This Man's Army: A Soldier's Story from the Frontlines of the War on Terrorism
An army officer recounts his transformation from Ivy League student to twenty-first-century soldier, describing his combat missions in Afghanistan and efforts to come to terms with the media's distortion of the war on terrorism.
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In 1996, Andrew Exum left his native Tennessee to become the first in his family to enroll at an Ivy League university, where he joined the Army ROTC program to help pay for his tuition. After graduation, he chose to enter the infantry, and he would have to endure the grueling physical and psychological trials of the Army's Ranger School before becoming a platoon leader with the storied 10th Mountain Division in upstate New York. At the time, he thought that perhaps, if he was lucky, he and his men would have the opportunity to serve in a peacekeeping mission.On September 11, 2001, those plans were shattered - and the course of his life would change forever.Soon Exum and his men were deployed to Kuwait, and then on to Afghanistan. There they were quickly thrown into the maelstrom of modern war, contending with Afghani warlords, cable news correspondents, and the bureaucracy of the military hierarchy - all while scouring a treacherous land on the hunt for a desperate enemy. And on a fateful day in March 2003, Exum would lead his platoon into the Sha-e-Kot Valley to root out the hard-core remnants of Osama bin Laden's forces, where he would confront and kill an al-Qaeda fighter.When he returned to the United States, Andrew Exum struggled to come to terms with the intense media coverage and public misperceptions of the war, while seeking to make peace with the man he had become. This Man's Army is the story of that journey.
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