Sons of the Arghandab: Top guns in the Devil's Playground

"The skill, adaptability, initiative, courage, and sheer determination of the Top Guns enabled them to prevail in the densely vegetated, enemy-infested Arghandab, to hold the terrain once it had been cleared, and to return to the United States as one of the most decorated units in the history of the war in Afghanistan. It was a true privilege to observe (and decorate) them then and it is truly inspirational to read about them now 15 years after they commenced their extraordinary operations. Sons of the Arghandab is a great read!" ? General David Petraeus, US Army, (Ret.),

Sons of the Arghandab tells the story of the 1-320th Field Artillery "Top Guns" Battalion, 101st Airborne, in the Arghandab Valley, 2010-2011.

The Arghandab River Valley is known for its lush vegetation from its grape furrows and its pomegranate orchards. It’s also known as the birthplace of several Taliban leaders such as Mullah Omar and Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, and was a major crossing route for weapons coming from Pakistan into Kandahar. This hostile environment had already claimed the lives of many seasoned Infantrymen. But the Top Guns weren't infantrymen, they were artillerymen, deployed without their usual weapons and with minimal last-minute training, redesignated as "provisional infantrymen." Painstakingly researched by one of the Top Guns and told through the perspectives of the men who survived that terrible year, this is the harrowing story of Alpha, HHB, and Bravo Batteries as they undertook the challenges of an Artillery unit charged with an Infantry mission in the most hostile killing fields in Afghanistan.

Table of Contents

Ch. 1: The Death of Innocence
Ch. 2: The RIP
Ch. 3: Into the Devil's Playground
Ch. 4: The Alamo (COP Nolen)
Ch. 5: Luck Always runs out.
Ch. 6: Battle for Bakersfield (COP Stout)
Ch. 7: The Boys of Babur
Ch. 8: The Longest Day
Ch. 9: Hard Right Over the Easy Wrong
Ch.10: Ant trails to the Man at the first Canal
Ch.11: Cigarette Ambers, MICLICs and Tarok Kolache
Ch.12: Watching the Tides change.
Ch.13: The Men Hidden Beneath the Rocks.
Ch.14: Strong Point Stansbery
Ch.15: Tarok Kolache / Strong Point Weaver
Ch.16: Infrared Chemlights and IEDs
CH.17: Living in the Grape Furrows
CH.18: As the Leaves Turn
CH.19: Graveyards filled with broken dreams
Epilogue: Eulogies, Uniforms, and Sad Stories

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