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Not a Good Day to Die by Sean Naylor
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Not a Good Day to Die

The Untold Story of Operation Anaconda

$20.99

Retail price: $29.95

Discount: 29%

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Narrator John Henry Cox

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Length 19 hours 35 minutes
Language English
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At dawn on March 2, 2002, America's first major battle of the twenty-first century began. Over two hundred soldiers of the 101st Airborne and Tenth Mountain Division flew into Afghanistan's Shah-i-Kot valley—and into the mouth of a buzz saw. They were about to pay a bloody price for strategic, high-level miscalculations that underestimated the enemy's strength and willingness to fight.

Now, award-winning journalist Sean Naylor, an eyewitness to the battle, details the failures of military intelligence and planning and vividly portrays the astonishing heroism of these young, untested US soldiers. Denied the extra support with which they trained, these troops nevertheless proved their worth in brutal combat and prevented an American military disaster.

Believed to be the only journalist to have flown with JSOC's 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment in both training and combat, author Sean Naylor's sources in the special operations community are unparalleled in their breadth and depth. Naylor's 2005 book "Not a Good Day to Die," with its groundbreaking coverage of JSOC's Advance Force Operations in Afghanistan was so detailed that U.S. Special Operations Command, JSOC's higher headquarters, ordered an investigation into how the information was leaked. It was also selected for the official reading lists of the Chief of Naval Operations and the Air Force Chief of Staff.

That was far from the only time that Naylor's coverage of JSOC has provoked the powers that be into action. In late 2001 his mention of the role that Task Force Orange and JSOC's secret helicopter unit, Flight Concepts Division, might be playing along the Afghan border prompted a request from the Joint Chiefs of Staff to Army Times to not publish those paragraphs from the newspaper edition of Naylor's story on the Web. And in late 2006 his article about JSOC's hunt for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - the first to detail the extensive JSOC role in Iraq - led to an FBI investigation into the alleged leak of classified information.

John Henry Cox is an actor and voice-over artist with many film, television, theater, and audiobook credits to his name. He has worked at such notable theaters as Circle in the Square, Cherry Lane Theatre, and the Public Theatre and his film credits include Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore and The Siege.

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Reviews

“If you liked Black Hawk Down, you’ll not be disappointed by Not a Good Day to Die…Extraordinary.”

“Naylor does an admirable job of exposing the many shortcomings that plagued this chapter of the Afghanistan war.”

“Meticulously reported.”

“Naylor’s excellent reporting—with detailed attribution—unveils a system that clearly failed to give American soldiers the equipment and help they deserved to save their own lives and take those of the enemy. Anybody who is thinking of joining the military, has family in uniform, or is concerned about what happens to America’s soldiers should read [this book].”

“The best full-scale history of Operation Anaconda to date.”

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