The Mullah's Storm

by Young, Tom

  The book contains scenes of violence, and sadly, that reflects reality, both past and future. Afghanistan will likely never completely rid itself of insurgents and warlords, jihadists and opium traffickers. The Taliban will not show up on the deck of the USS Missouri to sign an instrument of surrender. Even if American forces were to end combat operations tomorrow, the country would need humanitarian assistance and airlift support into the foreseeable future. Whether U.S. troops stay or go, this will be a long war for the Afghans.

  While the idea for The Mullah’s Storm had been knocking around in my head for a while, it took an in-flight emergency to get me started on the actual writing. In August 2007, I was part of a crew flying a routine airlift mission into Osan Air Base, South Korea. On the way, we lost a hydraulic system and a generator. We declared an emergency and landed safely, greeted by the flashing lights of crash trucks. When we taxied to the ramp, the aircraft dripped a trail of hydraulic fluid.

  After we shut down, we learned we’d be stuck for days, waiting for parts. So with time to kill at Osan, one morning I went to the Base Exchange and bought a yellow legal pad and a cup of coffee. I sat on a couch in aircrew billeting, and wrote at the top of the pad: “Chapter One.”

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Thomas W. Young served in Afghanistan and Iraq with the Air National Guard. He has also flown combat missions to Bosnia and Kosovo, and additional missions to Latin America, the horn of Africa, and the Far East. In all, Young has logged almost four thousand hours as a flight engineer on the C-5 Galaxy and the C-130 Hercules, while flying to almost forty countries. Military honors include two Air Medals, three Aerial Achievement Medals, and the Air Force Combat Action Medal.

  In civilian life he spent ten years as a writer and editor with the broadcast division of the Associated Press, and flew as a first officer for Independence Air, an airline based at Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C. Young holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in mass communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

  Young’s nonfiction publications include The Speed of Heat: An Airlift Wing at War in Iraq and Afghanistan, released in 2008 by McFarland and Company. His narrative “Night Flight to Baghdad” appeared in the Random House anthology Operation Home-coming: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Home Front, in the Words of U.S. Troops and Their Families.