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

by Ed Darack

Book 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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 042523259X
• ISBN13: 9780425232590
• Release Date: April 2010
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.1" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Most accurate diction of this event

This is the most accurate depiction of this event available. Great author. Does his best to get it right and reads well at the same time.

Highly Recommended

This book was educational, enlightening, and exhilarating. I found myself up way past the midnight hour engulfed in the fight with the Marines and their military joint forces battling against the insurgents. Ed Darack does a brilliant job of retelling this story with detailed straight talk, vivid descriptions, and raw verbiage of the gut-wrenching fire-fights. Thanks to this great read I now have an even greater respect and appreciation for those who are engaged in a war where the terrain is unforgiving and the enemy has the home court advantage. A highly recommended book.

Great Story

A great story about an exceptional group of Marines. It gives the reader a true sense of what it takes to be a Marine and a true account of the difficulties of modern day warfare. The author was very detailed and thorough in his research and accuracy of events. This should be required reading for all those that admire our service men and women and the great acts of courage they do for our freedom. A great read!

Should be on the Commandants (Marines) Reading List

This is a tale of selfless devotion to duty by both the Marines and their SOF counterparts. A MUST-READ if you want to understand the complexities of fighting a counter insurgency using SOF and conventional forces. This story reveals "the ground truth" and is not just another chest beating competition. In the end it's a story of an operation planned by Marines, bungled by SOF and cleaned up by grunts using a MAGTF framework and incorporating the elements of maneuver warfare. (targeting critical vulnerabilities, boldness, surprise, focus, decentralized decision making, rapid tempo, and combined arms) This book would be a great PME on SOF integration for infantry Ops Os, Ops Chiefs future MCTOG OTIs! Semper Fi

Superb Insight into Operations in Afghanistan

READ THIS BOOK! Mr Darack spent two months with 2/3 in Afghanistan in 2005. That time period was the genesis for the book. He spent a great deal of time interviewing the Marines and sailors and lived at Camp Blessing with the Marines, sailors, and Afghan Security Forces. The book was well reviewed by Bing West, Dalton Fury, and others. The battalion achieved victory not by technology dependent special operations that are so lionized by Hollywood and the press these days, but by time-tested boots-on-the-ground, small unit counterinsurgency tactics, tactics codified by the Marine Corps. Read it if you want an honest view of the challenges on the ground for a unit engaged in the COIN fight at the Edge of the Empire. Mr. Darack witnessed first hand the success of the batallion, and how it was achieved through working closely with locals, spending as much time outside the wire as possible, proving our intentions for a unified and pacified country, and of course, always being ready for the tough fight. VICTORY POINT brings the reader into all aspects of what it took to win a difficult counterinsurgency campaign in Afghanistan, conveying the no-nonsense, classic, and time proven methods of this type of warfare, from the dividends yielded from passing out school supplies to children, to helping build roads and other infrastructure, to the necessity of undertaking a high intensity combat.

Great book!! Compelling story against an interesting background

This is the story of an operstion the Marines performed in Afghanistan that allowed a successful and free election. It has a lot of history and background to set the stage and tells a compelling story that shows the good that the Marines were doing at that time in Afghanistan. With everything that is still going on over there it was great to get some insight into it all. The story of these Marines is very compelling and I flew through this book. I highly recommend it.