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A firsthand account of the Most Extraordinary
Battle in the Afghan War
Dakota Meyer and Bing West
Random House
release / ISBN 978-0-8129-9340-0
Non-Fiction/Military
Amazon
Reviewed
by Elise Cooper
Into The
Fire, written by Dakota Meyer and Bing West, is a first hand
account of the 2009 battle in Ganjigal, Afghanistan. The reader
will get a glimpse into why Dakota is a Medal of Honor recipient,
the intense battle scenes, and his relationships with other Marines
and the Afghan infantry, whom he was sent to train.
Bing West knows a lot about national security as evidenced by his
eight books and his serving as Assistant Secretary of Defense under
President Reagan. He wanted to write a book with Dakota Meyer because
he “considered him a brave American. What fascinated me is
how he attacked the enemy numerous times and was probably going
to die. I wanted to explore why he did it: was it his nature, how
he was brought up, or was it his nurturing and training by the Marines?
I came to the conclusion, and I hope the reader will as well, that
he is a very determined and hardheaded person. It was absolutely
in his nature; however, if the Marines did not train him to be a
sniper for three years I think the Taliban would have easily killed
him.”
In the fall of 2009, Taliban insurgents ambushed a patrol of Afghan
soldiers and Marine advisors in the mountain village of Ganjigal.
As the soldiers became pinned down they repeatedly asked for artillery
support, which was refused. Marine Corporal Meyer disobeyed orders
and attacked in an attempt to rescue his comrades. He made multiple
trips in and out of the battlefield, repeatedly repulsing enemy
attackers, carrying wounded Afghan soldiers to safety, and providing
cover. For his actions he became the first living Marine in many
years to be awarded the Medal of Honor.
The reader gets to know Meyer as he discusses his personal life
and why he chose to become a Marine. It is obvious throughout the
book that Marines have a special bond with each other. Dakota directly
stated, “We should appreciate our freedoms and the men and
women who are over there fighting. I am hoping the readers will
get to know my teammates instead of seeing them as just names.”
The battle scenes are extremely powerful. Anyone reading this book
will become upset, infuriated, and exasperated regarding the rules
of engagement. A quote summarizing his feelings: “This couldn’t
be happening. We were on the same side… This was war and my
team was on the verge of dying. Whose side was the TOC (Tactical
Operations Center) on?” Bing West commented that the rules
of engagement theme “… is what leaps off the pages.
I wanted to show the chaos of battle but what struck was that particular
aspect. The rules of engagement are not beneficial for our soldiers.
Ganjigal showed what happens when the top insists on tougher and
tougher rules of engagement in order to prevent civilian casualties.
This is the trickle down bureaucracy that is read and studied by
staff officers.”
The book further displays the strategy that those at the TOC were
making the decisions instead of the soldiers on the ground. Another
powerful quote in the book by General Colin Powell, “The commander
in the field is always right and the rear echelon is wrong…”
West put in that quote because he felt it summarized the American’s
troops dilemma. West felt “We have gotten that exactly backwards
in Afghanistan. So in the end we ended up with Ganjigal.”
The end of the book goes into the controversy surrounding Captain
Will Swenson’s Medal of Honor application. Swenson was on
the ground at Ganjigal and could not persuade the staff officers
at TOC to fire the artillery. The Director of the Joint Staff, Lt-General
Curtis Scaparrotti had an inquiry about what happened. West explained,
“When Swenson was questioned under oath he said in essence,
F--- You because you tried to tell me what to do when you were not
even there. The General lost Swenson’s Medal of Honor package.
This is disgraceful. How does that happen considering it is eighty
pages long and a large number of people knew about it? The US Army
needs a day of reckoning with this one. He was left out to dry.
I am still hopeful he will get the Medal of Honor.”
West wants the readers to understand that Into The Fire is
a tale of American values and upbringing, of heroism, and adjusting
to the loss of friends while surviving. This book is a must read
and will be very hard to put down. It is an intense story that puts
the reader right into the battle.
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