 1939. Geoffrey was one of the leading figures of the Army Film and Photographic Unit, his adventures appearing regularly in Alan Moorehead’s classic desert war trilogy.
He was awarded the Military Cross at Tobruk. Reggie Coote was one of the unsung press snappers of the period, but he enjoyed a solid career. His wartime service was as an official photographer for the Royal Navy.
If you were to look back over my previous reviews of After the Battle books, you would appreciate what an invidious task it is to offer a critique of books I could never write.
To me, they are peerless, and I have been able to explain my appreciation of both them and the monthly magazine to Editor-in-Chief Winston Ramsey, who seemed to have heard a lot of that sort of thing over the years. I grew up on this stuff, the material providing the inspiration for my own books, albeit decades after my initial introduction—all in good time.
I’ve had a hectic summer, and I had been staring at this book on my to-do shelf for so long that the shelf, itself, is gone. A house move disrupts so many things. But it was worth the wait. Operation Torch joins a long line of essential reading from our friends at Hobbs Cross, and I do wonder where they will head next.
Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen was born into an aristocratic Prussian family in Breslau in 1892. Son of Major Albrecht Philipp Karl Julius Freiherr von Richthofen, his education was in a succession of military schools and academies. An excellent athlete and horseman, he was commissioned in the First Regiment of the Uhlans Kaiser Alexander III in 1911. After the war started in 1914 served on both the western and eastern fronts as a Cavalry Officer.
In 1915 he transferred to the Imperial German Army Air Service (Luftstreitkrafte). He studied aerial tactics under the master German strategist, Hauptman Oswald Boelcke, flying his first combat mission after less than thirty hours of flight instruction. In spite of an indifferent start as a fighter pilot, he nonetheless was invited to join Boelcke's Jagdstaffel 2 squadron and soon excelled in combat following the Boelcke Dicta, which included approaching his enemy from above with the sun behind him, firing only at close range, always keeping his eyes on his target, and attacking in a group of four to six planes.
With the beginning of 1917, he had 16 confirmed kills, had been awarded Germany's highest military decoration, Pour le Merite, and was commander of a squadron, Jasta 11, of elite fighter pilots.
In April 1917 alone, he downed 22 British planes. Flying a series of Albatros aircraft, his vanity led him to have each painted red. As the German 'Freiherr' was translated into English as 'Baron,' it was but a short time until he was known to the world as 'The Red Baron.' His squadron was combined with three others to form Jagdgeschwader 1, which was widely feared as The Flying Circus. His younger brother, Lothar, was also a fighter pilot but far more daring than Manfred. Lothar had 40 confirmed kills and, ironically, survived the war.
In July 1917, The Red Baron crashed in Belgium after being attacked by Captain Donald Cunnell of The Royal Flying Corps, sustaining a severe head injury, likely a skull fracture. In spite of blurred consciousness and visual compromise, he had managed to land his plane. Over several months he flew occasionally and had several operations to remove bone splinters from his head wound. He suffered headaches and a distinct change in his personality, which persisted until his death. 
Against medical advice, he returned to regular flying with his group in October of 1917, downing 18 planes until his death six months later. At the time of his death, he had downed 80 planes in all. He was the leading air ace of WW-I, followed by Rene Fonck of France with 75 confirmed kills and Billy Bishop of Canada with 72. Both Fonck and Bishop lived on long after the war, each dying in the 1950s.
Von Richthofen met his end on April 21, 1918, in somewhat unusual circumstances. While pursuing a Canadian pilot with little experience and at a very low altitude (Lieutenant Wilfrid May), he was chased away by a seasoned Canadian pilot (Captain Arthur Brown) who dived steeply and fired at him before climbing to avoid crashing into the ground. The Baron resumed his pursuit of May but shortly, facing concentrated fire from Australian troops on the ground, he made a rough landing in a field near The Somme River. The soldiers, who had fired on his plane from the ground, got to his wrecked red Fokker triplane quickly and may or may not have heard his last words, which, allegedly, included the word kaput. Exact accounts of damage to his plane by gunfire - before it was dismantled by soldiers seeking souvenirs - are not to be found.
His body was taken to an Australian Flying Corps hangar at Poulainville, washed by a corpsman, and shortly examined by at least four medical officers. The body was not opened. An entrance wound and an exit wound were superficially identified and probed with a fence wire. Subsequent reports by two of these men - one a colonel and the other a captain - are not congruent. The most plausible conclusion of the several viewings of his body, immediately and a bit later, suggest that a single bullet entered von Richthofen's right lateral chest, passed through his right lung and heart, and exited through his left chest. Before the red Fokker airplane was scavenged, some thought that a single bullet hole on the right side of the cockpit lined up with his chest entry and exit wounds. His body was buried on April 22 in a village churchyard near Amiens, France, after a military funeral conducted by Commonwealth forces.
The myths and mystique associated with Manfred von Richthofen and his death resulted in immediate and continuing fascination by the press and other media. Captain Arthur Brown received a bar to his Distinguished Flying Cross but not the Victoria Cross, earlier allegedly promised by Britain for the man who killed The Red Baron.
In spite of many claimants, no Australian soldier received any decoration for causing von Richthofen's end. The best scenario for the death of von Richthofen gives credit to Sergeant Cedric Popkin of the 24th Machine Gun Company of the First Australian Imperial Force, who fired his Vickers machine gun at the red Fokker DR1 triplane as it banked to the left and fled to avoid fire from Lewis guns manned by Robert Buie and Snowy Evans. It can be assumed that the flying skills of The Red Baron were quite intact on April 21 for he had downed two enemy planes just the day before.
There was no glamour in trench warfare and precious few heroes. By contrast, aerial warfare was the stuff of gallant knights of the air dueling in single combat far above the mud, misery, and mortality of the trenches far below them. That Baron von Richthofen was almost surely brought to his death barely above these trenches by a plucky Australian machine gunner remains a great irony of The Great War.
One of the most accurate and raw depictions of World War II can be found in the film Saving Private Ryan.
This film portrayed the terror and chaos that typifies war, rather than the sanitized and unrealistic images that Hollywood tended to put out in past films.
Needless to say, with the realism that is portrayed in the film, there were many behind-the-scenes tricks that director Steven Spielberg employed to ensure that the ageless footage and intense combat scenes made it from the film set to the cinema screen.
Here are a few of the little-known facts that make this film so unforgettable.
Scenes of D-Day landings
One iconic part of the film is the D-Day Landings. The realistic portrayal of the terror of the men landing on the beach, along with the inevitable chaos of efficiently getting so many men into such a small area, is realistically shown, but this came at an enormous cost.
The D-Day shoot cost $12 million, almost twenty percent of the entire $70 million budget. Even more astounding is the fact that the director had no storyboard for this section of the film.
He shot the whole thing from the seat of his pants, despite the blockbuster size of these scenes.
These scenes took over a month to shoot. Spielberg was determined that the film would be shot in the sequence that it occurred.
The Normandy Landings were shot one at a time as the actual landings happened with the Army Rangers winning one piece of beach at a time.
The filming of the fighting on Omaha Beach was shot in Ireland on Ballinesker Beach. It is almost impossible to get the rights to film on the beaches of Normandy, so Spielberg successfully recreated Omaha Beach in Ireland.
The film was inspired by a true story.
Many reports stated that the film was based on the lives of five Sullivan siblings who were all killed while serving in the Navy during WWII. This is not true. The film was inspired by the story of the Niland brothers; Frederick, Edward, Preston, and Robert.
Initial reports indicated that Edward, Preston, and Robert had all been killed in action. Hence, the Army sent the remaining brother, Frederick, back to his family.
Later it was found that Edward was alive when he managed to escape from a Japanese POW Camp.
Saving Private Ryan was dedicated to Spielberg’s father.
Spielberg never anticipated the massive success of Saving Private Ryan, and he believed that it would have limited commercial success as it was a war film. He made the film as a dedication to his father, who served as a radio operator on a Mitchell B-25, and all Spielberg was trying to do was tell the story that he had heard from a veteran.
1940’s Style was spot on
The director, Steven Spielberg, and the cinematographer, Janusz Kaminski, were determined to get the film to look and feel like it was shot in the 1940s.
To achieve this, they used modern cameras that had been modified so that the images captured resembled those shot during WWII.
They paid particular attention to the D-Day scenes to ensure that they resembled the images of still photographs taken by the renowned WWII photographer Robert Capa.
To complete the vintage look of Saving Private Ryan, Spielberg toned down the color saturation of the movie by some 60% to get the authentic look.
This lack of color resulted in a backlash from television viewers who complained that there was something wrong with the film, so television companies turned up the saturation to stop the litany of complaints.
The Opening Scene was based on an actual event.
The opening scenes of the film portray a man entering a cemetery in Normandy and collapsing on the ground, sobbing uncontrollably.
This scene is based on a similar event that Spielberg personally witnessed when he visited a cemetery in Normandy. He saw a stranger walk in, and when he saw the flags, he collapsed and began sobbing. His family had to help him to his feet. Spielberg used that exact sequence to open his film.
The Actors
Matt Damon was completely unknown before this film, and that is why he was cast as Private James Ryan. Spielberg wanted an unknown rather than a big star that may overshadow the story.
Also, Damon was excused attendance at the Boot Camp, that all the other actors were forced to attend. Spielberg hoped that the irritation felt by the rest of the cast for Damon would be reflected in the film.
It was brought to Spielberg’s attention that Tom Sizemore, who was cast as Sergeant Mike Horvath, was struggling with an addiction to heroin.
Spielberg gave Sizemore an ultimatum, “stay sober or be fired on the spot.” Sizemore stayed sober, and the film was shot with no issues being raised.
Tom Hanks is a personal friend to Spielberg before the filming started. Neither man was certain that they wanted to mix their personal and professional relationships. Still, after much thought, they decided to go ahead with the project. The results were astounding.
Spielberg wrote the character of Private Caparzo, played by Vin Diesel, especially into the script after seeing Diesel in a production of Strays. His performance so impressed the director that he wrote a role especially for him.
The Script of Saving Private Ryan
The script underwent an astounding 11 rewrites before filming started, and even then, all the actors, the producers, and the scriptwriters all had input to the final script.
Tom Hanks told an interview that they discussed every aspect of the script and even discussed changing how the leading character would appear to the cinema-goers.
Some of the most poignant segments of the film were entirely unscripted. Toward the end of the film, the main character starts to ramble about an encounter between his brother and a girl in a barn.
Damon ad-libbed the entire speech, and Spielberg thought it fitted the character very well and decided not to remove it from the final cut.
Violence in the Film
The film was very nearly rated no under 17 due to the violence in the movie. Spielberg said that even if it had been assessed for 18 and over, he would not have cut anything.
This resulted in the film being censored in India. When Spielberg refused to remove some of the violence, the India Censor Board withheld permission for the film to be screened in India.
Many WWII vets found it impossible to watch the entire film due to the memories that were triggered by the very realistic battle scenes.
Attention, All Destroyer Veterans!
Shipmates -
Destroyermen have a right to be proud and be recognized for their service!
The service of Destroyermen (and women) has simply not been recognized for their service in two World Wars and various uprisings and incursions since. Various government agencies have recognized aviation, submarines, and various other service, not so for destroyers. Not only this, destroyers have long been referred to as "small boys" or escort ships or other almost insulting references. It does fairly have to be said that our Navy's own very senior flag officers started this "small boys" handle. We at Tin Can Sailors / DesVets think this has gone on long enough. Attached is a resolution that was duly written and filed in the US House of Representatives recognizing destroyer service and marking August and National Destroyer Remembrance Month each year.
The first US forces in Europe in World War I was a squadron of six US destroyers of Division 8, Destroyer Force that arrived in Ireland to help the Allies war effort. CDR Joseph K. Taussig was in command.
Attached is the recognition of the USS. Reuben James (DD-245) as the first ship sunk in World War II by the US Postal Service. She was lost 31 Oct 1941 to German torpedoes near Iceland. Given a crew of 144, only 44 were rescued. Ninety-three enlisted, and all seven officers were killed.
As you read the Resolution, please note the numbers of Presidential Unit Citations, Navy Unit Commendations, and Meritorious Unit Commendations. The (1969) Combat Action Ribbon has been backdated to 07 Dec 1941 and awarded to individual destroyers and destroyer squadrons. Remember when the then-new Fletcher-class began parting waves they bristled: New radar, new sonar, and lots of 3 inch and 5-inch rifles. Soon the torpedoes became more reliable and topped off a new workhorse at seal A potent new weapon!
Throughout World War II, we have found 108 destroyer-type vessels lost (sunk). We are developing a Memorial Wall in our headquarters in Somerset, MA. We intended to show you a picture of that wall, but all was delayed by the Cover-19 pandemic. That wall is underway, we have the pictures of the vessels and the frames - the major issue now is getting the pictures on the wall, and a photograph.
Tin Can Sailors / DesVets ask that you write your Representative in the House and ask that House Resolution 229 (H. Res. 229) be brought to the floor for a vote. The Speaker will very likely resist this as it benefits and recognizes military service. The way to overcome this resistance is a large and active movement from your members of the House of Representatives. Please know this is a No Cost item.
It pays no one anything. We do not think there is any possible graft that can be attached. This is simply the recognition of destroyers and those who have served aboard since 1903.
Tin Can Sailors / DesVets intends to use August to fulfill our mission statement using social media to show the current and former service destroyers and destroyer-types have successfully rendered to the United States. We have lots of naval history to review and publish. Please help us by contacting your Representative in the House. Click here to find your Representative.
Respectfully,
Morgan Little CAPT USN (Ret)
President DesVets
If you would like to read the entire text of the bill, please click here to download.
USS. Kearsarge Association
What kind of ship did you serve on? We are the USS. Kearsarge Association. There have been a number of Kearsarges to date. The first was a Sloop of War in 1861; the second was a Battleship, BB-5 in 898, the third was a Craneship, AB-1 in 1920, the fourth CV, CVA, CVS-33 in 1943, an Antisubmarine Warfare Aircraft Carrier, fifth was LHD-3 in 1992, an Amphibious Assault Ship. If you served on any of the Kearsarges and would like to make contact with any of your former shipmates, join the Association. We have members who served on most of the Kearsarges who would love to reacquaint themselves with you and swap Sea Stories. You can visit our website at www.kearsargeassociation.com and see what we have to offer. You will find a large number of Kearsaga issues and an application for membership and many other items of interest. Due to the Pandemic, we had to cancel our 2020 reunion, which was scheduled for May in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We are hoping that by next year the pandemic will be resolved, and we will, once again, try for Milwaukee. Check us out.
LIC. Jack De Merit, Kearsaga Editor
A Navy officer has made history this week as the service's first African American woman to become a fighter jet pilot, the service said.
"BZ to Ltjg Madeline Swegle on completing the Tactical Air (Strike) aviator syllabus," the Twitter account for the chief of naval air training said Thursday, using a Navy abbreviation meaning well done. "Swegle is the US Navy's first known Black female TACAIR pilot and will receive her Wings of Gold later this month. HOOYAH!"
Graduates of the tactical air program generally go on to fly F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, EA-18G Growlers or F-35C Joint Strike Fighters.
Swegle's achievement appears to have first been made public Tuesday when Twitter user @paigealissa posted photos of the Naval aviator smiling and celebrating next to a T-45C Goshawk two-seat training jet at Naval Air Station Kingsville, Texas.
"Just my best friend making history," she wrote.
The Navy did not immediately respond to a request for further details on the achievement. Swegle, of Burke, Va., graduated from the US Naval Academy in 2017. She is assigned to the Redhawks of Training Squadron 21 in Kingsville, Navy photo captions stated.
Swegle will receive her wings of gold at a ceremony slated for July 31, the Navy captions said.
"Go forth and kick butt," said Rear Adm. Paula Dunn, the Navy's vice chief of information, after lauding Swegle on Twitter.
A Vietnam War veterans healing wall war memorial, due to open to the public earlier in March this year, suffered vandalism recently.
The opening ceremony, currently on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic, will now suffer further delay as repairs are scheduled to be carried out.
The Memorial in Johns Creek, Atlanta, in the South Eastern state of Georgia, USA, is the eighth permanently situated replica of the Washington DC Vietnam Veterans War Memorial. Work started in 2019 but was put on hold due to the pandemic.
The Johns Creek Veterans Association, a non-profit service and social organization that helps to run and maintain the Memorial Walk at Newtown Park, had been working on the project since July last year.
The group also maintains monuments to those that gave their lives in both World Wars, Purple Heart recipients, Prisoners of War, and those listed as Missing in Action as well as a memorial dedicated to Women in Service.
Public donations fund the entire venture, and the repair work is estimated at thousands of dollars. The damage was extensive, with at least half of the panels inscribed with the 58,000 names of the servicemen lost in Vietnam, badly scratched with a sharp implement, and many more struck with a hammer.
The sole surveillance video in the area is being checked for any evidence that might lead to the apprehension of the vandals.
Meanwhile, association member Mike Mizell confirmed that while there was a reward up for more information that he would like the culprits to join him in cleaning up the mess, they left behind and learning what the Memorial Park is all about.
Mizell said in a statement that, '(The Veterans named on the Wall) made the ultimate sacrifices for the freedoms you and I have today, and I think a lot of people take that for granted. You didn't just hurt that structure; you hurt some people.'
The original Memorial Wall in Washington DC has had a history of vandalism over the years with hundreds of cases of minor and petty acts. The most costly was in September 2007 when oil was thrown over a large area on the Wall and the adjacent paving. It took city authorities several weeks to clean up.
The Memorial was designed by Maya Lin and was selected through a competition in 1981 that attracted 1,421 designs. Lin's design was listed as no. 1026, having been longlisted with 231 others and then shortlisted alongside another 38. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund awarded the prize of $20,000.
Lin's design, the smooth black Wall inscribed with the names of the fallen, was not universally approved of, with some former supporters of the Fund publicly withdrawing their support. Still, over the years, the 'black gash of shame' has transformed into a popular national shrine.
An opening ceremony on November 13th, 1982, was attended by President Ronald Reagan and tens of thousands of Vietnam War veterans as part of a five-day series of memorial events in Washington DC.
The Memorial has since inspired six mobile replica versions that travel across the United States to be put on display in hundreds of small towns across the US, staying a few days for remembrance events.
In 1984 John Devitt's Vietnam Combat Veterans Ltd created a half-size replica called the Moving Wall in Tyler, Texas. Not everyone can make the trip across the continent to Washington and so the Wall is booked up months in advance with an extensive waiting list.
To meet demand VCV Ltd created two more mobile memorials. The first Moving Wall was retired in 2001 and put on permanent display in Pittsburg, Kansas, in 2004. By 2006 the organization had recorded over 1,000 hometown visits, with an estimated visitor count in the millions.
If you would like to offer your services to the Johns Creek Veterans Association by donating or support the ongoing efforts to repair the Memorial, visit JCVETS.org.
'The Only Thing Worth Dying For' is the harrowing true story of eleven Green Berets who fought alongside the future leader of Afghanistan to topple the Taliban in southern Afghanistan and bring hope to a nation during the first few months of the Global War on Terror, or Operation Enduring Freedom-when the Soldiers on the ground knew little about the enemy, and their commanders in Washington knew even less.
On a moonless November night, just weeks after 9/11, five Blackhawk helicopters infiltrate southern Afghanistan, dropping Special Forces A-Team-ODA 574-deep behind enemy lines in the mountains of Uruzgan. Hundreds of miles to the north, the U.S. military, aided by the armies of the Northern Alliance, is routing Taliban forces, but here in the Pashtun tribal belt-the Taliban's own backyard-Captain Jason Amerine and his ten Green Berets are on a seemingly impossible mission: to destroy the Taliban from within and prevent a civil war from consuming the country. Armed only with the equipment they can carry on their backs, shockingly scant intelligence, and their mastery of guerrilla warfare, ODA 574 must somehow foment a tribal revolt and force the Taliban to surrender. This lone team of Green Berets has just one ally: a little-known Pashtun statesman named Hamid Karzai, who has returned from exile and is being hunted by the Taliban.
While Karzai attempts to raise a militia, the men of ODA 574 find themselves outnumbered against a ruthless Taliban force. They are in a land where respect is earned at gunpoint, and Karzai's practiced diplomacy needs the credibility of a warrior in order to unite the Pashtun and build his army. That respect will only come from defeating the Taliban in battle. As ODA 574 contends with a patriot's quixotic dream, a CIA case officer's murky agenda, and a higher command that refuses to follow its own rules, Amerine and his men take up position in a small town that has just hanged its Taliban provincial governor, ready to defend it against a thousand enemy fighters who are on their way to kill them.
With unprecedented access to surviving members of ODA 574, Special Operations Soldiers and Airmen, key commanders and war planners, and Karzai himself, Blehm narrates the muddy-boots effort that helped install Karzai as the leader of Afghanistan's transitional government, the stepping stone from which he became the country's first democratically elected president. This story of bravery and sacrifice continues to shape the future of the region today.
Reader Reviews
"The Only Thing Worth Dying For is not only brilliant, it's the one book you must read if you have any hope of understanding what our fine American Soldiers are up against in Afghanistan."
~Former Congressman Charlie Wilson, of Charlie Wilson's War.
"A skillfully reported and masterfully written account of one of the most crucial moments of the War Against Terror. Blehm reminds us of the perils, the triumphs and the sacrifices made in the name of freedom."
~ Bob Woodruff, ABC News Correspondent.
"Through careful reporting and crisp narrative pacing, Eric Blehm has given us a thrilling, forgotten drama from the opening chapter of the war in Afghanistan. The Only Thing Worth Dying Forwill become an enduring classic of this extraordinary theater, where so much hangs in the balance."
~ Hampton Sides, bestselling author of Ghost Soldiers and Blood and Thunder.
"Eric Blehm has written a literary masterpiece about modern war. The whole witches' brew is here: valor, honor, heroism, cowardice, incompetence, stupidity, triumph, blood, death and despair. That America has Soldiers like these should fill every American heart with pride. Read this book!"
~ Stephen Coonts, international bestselling author of Flight of the Intruder, and The Disciple.
"The work of elite Special Forces is the subject of endless commentary, usually by those who know nothing about it. Blehm provides powerful and unflinching insight into a real-life mission that ended in tragedy but left an indelible mark on history. From the comic moments to the bleakest hour, it's a testament to how a small team of well-trained men can shape a nation's destiny."
~Stephen Grey, award-winning author of Ghost Plane: The True Story of the CIA's Torture Program and Operation Snakebite: The Story of an Afghan Desert Siege.
"Blehm's heroes, along with three-hundred-odd Afghan fighters, rout the Taliban and befriend the locals. Then the Army's bureaucracy commits a horrific error that destroys the team and almost kills Karzai. Blehm avoids adding to the recent flood of armchair political analysis but uncovers something more true: a parable of the war in the story of one unit."
~Outside Magazine
About the Author
Eric Blehm is the award-winning author of the New York Times bestsellers "Fearless" and "The Only Thing Worth Dying For." His first book, "The Last Season," was the winner of the National Outdoor Book Award and was named by Outside magazine as one of the "greatest adventure biographies ever written."
He has dedicated his life to telling the stories of those who serve
She'd done this job countless times before, getting shot at on almost a daily basis and seeing vehicles blown up more times than anyone would like to remember.
Unshaken, Hester directed her team away from the enemy's concentrated fire and into a flanking position that exposed multiple irrigation ditches and an orchard the enemy was using to stage the attack.
"I'm glad that I took a break. I really am," Hester told NPR in 2011.
Operation Torch introduced the Americans to the swings and roundabouts of land combat against the Axis Powers and showed up some of the military inconsistencies of their allies - the British. The great partnership was underway on the rocky road to total victory in 1945.
This book covers Operation Torch in admirable detail, offering the usual mix of superb archive photography mixed with modern impressions.
One thing that gave me great pleasure was discovering a reunion of sorts between the photographers Geoffrey Keating and Reggie Coote of the long-lost Daily Sketch newspaper. Their pictures appear on several pages of this book.
In 1915 he transferred to the Imperial German Army Air Service (Luftstreitkrafte). He studied aerial tactics under the master German strategist, Hauptman Oswald Boelcke, flying his first combat mission after less than thirty hours of flight instruction. In spite of an indifferent start as a fighter pilot, he nonetheless was invited to join Boelcke's Jagdstaffel 2 squadron and soon excelled in combat following the Boelcke Dicta, which included approaching his enemy from above with the sun behind him, firing only at close range, always keeping his eyes on his target, and attacking in a group of four to six planes.
Against medical advice, he returned to regular flying with his group in October of 1917, downing 18 planes until his death six months later. At the time of his death, he had downed 80 planes in all. He was the leading air ace of WW-I, followed by Rene Fonck of France with 75 confirmed kills and Billy Bishop of Canada with 72. Both Fonck and Bishop lived on long after the war, each dying in the 1950s.
The myths and mystique associated with Manfred von Richthofen and his death resulted in immediate and continuing fascination by the press and other media. Captain Arthur Brown received a bar to his Distinguished Flying Cross but not the Victoria Cross, earlier allegedly promised by Britain for the man who killed The Red Baron. 
Needless to say, with the realism that is portrayed in the film, there were many behind-the-scenes tricks that director Steven Spielberg employed to ensure that the ageless footage and intense combat scenes made it from the film set to the cinema screen.
He shot the whole thing from the seat of his pants, despite the blockbuster size of these scenes.
1940’s Style was spot on
The Actors
The Script of Saving Private Ryan
Attention, All Destroyer Veterans!
"BZ to Ltjg Madeline Swegle on completing the Tactical Air (Strike) aviator syllabus," the Twitter account for the chief of naval air training said Thursday, using a Navy abbreviation meaning well done. "Swegle is the US Navy's first known Black female TACAIR pilot and will receive her Wings of Gold later this month. HOOYAH!"
The opening ceremony, currently on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic, will now suffer further delay as repairs are scheduled to be carried out.
Meanwhile, association member Mike Mizell confirmed that while there was a reward up for more information that he would like the culprits to join him in cleaning up the mess, they left behind and learning what the Memorial Park is all about.
'The Only Thing Worth Dying For' is the harrowing true story of eleven Green Berets who fought alongside the future leader of Afghanistan to topple the Taliban in southern Afghanistan and bring hope to a nation during the first few months of the Global War on Terror, or Operation Enduring Freedom-when the Soldiers on the ground knew little about the enemy, and their commanders in Washington knew even less.
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