Longgrear, Landon U.S. Marines at the Battle of Sangin

Operation Enduring Freedom

This is a combat-intensive and highly personal war report that follows a small US Marine unit as it arrives in Afghanistan and is immediately confronted with death. Not a week goes by without the Marines experiencing the death of allied forces, their own casualties, enemy combatants killed, numerous IED attacks, air strikes, Predator drone strikes, and round-the-clock patrols in hostile territory where death is ever-present. As the regional rapid response force in the northern Sangin River Valley of Helmand Province, the marines are immediately put to the test and narrowly avoid one disaster after another. The reader senses the author's fear, his awareness of the threat and his growing hostility towards his elusive enemy. The fighting intensifies considerably as the marines find their rhythm on the battlefield. The death toll rises, and with it the emotional toll on the author. The reader is regularly swept up in the author's enthusiasm for his perseverance in intense combat scenes, but also sinks with him into the turmoil caused by the deliberate injuries he and his comrades inflict on the enemy. A sobering realisation emerges about the inevitable dichotomy of war and the inner wounds caused by participating in its cruelty, regardless of whether one is the victim or perpetrator of the violent acts of war. This unknown story personalises the overarching themes of the American war in Afghanistan through the brutal experiences of a small Marine infantry unit that volunteered to fight.