by Jake Tapper
87 Technically called JTACs, for “joint tactical air controllers,” these radiomen communicate with the pilots and tell them where to target their munitions.
88 TOW stands for tube-launched, optically-tracked, wireless-guided.
89 Not her real name.
90 Specialist Devin “Twiggy” Snyder, twenty, of Cohocton, New York; Corporal Christopher Bell, twenty-one, of Red Bay, Alabama; Private First Class Robert Voakes, Jr., twenty, of L’Anse, Michigan; and Sergeant Joshua Powell, twenty-eight, of Quitman, Texas, were killed on June 4, 2011.
91 “Physical Training” clothes—shorts and a T-shirt.
92 In an email to me, Lieutenant Colonel Brown called this “maudlin romanticism,” noting that there were B-10s all over Afghanistan, and differentiating between the Taliban at Combat Outpost Keating and those at Forward Operating Base Bostick.
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Contents
Welcome
Dedication
Author’s Note
The Cavalrymen’s Poem
Prologue: Focus
BOOK ONE:
“WITH YOUR SHIELD OR ON IT”
Roll Call: 3-71 Cav and Others
1. Every Man an Alexander
2. “Major Joe Fenty, Hard Worker”
3. Like Just Another Day on the Range
4. War, Fate, and Wind
5. “This Whole Thing Is a Bad Idea”
6. Maybe That’s Just the Wind Blowing the Door
7. Monuments to an Empire’s Hubris
8. Hill 2610
9. “This Will Happen to You”
10. The Abstract Threat of Terror
11. The Enemy Gets a Vote
12. Matthias the Macedonian and the LMTV
13. The 7-31
14. Buddy
15. “Don’t Go Down That Way”
BOOK TWO.
TWO IN THE CHEST, ONE IN THE HEAD
Roll Call: 1-91 Cav and Others
Roll Call: 6-4 Cav and Others
16. “There’s Not Going to Be Any Ice Cream”
17. “Bulldog-Six, Where Are You?”
18. Balloons
19. If You’re the Enemy, Please Stand Up
20. “We Will Go to Kamdesh Next”
21. Chess with No Rules
22. After He Finished Washing the Blood Off
23. What Was Wrong with Kaine Meshkin
24. The Puppies
25. Pericles in Kamdesh
BOOK THREE.
ENEMY IN THE WIRE: THE END OF COMBAT OUTPOST KEATING
Roll Call: 3-61 Cav
26. The General’s Competing Considerations
27. The Deer Hunters
28. Send Me
29. Elevator Ride
30. “Wish Me Luck”
31. Get Something Up!
32. Into This Hell
33. Taking This Bitch Back
34. The Apaches
35. The Fundamentals
36. Blood and Embers
37. The Long Walk Down
38. Saint Christopher
39. Two Purple Hearts and Just One Scar
Epilogue
Glossary and Military Terms
Notes and Sourcing
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Jake Tapper
Newsletters
Copyright
Copyright
Copyright © 2012 by Jake Tapper
“Folsom Prison Blues” words and music by John R. Cash. Copyright © 1956 (renewed 1984) House of Cash, Inc. (BMI), administered by Bug Music, Inc., a BMG Chrysalis company. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Reprinted by permission of Hal Leonard Corporation.
“When You Say Nothing at All” words and music by Don Schlitz and Paul Overstreet. Copyright © 1988 Universal Music Corp., Don Schlitz Music, Screen Gems–EMI Music, Inc., and Scarlett Moon Music, Inc. All rights for Don Schlitz Music controlled and administered by Universal Music Corp. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Reprinted by permission of Hal Leonard Corporation.
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ISBN 978-0-316-18539-4
Table of Contents
Welcome
Dedication
Author’s Note
The Cavalrymen’s Poem
Prologue: Focus
B OOK O NE : “W ITH Y OUR S HIELD OR ON I T ”
1. Every Man an Alexander
2. “Major Joe Fenty, Hard Worker”
3. Like Just Another Day on the Range
4. War, Fate, and Wind
5. “This Whole Thing Is a Bad Idea”
6. Maybe That’s Just the Wind Blowing the Door
7. Monuments to an Empire’s Hubris
8. Hill 2610
9. “This Will Happen to You”
10. The Abstract Threat of Terror
11. The Enemy Gets a Vote
12. Matthias the Macedonian and the LMTV
13. The 7-31
14. Buddy
15. “Don’t Go Down That Way”
BOOK TWO. T WO IN THE C HEST , O NE IN THE H EAD
16. “There’s Not Going to Be Any Ice Cream”
17. “Bulldog-Six, Where Are You?”
18. Balloons
19. If You’re the Enemy, Please Stand Up
20. “We Will Go to Kamdesh Next”
21. Chess with No Rules
22. After He Finished Washing the Blood Off
23. What Was Wrong with Kaine Meshkin
24. The Puppies
25. Pericles in Kamdesh
BOOK THREE. E NEMY IN THE W IRE : T HE E ND OF C OMBAT O UTPOST K EATING
26. The General’s Competing Considerations
27. The Deer Hunters
28. Send Me
29. Elevator Ride
30. “Wish Me Luck”
31. Get Something Up!
32. Into This Hell
33. Taking This Bitch Back
34. The Apaches
35. The Fundamentals
36. Blood and Embers
37. The Long Walk Down
38. Saint Christopher
39. Two Purple Hearts and Just One Scar
Epilogue
Glossary and Military Terms
Notes and Sourcing
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Jake Tapper
Newsletters
Copyright
Table of Contents
Welcome
Dedication
Author’s Note
The Cavalrymen’s Poem
Prologue: Focus
B OOK O NE : “W ITH Y OUR S HIELD OR ON I T ”
1. Every Man an Alexander
2. “Major Joe Fenty, Hard Worker”
3. Like Just Another Day on the Range
4. War, Fate, and Wind
5. “This Whole Thing Is a Bad Idea”
6. Maybe That’s Just the Wind Blowing the Door
7. Monuments to an Empire’s Hubris
8. Hill 2610
9. “This Will Happen to You”
10. The Abstract Threat of Terror
11. The Enemy Gets a Vote
12. Matthias the Macedonian and the LMTV
13. The 7-31
14. Buddy
15. “Don’t Go Down That Way”
BOOK TWO. T WO IN THE C HEST , O NE IN THE H EAD
16. “There’s Not Going to Be Any Ice Cream”
17. “Bulldog-Six, Where Are You?”
18. Balloons
19. If You’re the Enemy, Please Stand Up
20. “We Will Go to Kamdesh Next”
21. Chess with No Rules
22. After He Finished Washing the Blood Off
23. What Was Wrong with Kaine Meshkin
24. The Puppies
25. Pericles in Kamdesh
BOOK THREE. E NEMY IN THE W IRE : T HE E ND OF C OMBAT O UTPOST K EATING
26. The General’s Competing Considerations
27. The Deer Hunters
28. Send Me
29. Elevator Ride
30. “Wish Me Luck”
31. Get Something Up!
32. Into This Hell
33. Taking This Bitch Back
34. The Apaches
35. The Fundamentals
36. Blood and Embers
37. The Long Walk Down
38. Saint Christopher
39. Two Purple Hearts and Just One Scar
Epilogue
Glossary and Military Terms
Notes and Sourcing
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Jake Tapper
Newsletters
Copyright