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A Story of Courage and Sacrifice on Takur Ghar Mountain, Afghanistan
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August 2006
On Sale: July 25, 2006
384 pages
ISBN: 0553586807
EAN: 9780553586800
Paperback
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Fiction
Afghanistan, March 2002. In the early morning darkness on a frigid mountaintop, a U.S. soldier is stranded, alone, surrounded by fanatical al Qaeda fighters. For the manβs fellow Navy SEALs, and for waiting teams of Army Rangers, there was only one rule now: leave no one behind. In this gripping you-are-there accountβbased on stunning eyewitness testimony and painstaking researchβjournalist Malcolm MacPherson thrusts us into a drama of rescue, tragedy, and valor in a place that would be known as... ROBERTS RIDGE For an elite team of SEALs, the mission seemed straightforward enough: take control of a towering 10,240-foot mountain peak called Takur Ghar. Launched as part of Operation Anacondaβa hammer-and-anvil plan to smash Taliban al Qaeda in eastern Afghanistan βthe taking of Takur Ghar would offer U.S. forces a key strategic observation post. But the enemy was waiting, hidden in a series of camouflaged trenches and bunkersβand when the Special Forces chopper flared on the peak to land, it was shredded by a hail of machine-gun, small arms, and RPG rounds. A red-haired SEAL named Neil Roberts was thrown from the aircraft. And by the time the shattered helicopter crash-landed on the valley floor seven miles away, Robertsβs fellow SEALs were determined to return to the mountain peak and bring him outβno matter what the cost. Drawing on the words of the men who were thereβSEALs, Rangers, medics, combat air controllers, and pilotsβthis harrowing true account, the first book of its kind to chronicle the battle for Takur Ghar, captures in dramatic detail a seventeen-hour pitched battle fought at the highest elevation Americans have ever waged war. At once an hour-by-hour, bullet-by-bullet chronicle of a landmark battle and a sobering look at the capabilities and limitations of Americaβs high-tech army, Roberts Ridge is the unforgettable story of a few dozen warriors who faced a single fate: to live or die for their comrades in the face of near-impossible odds.
 Media BuzzFresh Air - NPR - August 8, 2007
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