Victory Point: Operations Red Wings and Whalers - the Marine Corps' Battle for Freedom in Afghanistan

Victory Point: Operations Red Wings and Whalers - the Marine Corps' Battle for Freedom in Afghanistan

by Ed Darack
Victory Point: Operations Red Wings and Whalers - the Marine Corps' Battle for Freedom in Afghanistan

Victory Point: Operations Red Wings and Whalers - the Marine Corps' Battle for Freedom in Afghanistan

by Ed Darack

Paperback

$24.00 
  • SHIP THIS ITEM
    Qualifies for Free Shipping
  • PICK UP IN STORE
    Check Availability at Nearby Stores

Related collections and offers


Overview

In late June 2005, media sources recounted the tragic story of nineteen U.S. special operations personnel who died at the hands of insurgent / terrorist leader Ahmad Shah- and the lone survivor of Shah's ambush-deep in the Hindu Kush Mountains of Afghanistan. The harrowing events of Operation Red Wings marked an important-yet widely misreported-chapter in the Global War on Terror, the full details of which the public burned to learn.

In Victory Point, globally published author and photographer Ed Darack reveals the complete, as-yet untold, story of Operation Red Wings (often mis-referenced as "Operation Redwing"), and the follow-on mission, Operation Whalers. Together, these two U.S. Marine Corps operations (that in the case of Red Wings utilized Navy SEALs for its opening phase) unfurl not as a mission gone terribly wrong, but of a complex and difficult campaign that ultimately saw the demise of Ahmad Shan and his small army of barbarous fighters.

Due to the valor, courage and commitment of the 2nd Battalion of the 3rd Marine Regiment in the summer of 2005, Afghanistan was able to hold free elections that Fall. Here is the inspiring true account of hero'sm, duty, and brotherhood between Marines fighting the War on Terror.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780425232590
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date: 04/06/2010
Pages: 368
Sales rank: 447,562
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

About The Author
A globally publishd writer and photographer, Ed Darack has covered the 2nd Battalion of the 3rd Marine Regiment since their pre-Afghan mountain warfare training in the spring of 2005, and he has stayed with them through their subsequent deployment to Afghanistan and tour in Iraq’s Anbar province. He is the author of numerous articles on military issues for such publications as Smithsonian Air and Space, the Marine Corps Gazette, and Proceedings of the Naval Institute Press, among others. His photography has been used by National Geographic, Outside Magazine, The Sunday London Times, the BBC, Time, ABC, NBC, IBM, Volkswagen and Bank of America, among many other editorial and corporate clients.

Table of Contents

Preface xi

Author's Note xv

1 Welcome to Afghanistan 1

2 The Battalion 28

3 Synergy of Success 48

4 Into the Hindu Kush 63

5 Red Wings Takes Flight 95

6 Ambush 124

7 Storm of Chaos 142

8 Redoubled Efforts 172

9 Whalers Unleashed 191

10 Armageddon, Denied 205

11 One Ridge Distant, A World Apart 229

12 Star Wars 249

13 Kinetic Exfil 263

14 Victory Point 277

Afterword 281

Acknowledgments 285

Appendix I Primary Weapon Systems 287

Appendix II Interviewees 297

References 299

Index 303

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews