U.S. Marines at the Battle for Sangin: Operation Enduring Freedom

“One of the purest tellings of a combat Marine’s experience in warfighting I have ever read. This story strikes every emotion.” — PAUL LONGGREAR, Colonel ret. Army Special Forces,

U.S. Marines at the Battle for Sangin is a battle-intensive and deeply personal war memoir following a small Marine infantry detachment who arrive in Afghanistan with acts of killing beginning immediately. Not a week goes by before the Marines experience the deaths of friendly forces, Marine casualties, enemy combatants killed, numerous IED strikes, air strikes, predator drone strikes and around the clock patrolling in hostile territory where death is ever present. As a regional direct response Quick Reaction Force in the northern Sangin river valley of Helmand Province, the Marines are immediately put to the test narrowly avoiding one calamity after the next. The reader feels the author's angst, threat awareness and a growing sense of hostility toward his elusive enemy. Combat operations greatly intensify as the Marines find their battlefield rhythm. Body counts rise and so does the emotional toll on the author. The reader is regularly taken into the author's exhilarations from persevering through intense battle scenes but also submerged with him in the turmoil that results from the deliberate harm that he and his fellow Marines inflict on their enemy. There is a sober realization of the unavoidable dichotomy of war and the inner wounds that result from one's participation in its cruelty, whether the recipient or doer of war's violent actions. This untold story personalizes the broader themes of America's war in Afghanistan through the brutal experiences of a small Marine unit who volunteered to fight it.