12 Strong:The Declassified True Story of the Horse Soldiers - Doug Stanton Audiobook

Written by Doug Stanton
Read by Jack Garrett
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Previously published as Horse Soldiers, 12 Strong is the dramatic account of a small band of Special Forces soldiers who secretly entered Afghanistan following 9/11 and rode to war on horses against the Taliban. Outnumbered forty to one, they pursued the enemy army across the mountainous Afghanistan terrain and, after a series of intense battles, captured the city of Mazar-i-Sharif. The bone-weary American soldiers were welcomed as liberators as they rode into the city. Then the action took a wholly unexpected turn.

During a surrender of six hundred Taliban troops, the would-be POWs ambushed the Horse Soldiers. Dangerously overpowered, they fought for their lives in the city’s immense fortress, Qala-i-Janghi, or the House of War. At risk were the military gains of the entire campaign: if the soldiers perished or were captured, the entire effort to outmaneuver the Taliban was likely doomed.

“A riveting story of the brave and resourceful American warriors who rode into Afghanistan after 9/11 and waged war against Al Qaeda” (Tom Brokaw), Doug Stanton’s account touches the mythic. The soldiers on horses combined ancient strategies of cavalry warfare with twenty-first-century aerial bombardment technology to perform a seemingly impossible feat. Moreover, their careful effort to win the hearts of local townspeople proved a valuable lesson for America’s ongoing efforts in Afghanistan. With “spellbinding…action packed prose…The book reads more like a novel than a military history…the Horse Soldier’s secret mission remains the US military’s finest moment in what has since arguably been a muddled war” (USA TODAY).

Narrator Jack Garrett’s voice is clear and direct, and he conveys the seriousness of the mission by employing strategic pauses and varying his pitch at key moments. However, his smart-alecky vocal swagger detracts from the story and takes away some of the book’s suspense. The title does tell us all we need to know, but the narrator’s job is to take us there–and not to telegraph the ending. R.I.G. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine