Victory Point - Ed Darack [0]
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
PREFACE
Chapter 1 - WELCOME TO AFGHANISTAN
Chapter 2 - THE BATTALION
Chapter 3 - SYNERGY OF SUCCESS
Chapter 4 - INTO THE HINDU KUSH
Chapter 5 - RED WINGS TAKES FLIGHT
Chapter 6 - AMBUSH
Chapter 7 - STORM OF CHAOS
Chapter 8 - REDOUBLED EFFORTS
Chapter 9 - WHALERS UNLEASHED
Chapter 10 - ARMAGEDDON, DENIED
Chapter 11 - ONE RIDGE DISTANT, A WORLD APART
Chapter 12 - STAR WARS
Chapter 13 - KINETIC EXFIL
Chapter 14 - VICTORY POINT
AFTERWORD
Acknowledgements
APPENDIX I - PRIMARY WEAPON SYSTEMS
APPENDIX II - INTERVIEWEES
REFERENCES
INDEX
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Darack, Ed.
Victory point : operations Red Wings and Whalers : the Marine Corps’ battle for freedom in
Afghanistan / Ed Darack.
p. cm.
Includes index.
eISBN : 978-1-101-03248-0
1. Operation Red Wings, 2005. 2. Operation Whalers, 2005. 3. Afghan War, 2001—Commando
operations. 4. Afghan War, 2001—Search and rescue operations. 5. United States. Marine
Corps—Afghanistan. 6. United States. Navy. SEALs. I. Title.
DS371.4123.O66D37 2009
958.104’7—dc22
2008047659
http://us.penguingroup.com
To the Marines of ⅔—and the entire Fleet.
Past, present, and future.
PREFACE
Afghanistan. The name alone evokes visions of adventure and exploration in uncharted mountains, mystery and intrigue in a land traversed by history’s crossroads, and above all, war in the breathless heights. A landlocked country, Afghanistan lies in a zone of cultural transition and geographic upheaval. From empty swaths of sun-beaten desert on its southwestern border with Iran, Afghanistan’s landscape vaults into ice-hewn mountains in its northeast, encompassing a broad spectrum of climates and topographies between the two extremes.
Culturally, Afghanistan reveals itself to be a patchwork of humanity, a medley of tribes organized loosely within a variety of ethnic groups. Political boundaries are arbitrary to people in most areas of Afghanistan; what delineates regional boundaries here are ridgelines and valleys, with villages