'It doesn't get better' - that was the unofficial motto of Red Platoon, stuck at Command Post Keating, one of the most isolated and dangerous US army bases in Afghanistan, in the middle of a free-fire zone. At the bottom of a deep valley, Keating was the worst place imaginable to build a base - like a fish bowl, the Taliban could see every move the men made. Once it became glaringly obvious that the base was a failure, Black Knight Troop was sent in to dismantle it - the last men in, the last men out. Then on October 3rd, ...
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'It doesn't get better' - that was the unofficial motto of Red Platoon, stuck at Command Post Keating, one of the most isolated and dangerous US army bases in Afghanistan, in the middle of a free-fire zone. At the bottom of a deep valley, Keating was the worst place imaginable to build a base - like a fish bowl, the Taliban could see every move the men made. Once it became glaringly obvious that the base was a failure, Black Knight Troop was sent in to dismantle it - the last men in, the last men out. Then on October 3rd, 2009, many hundreds of insurgents attacked the base. In the hours that followed, the men of Red Platoon endured a sustained and brutal attack that left eight dead and many more wounded. Staff Sergeant Clinton Romesha won the Medal of Honor for his role in the defence of Keating, and in Red Platoon he tells the true story of the men who defended Keating and of the twelve hours of hell that they endured. Red Platoon is a tale of sheer courage and grit under fire, a devastating portrait of the war in Afghanistan, and a memorial to the soldiers who lost their lives. Red Platoon is both a heart-pounding race for survival and a fascinating and nuanced analysis of military strategy as it's fought on the ground, in a war we still don't fully understand.
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