Clinton Romesha

Instead of reading this battle memoir I listened to the audio version which brought the noise of battle and blood to my ears on each morning I listened to it.

I am not a frequent reader of such books. But this one really had me hanging on every chapter.

In addition to the raw drama memorialized here, I found myself quaking at the sheer enormity of the machines of death that found their way into these pages: the high caliber guns, rocket-propelled grenades, drone bombers and reconnaissance, helicopter gun ships, F-15 fighter jets, even B1 bombers enlisted to scrub the hiding places where Taliban launched their deadly assault on a remote outpost in Afghanistan.

The author gave his enemies their due: they were well led, pretty well armed, and attacked as they had been trained. But once word of the attack got out and the rest of the American military complex enjoined the battle the only question was how many of the original defenders would survive.

Presumably, the Taliban’s objective was to rid themselves of these meddlesome Americans. Ironically, if they had waited another week the Americans had concluded that the base was almost completely indefensible and were planning to leave on their own.

The battle was really, completely, unnecessary. So much pain and suffering and gruesome murder for nothing.… (meer)

"The Battle of Kamdesh"

I watched "The Outpost" (Scott Eastwood, Caleb Landry Jones, and Orlando Bloom) when it was released this summer then later knew of this book. Red Platoon reads like an action thriller, but it's a true story of real life heroes.

Combat Outpost Keating/Kamdesh was in mountainous Nuristan province near Pakistan border. Whose great idea to have a Combat Outpost (COP) at the bottom of a deep valley surrounded by mountains? The narrow roads along the steep mountains were unsafe with frequent ambush by Taliban insurgents. They stop using this road for resupply after 1st Lt Benjamin Keating drove a LMTV on said road and it collapsed. Keating died from his injuries (2006). Since then supplies were delivered at night by air. COP Keating wasn't fully supplied and considered indefensible. Due to diplomacy and politics at the time, evacuation and closing keep getting postponed.

On October 3, 2009 just before 6 am roughly 300 heavily armed Taliban attacked COP Keating from all sides. Later, they received air assault support but visibility was bad from smoke of burning barracks. Eight soldiers were KIA, one later from PTSD, 27 wounded. Many medals were awarded including two Medals of Honor for Staff Sergeant Clinton Romesha and Specialist Ty Carter.… (meer)