Full Battle Rattle: My Story as the Longest-Serving Special Forces A-Team Soldier in American History

by Changiz Lahidji, Ralph Pezzullo Narrated by Eric Pollins

Overview

With over 100 combat missions and 24 years as a Green Beret, Changiz Lahidji is an expert in military operations. Full Battle Rattle is the legendary audiobook memoir of a soldier who served America in every war since Vietnam.

Master Sergeant Changiz Lahidji served on Special Forces A teams longer than anyone in history, completing over a hundred combat missions in Afghanistan. Changiz is a Special Forces legend. He also happens to be the first Muslim Green Beret.

Changiz served this country starting with Operation Eagle Claw in 1980, when he entered Tehran on a one-man mission to spy on Iranian soldiers guarding the US Embassy where 52 US diplomats were being held hostage. Three years later, he was in Beirut, Lebanon when a suicide car bomb exploded in front of the US Embassy killing 83 people. Weeks after that, he was shot by Hezbollah terrorists on a night mission.

In Operation Iraqi Freedom, he led a convoy that was ambushed on its way to Fallujah. He was clearing houses in Mogadishu, Somalia on October, 1993 when a US Black Hawk helicopter was shot down 50 feet away from him in the incident that inspired Black Hawk Down. In 2002, he dressed as a farmer and snuck into Eastern Afghanistan and located Osama Bin Laden for the CIA.

Along the way, Changiz earned numerous commendations, including the Special Forces Legion of Merit, Purple Hearts, and many others. Last year he was nominated for induction in Military Intelligence Hall of Fame and cited as "the finest noncommissioned officer to ever serve in Special Forces."

Written with Ralph Pezzullo, Changiz's story is an amazing audiobook of perseverance and courage, of combat and one man's love for his adopted country.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Energetically told stories of some very hot spots....Anyone who enjoys an unvarnished, ground-level view of America's military doing its job will find plenty of what they're looking for here. First-person war stories served up by a participant in some of the most dangerous actions of the modern era." — Kirkus Reviews

Library Journal

09/15/2017
Retired Master Sergeant Lahidji served longer than anyone on U.S. Special Forces teams, completing over 100 missions. Along the way, he entered Tehran on a one-man spying mission, was shot by Hezbollah terrorists, disguised himself as a farmer to find Osama Bin Laden, and won numerous medals. He's also the first Muslim Green Beret.

Kirkus Review

2018-01-02
A memoir by a Special Forces soldier whose career spans the period from the Iranian hostage crisis of the early 1980s to the post-9/11 Afghan campaigns.Born in Iran, Lahidji grew up as a Muslim, though during his youth, the country was more modern and Western-oriented than in later years. After school, he moved to the U.S., where a relative owned a gas station, though he had to fulfill his military service before being allowed to leave Iran. In the U.S., deciding he wasn't cut out for a business career, he reported to a recruiting office and asked to join the Green Berets. That was the start of a remarkable career, and his familiarity with the languages and culture of much of the Muslim world became prime assets. With the assistance of Pezzullo (co-author: Left of Boom: How a Young CIA Case Officer Penetrated the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, 2016, etc.), Lahidji spins yarns of being stranded in Tehran after the Carter administration's attempt to rescue the hostages failed; getting a distant look at Osama bin Laden in the mountains of Afghanistan; fighting his way out of Mogadishu during the 1993 Black Hawk Down incident; and surviving a helicopter crash when it was shot down in Afghanistan. Throughout, the author offers plenty of energetically told stories of some very hot spots, and he tells them with the uninhibited style of a frontline soldier. There's not a great deal of depth or fresh insight, but this is the story of a soldier, not a diplomat or historian. Anyone who enjoys an unvarnished, ground-level view of America's military doing its job will find plenty of what they're looking for here.First-person war stories served up by a participant in some of the most dangerous actions of the modern era.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171953805
Publisher:	Macmillan Audio
Publication date:	02/06/2018
Edition description:	Unabridged

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