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A Soldier's Education
Penguin
March 2009
On Sale: February 26, 2009
400 pages
ISBN: 1594202028
EAN: 9781594202025
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Memoir
A West Point grad, Rhodes scholar, and Army Ranger recounts
his unparalleled education in the art of war and reckons
with the hard wisdom that only battle itself can
bestow.
One haunting afternoon on Losano Ridge in Afghanistan,
Captain Craig Mullaney and his platoon were caught in a
deadly firefight with Al Qaeda fighters when a message
came over the radio: one of his soldiers had been killed
in action.
Mullaney’s education had been relentlessly preparing him
for this moment. The four years he spent at West Point and
the harrowing test of Ranger School readied him for a career
in the Army. His subsequent experience as a Rhodes scholar
at Oxford couldn’t have been further from the Army and his
working class roots, and yet the unorthodox education he
received there would be surprisingly relevant as a combat
leader. Years later, after that unforgettable experience
in Afghanistan, he would return to the United States to
teach history to future Navy and Marine Corps officers at
the Naval Academy. He had been in their position once, and
he had put his education to the test. How would he use his
own life-changing experience prepare them?
The Unforgiving Minute is the extraordinary story
of one soldier’s singular education. From a hilarious
plebe’s-eye view of the author’s West Point experience to
the demanding leadership crucible of Ranger School’s
swamps and mountains, to a two-year whirlwind of
scintillating debate, pub crawls, and romance at Oxford,
Mullaney’s winding path to the battlegrounds of
Afghanistan was unique and remarkable. Despite all his
preparation, the hardest questions remained. When the call
came to lead his platoon into battle and earn his
soldiers’ salutes, would he be ready? Was his education
sufficient for the unforgiving minutes he’d face? A
fascinating account of an Army captain’s unusual path
through some of the most legendary seats of learning
straight into a brutal fight with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan,
The Unforgiving Minute is, above all, an
unforgettable portrait of a young soldier grappling with the
weight of his hard-earned knowledge while coming to grips
with becoming a man.
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