The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor (96 page)

Many of those with firsthand experiences of the events related here were invited to read sections of the manuscript to double- and triple-check passages for accuracy. I have chosen not to list sources in the military by their rank because such titles are ephemeral.

Although most of the information presented in this book comes from firsthand interviews and Army documents, I have drawn from some other sources as well. Specific citations are listed in the endnotes for individual chapters, but additional books not listed below on which I relied for general information and inspiration included the following:

• Adamec, Ludwig, and Frank Clements.
  Conflict in Afghanistan: An Encyclopedia
  . Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, Inc., 2003.
  
• Barrington, Nicholas, Joseph Kendrick, and Reinhard Schlagintweit.
  A Passage to Nuristan.
  London: I. B. Tauris, 2006.
  
• Bowden, Mark.
  Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War
  . New York: Grove, 1999.
  
• Cloud, David, and Greg Jaffe.
  The Fourth Star: Four Generals and the Epic Struggle for the Future of the United States Army.
  New York: Crown, 2009.
  
• Grau, Lester, ed.
  The Bear Went over the Mountain: Soviet Combat Tactics in Afghanistan.
  Fort Leavenworth, Kansas: National Defense University Press Publications, 2005.
  
• Hankin, Erin, and Steven Jeffrey. “Challenges of Treating Modern Military Trauma wounds.”
  Wounds International,
  May 2011.
  
• Harnden, Toby.
  Dead Men Risen: The Welsh Guards and the Real Story of Britain’s War in Afghanistan.
  London: Quercus, 2011.
  
• Herr, Michael.
  Dispatches
  . New York: Vintage, 1991.
  
• Jalali, Ali Ahmad, and Lester Grau.
  The Other Side of the Mountain: Mujahideen Tactics in the Soviet-Afghan War.
  Fort Leavenworth, Kansas: Books Express, 2010.
  
• Junger, Sebastian.
  WAR
  . New York: Twelve, 2010.
  
• Krakauer, Jon.
  Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman.
  New York: Doubleday, 2009.
  
• Marlantes, Karl.
  Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War.
  New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2010.
  
• Marlantes, Karl.
  What It Is Like to Go to War.
  New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2011.
  
• Moore, Lieutenant General Harold (Retired), and Joseph Galloway.
  We Were Soldiers Once… and Young: Ia Drang—The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam
  . New York: Random House, 1992.
  
• Naylor, Sean.
  Not a Good Day to Die: The Untold Story of Operation Anaconda.
  New York: Berkley, 2005.
  
• O’Brien, Tim.
  The Things They Carried.
  New York: Broadway, 1998.
  
• Raddatz, Martha.
  The Long Road Home: A Story of War and Family.
  New York: Penguin, 2007.
  
• Stewart, Rory.
  The Places in Between.
  New York: Harcourt, 2004.
  
• Strand, Richard. Nuristan Web site: http//:www.nuristan.info.
  
• Tanner, Stephen.
  Afghanistan: A Military History from Alexander the Great to the War Against the Taliban.
  Philadelphia: Da Capo, 2009.
  
• Woodward, Bob.
  Obama’s Wars.
  New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010.
  

Sources for Book One

For book 1, the following individuals were interviewed:

Nick Anderson

Kevin Jonathan “Johnny” Aruajo

Ross Berkoff

Terry Best

Adam Boulio

Rhonda Bradbury, mother of Brian Bradbury

Frank Brooks

Michael Callegan, father-in-law of Buddy Hughie

Chris Cavoli

Moises Cerezo

Matt Chambers

Jenny Claiborn, sister of Buddy Hughie

Dennis Cline

Matthew Cole, then of
Salon.com
, who was generous enough to share with me some of his recordings as well as his thoughts about his time embedded with 3-71 Cav

Ryan Coulter

Judy Craig, widow of Heathe Craig

Chris Cunningham

Darian Decker

Pat Donahue

Karl Eikenberry

Kristen Fenty, widow of Joe Fenty

Tony Feagin

David Fisher

Adones Flores

Matt Gooding

Chris Grzecki

Jason Guthrie

Matt Hall

John Hawes

Scott Heintzelman, brigade operations officer for Colonel Mick Nicholson

Michael Hendy

Mike Howard

David Katz, U.S. State Department

Beth Keating, mother of Ben Keating

Ken Keating, father of Ben Keating, who like his wife, Beth, was incredibly generous in sharing with me their son’s emails and letters home, which helped me explain his point of view. Thoughts attributed to Ben were either expressed in letters or stated to individuals who relayed those thoughts to me.

Dustin Kittle

Jessica Lewis, sister of Ben Keating

Daniel Linnihan

Heather McDougal, girlfriend of Ben Keating

Tim Martin

William Metheny

Matt Meyer

Dr. Gerald Meyerle, a research analyst in CNA’s Stability and Development Program. Meyerle is one of three authors of
Counterinsurgency on the Ground in Afghanistan: How Different Units Adapted to Local Conditions
, published by CNA in November 2010.

Charlee Miller, mother of Joe Fenty

Brian Molby

Paul Monti, father of Jared Monti

Matt Netzel

John “Mick” Nicholson, Jr.

Javid Nuristani

Tamim Nuristani

Cheryl Lee Nussberger, mother of Pat Lybert (now Cheryl Lee Patrick)

Shawn Passman

Aaron Pearsall

Nick Pilozzi

Terry Raynor

Josh Renken

Jeremiah Ridgeway

Kevin Roland, who knew Buddy Hughie from the Oklahoma National Guard

Donald Rozman, who investigated the helicopter crash that caused the death of Lieutenant Colonel Fenty and nine others

Jessica Saenz

Michael Schmidt

Adam Sears

Steve Snyder (not his real name)

James Avant Smith

Sean Smith

Pete Stambersky

Jesse Steele

Richard Strand, Nuristan expert

Dennis Sugrue

Thom Sutton

Aaron Swain

Richard Timmons

Gretchen Timmons, wife of Richard Timmons

Unnamed Special Forces officers

Tracy Vaillancourt, mother of Brian Moquin, Jr.

Jason Westbrook

Jeffrey Williams

Dave Young

Everyone I interviewed informed the book in some way, even if he or she is not specifically cited in the chapter-by-chapter endnotes that follow.

Prologue: Focus

Information about the conversation between Whittaker and Lockner came from interviews with both men.

Donahue’s thoughts about Nuristan were expressed in an interview with him.

David Katz and Richard Strand were both incredibly helpful sources not only for the prologue but for the entire book. Their expertise about Nuristan may be unparalalled in the Western world.

Interviews with Nicholson and Warheit also informed this chapter.

“The Man Who Would Be King,” by Rudyard Kipling, first appeared in
The Phantom Rickshaw and Other Eerie Tales
(part of the
Indian Railway Library
), published in 1888 by A. H. Wheeler & Co of Allahabad. The ebook version was posted in 2003 and may be downloaded through Project Gutenberg.

Information about the attack on Combat Outpost Keating was taken from the Army’s investigation into the attack and the author’s myriad interviews (see notes on book 3.)

The quotes from insurgents came from videos of the attack posted on the Internet by enemy forces. They were translated by Javid Nuristani.

Chapter 1: Every Man an Alexander

Memories of Mefloquine nightmares were recounted by many interviewees. In 2009, the Army issued a policy directive listing the drug as the third choice to combat malaria. See Patricia Kime, “New Concerns Rising over Antimalaria Drug,”
Army Times,
April 11, 2012.

Information about the convoys came from interviews with Berkoff, Decker, Gooding, Johnson, and Pilozzi. Ken Keating and Heather McDougal shared emails and photographs from Ben.

Information about the attacks in March 2006 came from the Pentagon’s public-affairs office.

Information about Ben Keating’s thoughts and past came from his family and his emails home.

The quote “… allies and enemies were often indistinguishable until it was too late” is from Frank Holt,
Into the Land of Bones: Alexander the Great in Afghanistan
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005).

The Spartan mother’s admonition to her son to return “with your shield or on it” originated in an essay by Plutarch, “Sayings of Spartan Women,” which was included in his miscellany
Moralia
: “Another, as she handed her son his shield, exhorted him, saying, ‘Either this or upon this.’ ” In 2003, a fact-checker for “The Straight Dope” column and Web site investigated how likely it was that the anecdote was historically accurate, given that Plutarch was not writing contemporaneously with the Spartans’ era of military glory. He ultimately concluded that the quote was “anecdotal, uncorroborated, and far removed from the source” but nevertheless “plausible.” (“The Straight Dope,” September 23, 2003.)

Information about Nicholson’s views and background came from multiple interviews with him.

The fact that briefings often relied on Wikipedia references was taken from 3-71 Cav background materials obtained by author.

The statement “I changed my mind” can be found in George W. Bush,
Decision Points
(New York: Random House, 2010). President Bush spoke at the Virginia Military Institute on April 17, 2002. The quote “had a strategic interest in helping the Afghan people build a free society” is also taken from
Decision Points.

The strategy for 3-71 was related in interviews with Donahue, Nicholson, Berkoff, Timmons, and Eikenberry.

The stories about Keating at a U.S. base and then in a marketplace were related in emails written by Keating in May 2006. The base was then a PRT in Jalalabad and is now a U.S. base called Finley-Shields.

Chapter 2: “Major Joe Fenty, Hard Worker”

Information about Fenty’s convoy came from an interview with Berkoff.

Biographical information about Fenty was taken from interviews with Kristen Fenty, Miller, and Cavoli.

Biographical information about and emails from Berkoff were provided by Berkoff.

Information about HIG was provided by Berkoff, Strand, and Katz.

George Crile’s
Charlie Wilson’s War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History
was published in 2003 by the Atlantic Monthly Press, New York.

Michael Crowley, “Our Man in Kabul? The Sadistic Afghan Warlord Who Wants to Be Our Friend,”
New Republic,
March 9, 2010.

“U.S. Bombing Raid in North Afghanistan ‘Targeted Fugative Hekmatyr,’ ” Agence France Presse, December 13, 2003.

Information about and emails to and from Fenty were provided by Kristen Fenty; further information came from interviews with Byers and Cavoli.

Chapter 3: Like Just Another Day on the Range

Information about 3-71 Cav’s arrival at Forward Operation Base Naray came primarily from interviews with Snyder, Stambersky, and Berkoff.

As mentioned, one useful book on Operation Redwing is Marcus Luttrell and Patrick Robinson,
Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10
(New York: Little, Brown, 2007).