Standing Tall - The Taliban Nearly Killed Me....But They Couldn't Take Away My Fighting Spirit. The Inspirational Story of a True British Hero

Standing Tall - The Taliban Nearly Killed Me....But They Couldn't Take Away My Fighting Spirit. The Inspirational Story of a True British Hero PDF

Author: Andy Reid

Publisher: Kings Road Publishing

Published: 2013-01-31

Total Pages: 154

ISBN-13: 1782193693

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Corporal Andy Reid was an ordinary soldier, serving in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. But his life changed for ever on Tuesday 13 October 2009, when he was blown up by a Taliban improved explosive device (IED). Evacuated to the UK, it was touch-and-go whether he would survive. He had lost both legs and his right arm, while the index finger of his left hand was almost completely removed. Yet survive he did and less than a month after being blown up, he was reunited with his patrol back in Warminster. From there he went on to have a pair of prosthetic legs fitted, and this allowed him to go on a cruise with his fiancee Claire in 2010. In the same year, he was nominated for and won the Sun's Military Award. In between he has cycled from Land's End to John O'Groats, skydived and made a number of appearances on behalf of service charities. Andy's story demonstrates how, with patience, courage and determination, hope can triumph over despair. He is not seeking pity or admiration. But he does want to make sure that we, the general public, know, as much as someone who has not been there or been through it themselves can ever know, what operations in Afghanistan are like, what happens to those who get injured and what future they might have. This is the incredible story of a truly inspirational man.

Stand Tall

Stand Tall PDF

Author: Andy Reid

Publisher: John Blake

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781782197461

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"The Taliban nearly killed me ... but they couldn't take away my fighting spirit. This is my inspirational story."

I Am Malala

I Am Malala PDF

Author: Malala Yousafzai

Publisher: Little, Brown

Published: 2013-10-08

Total Pages: 366

ISBN-13: 0316322415

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A MEMOIR BY THE YOUNGEST RECIPIENT OF THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE As seen on Netflix with David Letterman "I come from a country that was created at midnight. When I almost died it was just after midday." When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education. On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to survive. Instead, Malala's miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York. At sixteen, she became a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest nominee ever for the Nobel Peace Prize. I AM MALALA is the remarkable tale of a family uprooted by global terrorism, of the fight for girls' education, of a father who, himself a school owner, championed and encouraged his daughter to write and attend school, and of brave parents who have a fierce love for their daughter in a society that prizes sons. I AM MALALA will make you believe in the power of one person's voice to inspire change in the world.

One Tribe at a Time

One Tribe at a Time PDF

Author: Jim Gant

Publisher: Black Irish Entertainment LLC

Published: 2014-03-26

Total Pages: 188

ISBN-13: 1936891255

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"Major Jim Gant, a man seen by many of us as the 'perfect insurgent,'--an inspiring, gifted, courageous leader... -- GENERAL DAVID H. PETRAEUS (U.S. Army, Ret.) THE PAPER THAT ROCKED OSAMA BIN LADEN Team members during the May 2, 2011 U.S. military raid that killed Osama Bin Laden seized piles of Al Qaeda intelligence. One piece of evidence found in Bin Laden's personal sleeping quarters was an English language copy of Jim Gant's One Tribe at a Time. It contained notes in the margins consistent with others identified as written by Osama Bin Laden. A directive from Osama Bin Laden to his intelligence chief was also discovered. It identified Jim Gant by name as an impediment to Al Qaeda's operational objectives for eastern Afghanistan. Bin Laden ordered that Gant be assassinated. "[One Tribe at a Time] was hugely important...at a time when I was looking for ideas on Afghanistan...[Gant] was the first to write it down, in a very coherent fashion, very readable, very encouraging frankly...and there is enormous power in that." --General David H. Petraeus (U.S. Army, Ret.) quoted in American Spartan: The Promise, The Mission, and The Betrayal of Special Forces Major Jim Gant by Ann Scott Tyson Washington Post reporter Ann Scott Tyson read "One Tribe at a Time," and - informed by her combat experience in Afghanistan and Iraq and her eight years as a reporter in China - she realized that Jim's paper made sense. She decided to write a story about Jim entitled, "Jim Gant, the Green Beret who could win the war in Afghanistan." After the article appeared in January 2010, as Jim was in Washington, D.C., attending Pashto language training, he met Ann and the two fell in love. She followed his mission in Afghanistan and wrote AMERICAN SPARTAN: The Promise, the Mission, and the Betrayal of Special Forces Major Jim Gant.

Getting Away With Murder

Getting Away With Murder PDF

Author: Richard D. Mahoney

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2011-09-01

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 1628721588

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Getting Away With Murder is an explosive investigation into the death of an American hero, the strange case of the “American Taliban,” and why we never got the truth about either—until now. When John Walker Lindh was arrested in November 2001, Americans were shocked to learn that one of our own had fought for the Taliban. He would come under further fire for the torture and death of CIA officer Mike Spann. The American public was outraged, and the Bush administration vowed to make an example of the traitor. Why then, after threatening treason and the death penalty, did the government suddenly abandon a trial in favor of a soft plea deal? Richard D. Mahoney puts these questions on trial; the final verdict promises to be shocking.

Operation Pineapple Express

Operation Pineapple Express PDF

Author: Scott Mann

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2022-08-30

Total Pages: 448

ISBN-13: 1668003651

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INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER An edge-of-your-seat thriller about a group of retired Green Berets who come together to save a former comrade—and 500 other Afghans—being targeted by the Taliban in the chaos of America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. In April 2021, an urgent call was placed from a Special Forces operator serving overseas. The message was clear: Get Nezam out of Afghanistan now. Nezam was part of the Afghan National Army’s first group of American-trained commandos; he passed through Fort Bragg’s legendary Q course and served alongside the US Special Forces for over a decade. But Afghanistan’s government and army were on the edge of collapse, and Nezam was receiving threatening texts from the Taliban. The message reached Nezam’s former commanding officer, retired Lt. Col. Scott Mann, who couldn’t face the idea of losing another soldier in the long War on Terror. Immediately, he sends out an SOS to a group of Afghan vets (Navy SEALs, Green Berets, CIA officers, USAID advisors). They all answer the call for one last mission. Operating out of basements and garages, Task Force Pineapple organizes an escape route for Nezam and gets him into hiding in Taliban-controlled Kabul. After many tense days, he braves the enemy checkpoints and the crowds of thousands blocking the airport gates. He finally makes it through the wire and into the American-held airport thanks to the frantic efforts of the Pineapple express, a relentless Congressional aide, and a US embassy official. Nezam is safe, but calls are coming in from all directions requesting help for other Afghan soldiers, interpreters, and at-risk women and children. Task Force Pineapple widens its scope—and ends up rescuing 500 more Afghans from Kabul in the three chaotic days before the ISIS-K suicide bombing. Operation Pineapple Express is a thrilling, suspenseful tale of service and loyalty amidst the chaos of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The Outpost

The Outpost PDF

Author: Jake Tapper

Publisher: Little, Brown

Published: 2012-11-13

Total Pages: 789

ISBN-13: 0316215856

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The basis of the film starring Orlando Bloom and Scott Eastwood, The Outpost is the heartbreaking and inspiring story of one of America's deadliest battles during the war in Afghanistan, acclaimed by critics everywhere as a classic. At 5:58 AM on October 3rd, 2009, Combat Outpost Keating, located in frighteningly vulnerable terrain in Afghanistan just 14 miles from the Pakistani border, was viciously attacked. Though the 53 Americans there prevailed against nearly 400 Taliban fighters, their casualties made it the deadliest fight of the war for the U.S. that year. Four months after the battle, a Pentagon review revealed that there was no reason for the troops at Keating to have been there in the first place. In The Outpost, Jake Tapper gives us the powerful saga of COP Keating, from its establishment to eventual destruction, introducing us to an unforgettable cast of soldiers and their families, and to a place and war that has remained profoundly distant to most Americans. A runaway bestseller, it makes a savage war real, and American courage manifest. "The Outpost is a mind-boggling, all-too-true story of heroism, hubris, failed strategy, and heartbreaking sacrifice. If you want to understand how the war in Afghanistan went off the rails, you need to read this book." -- Jon Krakauer

Bloody Heroes

Bloody Heroes PDF

Author: Damien Lewis

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781844138678

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In the Afghan wild lands, British and American special forces soldiers ate, slept, fought and died alongside each other - working in close-knit units the likes of which have rarely been seen since the Second World War. This is the story of the trials and exploits, the victories and defeats, of one of those units. This book takes us from the first ever assault against a terrorist ship carrying weapons of mass destruction to attack London, to the epic siege of the terrorist-held Qala-I-Janghi fortress in Afghanistan. In the interim, our half-a-dozen soldier-characters deliver suitcases stuffed with millions of dollars in cash to 'friendly' Afghan warlords; they penetrate the towering heights of the uncharted Naka Valley, where allied intelligence has identified the mother of all terrorist training camps; they fight in the labyrinthine tunnels running beneath the Afghan mountains; and they risk all to rescue their fellow soldiers from a downed aircraft stranded on a snow-blasted mountain peak.The book culminates in the single battle in which more terrorists were killed than any other in Afghanistan: the siege of Qala-I-Janghi, an ancient mud-walled fortress used to imprison the most dangerous Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters. The battle for Qala-I-Janghi would last a staggering eight days, from the moment of the first shots being fired at the start of the uprising to the hour that the fort yielded up the last Al Qaeda fighters. It is a battle in which over 500 terrorists would die - but which would also claim the life of a US serviceman and dozens of Northern Alliance allies, with scores of severely wounded British and American soldiers. And in the final denouement, this savage battlefield turns out to be populated by the most ultimately shocking enemy - John Walker Lindh, the white American Taliban who held out in the forts' bunker until the very last. At the same time as the story of the fort siege played out on TV screens all across the world, our band of British and American special forces were involved in a secret, deadly dual to rescue their fellow men - a duel that only one side could win.

An Odyssey: A Father, A Son and an Epic: SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2017

An Odyssey: A Father, A Son and an Epic: SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2017 PDF

Author: Daniel Mendelsohn

Publisher: HarperCollins UK

Published: 2017-09-07

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 0007545142

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2017 SHORTLISTED FOR THE LONDON HELLENIC PRIZE 2017 WINNER OF THE PRIX MÉDITERRANÉE 2018 From the award-winning, best-selling writer: a deeply moving tale of a father and son’s transformative journey in reading – and reliving – Homer’s epic masterpiece.

Eagle Down

Eagle Down PDF

Author: Jessica Donati

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Published: 2021-01-19

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1541762576

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A Wall Street Journal national security reporter takes readers into the lives of frontline U.S. special operations troops fighting to keep the Taliban and Islamic State from overthrowing the U.S.-backed government in the final years of the war in Afghanistan. A FINANCIAL TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR “Powerful, important, and searing." —General David Petraeus, U.S. Army (ret.), former commander, U.S. Central Command, former CIA director In 2015, the White House claimed triumphantly that “the longest war in American history” was over. But for some, it was just the beginning of a new war, fought by Special Operations Forces, with limited resources, little governmental oversight, and contradictory orders. With big picture insight and on-the-ground grit, Jessica Donati shares the stories of the impossible choices these soldiers must make. After the fall of a major city to the Taliban that year, Hutch, a battle-worn Green Beret on his fifth combat tour was ordered on a secret mission to recapture it and inadvertently called in an airstrike on a Doctors Without Borders hospital, killing dozens. Caleb stepped on a bomb during a mission in notorious Sangin. Andy was trapped with his team during a raid with a crashed Black Hawk and no air support. Through successive policy directives under the Obama and Trump administrations, America came to rely almost entirely on US Special Forces, and without a long-term plan, failed to stabilize Afghanistan, undermining US interests both at home and abroad. Eagle Down is a riveting account of the heroism, sacrifice, and tragedy experienced by those that fought America’s longest war.