None of this was enough. To supplement what could be seen and heard firsthand, I interviewed any willing participant of events portrayed in these pages, including Navy aviators and Army pilots who flew with Layne McDowell and Mike Slebodnik, and a long list of ground combatants. I then interviewed multiple family members. Some of these sources wished to remain anonymous. Others are listed in the acknowledgments pages.
I also traveled to many of the locales where action in this book occurs. In Afghanistan this included trips into the Helmand River basin and the Kunar, Pech, Korengal, and Watapur Valleys, as well as the cities and almost all of the bases or outposts described (many of which are now destroyed), and in Iraq to the al-Kaed bridge, the highways where Wade Zirkle and Joe Dan Worley were wounded, Outpost Omar (also now destroyed), the police station in Karma, and the Balad Air Base, also known as Logistics Support Area Anaconda, where Kryszewski was wounded in 2004 and Slebodnik was assigned in 2005 and 2006. Travels in the United States included the Bethesda Naval Hospital, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Fort Campbell, Camp Lejeune, MacDill Air Force Base, Arlington National Cemetery, and Fort Benning.
Field notes and observations were further developed with official documents, and with the letters, journals, emails, videos, maps, prayers, and personal collections of characters involved, or those of their peers and families. These include but were not limited to “The Good Friday Ambush” by Colonel Dennis Mroczkowski, a U.S. Special Operations command historian who made a record of the ambush on al-Kaed Bridge in 2003; the 101st Airborne Division’s “Take Away” note after the militant raid on Muqdadiyah on March 21, 2006; an email from Colonel Jeffrey N. Colt to Major General Thomas R. Turner about the battle damage to the Kiowa helicopters that responded to the same raid; a PowerPoint presentation titled “Optimized IED 20 SEP 2008,” prepared by Viper Company after a fatal attack on its soldiers on Route Victory; and the Marine Corps’ photographs of civilians killed in the HIMARS mishap on February 14, 2010, the so-called Valentine’s Day Massacre. Among other official references consulted were TM 1-1520-248-10, the Operators manual for the Army OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter, and the Navy EODB/Army Technical Manual F-44-2-1-2, Explosive Ordnance Disposal Procedures, Brazilian Rocket, 127-mm HE, Surface-to-Surface, SS-30 (ASTROS). In places I referred to WikiLeaks’ Iraq and Afghan War Logs, for example, Reference Number IRQ20040604n394 (about rocket attacks on Balad) and Reference Number IRQ20040201n125 (about a discussion of insurgent tactics in Iraq, and the difficulties and confusion inherent in some of the American military’s response). And there were many more.
The second quote on the epigraph page, about America being at the mall and not at war, is from a photograph taken in Ramadi, Iraq, in January 2007 by John Moore of Getty Images. In places where sources recall different translations of the same psalm, this is because different translations of the Bible circulated through the wars.
All of the primary characters in the book, save one, cooperated with repeated interviews and the sharing of personal materials. The only primary character I was not able to talk with was Slebodnik. In fall 2008, soon after Slebodnik was killed, the photographer Tyler Hicks and I were passing through Jalalabad after a reporting trip up the northeastern valleys and stopped to meet members of his cavalry troop and discuss Slebodnik’s life and career. While a staff sergeant was checking to determine the availability of his peers, we learned that a fellow reporter from The New York Times had been kidnapped in another province. We were recalled to Kabul. Over the next three years I spoke with many soldiers about him, until, upon flying aboard Dustoff medevac helicopters in Helmand Province and along the Arghandab River during the troop buildup ordered during President Obama’s first term, I met several pilots who knew him, including Matthew Cole, Jason Davis, and Joe Callaway. With these pilots’ help and more from Jeremy Woehlert, I started reconstructing the events of his service, and ultimately was assisted by the grunts and a medic and the chaplain who cared for him in his last hour, and by Slebodnik’s family.
In a few places I also referenced the work of other journalists or news organizations, including, as mentioned or quoted in the book, a PBS interview with Raad al-Hamdani, a former Republican Guard commander, and “Into the Valley of Death,” by Sebastian Junger, which appeared in Vanity Fair, January 2008. Junger’s work was relevant, because many conventional enlisted soldiers, provided limited pre-deployment intelligence by their services, consume news media accounts of wars they will soon find themselves fighting. Junger’s story was passed among soldiers headed to the valley and who were eager to know what to expect.
Aside from Slebodnik, each of the primary characters assisted in the fact-checking of the chapters in which they appear, as have a majority of the other named sources, along with a set of technical reviewers and proofreaders listed in the acknowledgments section.
Verification was furthered by Rob Liguori, a professional fact-checker granted unfettered access to reporting materials, sources, and primary characters.
No matter the above, responsibility for any error in this book lies solely with me.
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I. Kryszewski and I did not meet in Afghanistan, although at one point we may have been about twenty feet apart on the streets of Jalalabad when his team was returning to a safe house in the city and passed by me as I worked.
Acknowledgments
This book would not exist were it not for the patience of Jonathan Karp, Alice Mayhew, and Stuart Roberts of Simon & Schuster, who allowed years for it to come together. The wait, episodically maddening, in hindsight was necessary. Many of the people who shared their memories needed time—time to process and feel comfortable discussing wartime experiences that were still fresh, time for the arc of their lives in combat to end, time to leave uniformed service and be able to speak freely. Some needed time for all three. Throughout it all, Jonathan, Alice, and Stuart endured long pauses and tolerated my travels—to Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Iraq, and Ukraine—with more than graciousness. They remained eager and were ready at each juncture with encouragement and counsel, as was Stuart Krichevsky, my agent, who stayed enthusiastic and involved, relieving me of burdens as he urged me on. All this allowed many of the characters to evolve, to reach conclusions about what happened around them and what they did, and for the book to assume a form. At the end, David Chesanow’s copy editing, Jackie Seow’s art direction, Lewelin Polanco’s interior design, David Lindroth’s cartography, Al Madocs’s production contributions, and Rob Liguori’s fact-checking made a collective effort cohere. I don’t have enough thanks for the privilege of working with you.
To the extent that the many events in these pages managed to be realistic or accurate, credit and gratitude must go to a list of veterans and their family members who gave their attention and their time to inform the research. A few asked for anonymity. Others can be named. In no particular order, and with ranks removed for those who served (in part because many of them held multiple ranks across the years they helped), they include Jason Sharp, T. J. Rios, Lori Hill, Jeff Runion, Chris Hume, Cindy Russell, Jacob Lewis, Michael Meaney, Matthew Dalrymple, Patrick Greene, Justin Constantine, Thomas Schumacher, Darrin Crowder, Ray Charfauros, Sokol Cela, Hayden Archibald, Wesley Laney, William “Jacko” Kirby, Gail Kirby, Daniel Kirby, Destiny Kirby, Wade Zirkle, Joe Dan Worley, Angel Worley, John Trylch, Jimmy Hathaway, David Lemoine, Tanja Slebodnik, Amber Smith, Jeremy Woehlert, Mariko (Kraft) Callahan, Daniel Strauser, Sean Riordan, Donterry Woods, Joseph Menas, Joshua Rosales, Andrew DiMarca, Jesse Leach, Michael Leslie, Anthony Santos, Juan Valdez, Kenneth DeTreux, Shawn Dempsey, John Lynch, Robert Minton, Jonathan Miller, Brian Meyer, Joseph Callaway, Ryan Craig, Emmitt Furner II, Matt Cole, Pamela Paquet, Steven Halase, John Rodriguez, Sean Conroy, Jimmy Howell, Robert Oxman, Cory Colistra, Lawrence Lau, Josh Biggers, Adam Wallace, Zach Whisenhunt, Dave Santana, Niall Swider, Justin Smith, Edwin Harger, Mark Hummel, Joseph Wright, Brian Christmas, Randy Newman, Mike Grice, Marvin Mathelier, Daniel Durbin, Junior Joseph, Maur
een Krebs, Jason Davis, Jonathan Cooney, Drew Upton, Peter Sprague, Drew Fanning, Troy Rathke, Christopher Herr, Craig Tanner, Callie Ferrari, John Gay, Ryan Craig, Jody Slebodnik Barnes, Kevin White, Brandi Smith, T. G. Taylor, Craig Faller, Jeremiah Foxwell, and Sasha Young. The book was also assisted by the U.S. Navy’s Chief of Information, which in 2011 gave Layne McDowell permission to cooperate with research.
The effort was also helped over the years by Iraqis and Afghans, who volunteered information and good judgment, and shared rides, meals, and conversations. Like most Americans who journeyed through these wars outside of a government’s employ, I would not have been able to work without the friendship and help of Iraqis and Afghans. In some cases, absent their advice and alertness, I might not have survived. Abu Malik, Abdul Wahid Wafa, Nasir Ahmad, Sangar Rahimi, Duraid Adnan, Mazin Jawad, Karzan Mahmoud, and Taimoor Shah—knowing you has been a blessing.
The work was further aided by a long list of Times bureau chiefs who put up with my comings and goings, including John F. Burns, Carlotta Gall, Alissa Rubin, Tim Arango, and Steven Lee Myers. Mujib Mashal, of the Kabul bureau, provided helpful guidance and a necessary translation from Pashto. Karam Shoumali, of the Berlin bureau, helped with translations from Arabic and a bottomless reservoir of inside jokes. Tyler Hicks and Joao Silva, both staff photographers, were companions in the field and were present at many of the events. Someday, somehow, their own stories should be told.
When things went wrong, as they inevitably did, having support and wisdom from Roger Cohen, Susan Chira, Michele McNally, Beth Flynn, Alison Smale, Rick Gladstone, Ian Fisher, Bill Schmidt, Janet Elder, Michael Slackman, and David McCraw was repeatedly invaluable. There is little feeling as fortifying as knowing that the Sulzberger family and Bill Keller (the executive editor during most of the years covered in these pages) have your back. They never wavered, not once. After Bill retired, Jill Abramson and Dean Baquet upheld this standard.
Once draft chapters were complete, critical readers stepped in to offer technical review, operational context, or fact-checking—all in the service of accuracy. Among them are Major Joshua Rosales, the executive officer of Weapons Company, Second Battalion, Eighth Marines in Karma in 2006 and 2007; retired Lieutenant Colonel Sean Riordan, the executive officer of the same Marine battalion during the same time; Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Howell and Major John Rodriguez, respectively the commanding and executive officers of Viper Company in the Korengal Valley in 2008 and 2009; former Major Cory Colistra, the executive officer of Kilo Company, Third Battalion, Sixth Marines during Operation Moshtarak in 2010; retired Chief Warrant Officer Jeremy Woehlert, a former Kiowa pilot and friend of Mike Slebodnik; Jody Slebodnik Barnes, Mike’s sister; retired Colonel John Lynch, a former Kiowa pilot who commanded Task Force Out Front in eastern Afghanistan in 2008; retired Chief Warrant Officer Matthew Cole, an Army Black Hawk pilot who flew as a chase helicopter pilot on Dustoff medevac missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, including on the flight to evacuate Slebodnik after he was shot; former Specialist Steven Halase, the platoon radio operator for much of Viper Two’s Afghan tour; Andrew DiMarca, a turret gunner who served with Dustin Kirby; and Cindy Russell, the wife of Leo Kryszewski.
Several other early readers examined the entire draft manuscript and provided comments and corrections. These included retired Colonel Dave Edmond Lounsbury, a former Army doctor and coauthor of an American military compendium of battlefield trauma and its treatment; retired Colonel David Fivecoat, a former Army infantry officer and paratrooper who served as a battalion operations officer in Iraq and a battalion commander in Afghanistan before commanding the U.S. Army’s Ranger School; Colonel Kenneth DeTreux, who served as the commanding officer of Second Battalion, Eighth Marines from 2005 through 2007 and as the operations officer for the Second Marine Division from 2010 through 2012, including during its command rotation in Helmand Province; Mark Warren, the editor I formerly filed to at Esquire magazine; and three of my editors at The New York Times Magazine—Jessica Lustig, Shreeya Sinha, and Charlie Homans. Nancy Sherman, a professor of philosophy at Georgetown University, affiliate at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, and author of Afterwar: Healing the Moral Wounds of Our Soldiers, also reviewed a draft manuscript, as did Ian Fisher, an editor worthy of blind trust.
Three veteran friends working in journalism offered suggestions as well. Two of them work for the Times: John Ismay, a former U.S. Navy explosive ordnance disposal officer who served a tour in Iraq, and T. M. Gibbons-Neff, a former Marine grunt who served two tours in Afghanistan, the second as a scout sniper team leader during Operation Moshtarak, and beyond. The third, Brian Castner, a former Air Force explosive ordnance disposal officer, served two tours in Iraq and is now a magazine writer and author, including of books on the same wars covered here: The Long Walk and All the Ways We Kill and Die. Their recommendations improved the book.
Long before reaching that point, I was blessed with love and tolerance from my family: Jack, Mick, Elizabeth, Willie, and Joe, along with Honey and Jack, and Jim, who held us together through it all.
Last, and first, were the grace, encouragement, and understanding of you, Suzanne. Your love carried and finally saved me, while you held a place for me in your heart and in our home across an absenteeism of years. And then, as I wrote, your incisive intellect and sound judgment, and your suspicion of power, helped focus my sometimes scattered thinking about the wars that claimed so much, and that I had at times navigated without understanding. All that coffee, all those talks, all your selflessness. How can I have had this luck? I cannot say, even as I know that such debts cannot be repaid with words.
FROM PULITZER PRIZE WINNING AUTHOR C.J. CHIVERS
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About the Author
© MICK CHIVERS
C. J. CHIVERS is a writer-at-large for The New York Times Magazine and a correspondent contributing to the newspaper on themes related to terrorism, insurgency, the arms trade, human rights, and war. He is also the author of The Gun, an examination of the origins and proliferation of the Kalashnikov assault rifle, the world’s most abundant firearm, praised by the New York Times as “bold history,” and by Time as “a Tolstoyan epic.” His work has received many prizes, including a National Magazine Award for Reporting for the reconstruction in Esquire of the terrorist siege in 2004 in Beslan, Russia. In 2009 he shared a Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for coverage in the Times of combat in Afghanistan. In 2017 he received a Pulitzer Prize in Feature Writing for work in The New York Times Magazine tracing the battlefield history of an incarcerated veteran of the Afghan war who suffered from alcoholism and post-traumatic stress disorder. As a result of this reporting, the veteran was released from prison. Prior to becoming a journalist, Chivers served as an infantry officer in the U.S. Marine Corps, including in the Persian Gulf War and the Los Angeles riots. He lives in Rhode Island with his wife and their five children.
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Index
A note about the index: The pages referenced in this index refer to the page numbers in the print edition. Clicking on a page number will take you to the ebook location that corresponds to the beginning of that page in the print edition. For a comprehensive list of locations of any word or phrase, u
se your reading system’s search function.
A-7 Corsairs, 114
A-10s:
Korengal Valley operations and, 199, 210
and U.S. offensive operations in Iraq, 47–49
Abu Ghraib, 68, 129
Adams, James M., 182–83
Afghans, Afghanistan, Afghan war, 23–25, 40, 53, 58–60, 87, 102–4, 113, 115, 117–18, 125, 156, 160, 162, 165, 173–74, 188–89, 206–7, 217, 227, 238–39, 243, 271, 302, 304, 317, 334, 348, 351
air cavalry in eastern valleys of, 159–85
Arghandab River valley operations and, 299–301
armed overwatch missions in, 296–97, 299–301, 342–43
and Battle of Marja, xv, xvii, 238–41, 248–50, 253–59, 263–66, 268–70, 273, 276, 278–87, 289
Bagram, 30, 179–81, 184, 195, 203, 212, 332, 335
cave strikes in, 17–18
changes in U.S. campaign in, 296–97
cloud surfing over, 302–3
cluttered airspace of, 295
counterinsurgency in, 125, 127–28, 161, 213, 215, 238, 284
The Fighters Page 40