Hammerhead Six: How Green Berets Waged an Unconventional War Against the Taliban to Win in Afghanistan's Deadly Pech Valley

John: I am sending along two books: “Hammerhead Six” and “Pale Horse.” Both about Afghanistan, the former is set in the Pech Valley in Kunar Province (NE Afghanistan) in 2003, and “Pale Horse” set in the same valley in 2009.Sadly, that’s the point. From 2003, to 2009, to today, nothing has changed. Nothing is different despite American dead, wounded, crippled or damaged, and despite billions of dollars spent on arms, fraud, and theft in “winning the hearts and minds” of Aghans. Afghanistan in 2017 is the same as Afghanistan in 2003. This was years of inexcusable, pointless waste and incomprehensible arrogance, at every level.That takes nothing away from the guys who wrote these two books. “Hammerhead Six” is about a Special Forces detachment from the Utah National Guard (!), most of whom are Mormons. They are sent out to set up an outpost (“Forward Operating Base Blessing”) in the heart of Indian Country. Viewed from close up, their story is interesting, nerve-wracking, and inspiring. These guys are trying to win the “hearts and minds” of the local Afghans. They did their best. Fry, the author, is blunt and straightforward about his time there. It is a good read.“Pale Horse” is written by an Army “lifer “ who commands an air cavalry squadron. They arrived in 2009 to fly helicopters in support of U.S. soldiers operating in the valley. The flying descriptions are outstanding, riveting; the bigger picture about the U.S. effort in Afghanistan gets in there too, although the colonel does not address it directly. This book is “technical,” as there is a lot of Army flying jargon, and acronyms. Being career military (different from the National Guard green berets, i.e. reservists like me), the author is not critical of the Army idiots who were running the war. The book does contain a fair description of the debacle known as Combat Outpost Keating (October 2009), in which 300+ mujis overran a thinly defended firebase way up the valley. The base was accessible (by Americans) only by helo. The author is careful not to malign the Army boobs who put this suicide firebase at the bottom of a valley, with no plan to occupy the hills that looked down on it. Evidently Army officers are trained differently than we, and terrain is not significant for them. You will gasp when you see the photos of Keating. The “Pale Horse” squadron evacuated the Keating base just before they rotated home.The U.S. abandoned Camp Blessing in 2010. I believe the last Americans were pulled out of the Pech Valley in 2010; it belongs to the Taliban now. “Hammerhead Six” and “Pale Horse” and all the rest were for naught.I am reading “the Last Punisher” now. Only about a third of the way through, but so far it is less interesting than “Hammerhead Six” and “Pale Horse.”

Great book - read it in two days. It portrays the Army Special Forces mission and demonstrates the effectiveness of the "by, with, and through" doctrine of unconventional warfare as I was taught as a young Special Forces soldier back in the late 70's. It is written in an honest and straightforward style that demonstrates the authors personal investment, and as a personal sacrifice willingly shared by every member of his team, to work his mission and lead his team in a way that is based upon relationships built upon actual trust and caring rather than a hard-line military approach. This is what the special forces mission is all about and this book demonstrates exactly why the U.S. Army Special Forces is the most unique and effective asset in the military arsenal when it comes to waging an unconventional war. This should be required reading for all Army officers whose mission involves working with Green Berets and an excellent read for solders interested in what the core mission of Army Special Forces is all about. I also feel it would be extremely valuable for existing SF soldiers - sometimes we forget what it is we are all about. Well done Captain Fry. De Oppresso Liber.

Captain Fry conveys in plain English how you can "win" a war through mutual cultural respect as opposed to brute force. This is a wonderful recount of a commander that resided for nine months in what would to be known as the deadliest valley on Earth. Yet, somehow he manages to build/ improve a camp from nearly nothing, train several hundred Afghan soldiers and build their friendship and trust so much that they test his food for poisoning, all the while becoming the defacto American president of the valley regularly invited into the policy and situational decision making of the local leaders. I might add they departed their deployment without a single casualty. This book should be required reading for every military enlisted soldier, and anyone that assumes the only resolution to winning a war is seek and destroy.

Fascinating book, easily read, even for the more pacifist among us. Or, to put it differently, very little gung-ho stories about rooting out the bad guys.Instead, the officer in charge quickly realized that he had to get, and stay, on the good side of the locals to win his local war. And to do so, he had to be genuine and honest in his interactions with them.Unfortunately, there is no sign that the lessons learned were put to any use by the US command - the region quickly reverted to a mess after their departure.It might be tempting to dismiss it as another "if they'd all done things like I did, we'd have won" narrative.Two things speak against that: first, Captain Fry does not spare himself in revealing what must have been a very, very, distressing event, directly caused by him, in his tour. Second, not one of his US soldiers dies - if you're aware of the significance of his unit's location right next to Pakistan and the Korangal, you might come to the conclusion that he must have been doing something right.What it’s not: action packed. Nothing wowanting to read those. But this not it.

An honest and insightful account from an SF team commander. I found this book very enjoyable, it isn't as gun-ho as one might expect and teaches some useful lessons about a culture most westerners would struggle to understand and (More importantly) the daily challengers the team faced. I found at times this book wasnt as well written as it could have been and repeats itself a little, however its important to keep in mind its one guys account of his experiences. So i found myself grateful for the fact he's shared his story and the tremendous job is team did while in the Pech.

I have read a lot of books written by those who served in Afghanistan, and I'd say this is my favourite. A very interesting portrayal of the different approach taken by US Army SF.

Excellent insight into the gentle strategy of winning hearts and minds in Pesz Valley in Afghanistan.

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Very interesting and detailed story!It is an impressive view behind the real life!Not much self heroic stories! Very good military report!