Summary

In American Heroes, New York Timesbest-selling author Oliver North offers an inspiring, first-hand account of the extraordinary young American volunteers defending us against radical Islamic terror. Since 9-11-01, North and his award-winning War Storiesdocumentary team have made more than a dozen extended trips to Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Philippines covering U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen, Guardsmen, and Marines for FOX News Channel. With extensive experience as a decorated military officer, a counter-terrorism expert, and as a documentary filmmaker embedded with American combat units, he has a unique perspective on the enemy we face and the qualities of those who protect us. Illuminated by more than 300 full-color images, American Heroesoffers a close-up of this generation's "citizen-soldiers" who have chosen the path of the patriot and gone into harm's way for their countrymen. North's unprecedented access, his grasp of history, and his lucid reports from the crucible of combat make this a stirring chronicle of courage, commitment, compassion, and faith. Thank God for American heroes!

Author Biography

Oliver North is a combat-decorated Marine, the recipient of the Silver Star, the Bronze Star for valor, and two Purple Hearts for wounds in action. From 1983 to 1986 he served as the U.S. government\u2019s counter-terrorism coordinator on the National Security Council staff. President Ronald Reagan described him as \u201can American hero.\u201d A New York Times best-selling author, syndicated columnist, and host of the award-winning War Stories documentary series on the FOX News Channel, North lives with his wife, Betsy, in Virginia. They have four children and twelve grandchildren.

Acknowledgments	p. 6
Introduction: Hanging Around With Heroes	p. 9
The Jihad	p. 15
Wake-up Call	p. 15
Who is the Enemy?	p. 20
Oil Fuels the Jihad	p. 22
The "Lands of the Prophet"	p. 25
We Don't Get it	p. 26
What Do they Want? Why Do they Hate Us?	p. 28
Counter-Attack	p. 31
Fighting Back	p. 31
A New Kind of War	p. 35
The First American Casualty	p. 39
The Marines Enter the Fray	p. 40
Into the Hindu Kush	p. 46
Karzai's Courage	p. 51
Expanding the War	p. 53
The Case Against Saddam	p. 53
Preparation for Preemption	p. 56
WMD: The Casus Belli	p. 61
Preparing for the Road to Baghdad	p. 65
EmbeddedùFinally	p. 69
Good to Go	p. 73
Hostilities Have Commenced	p. 79
Into the Fight	p. 82
Helicopter Down!	p. 84
Cas-Evac!	p. 95
To the Banks of the Euphrates	p. 99
An Nasiriyah, the Bloody Gauntlet	p. 102
With HMM-268 & RCT-5	p. 106
Mother of all Sandstorms	p. 109
To the Gates of Baghdad	p. 117
They all Fall Down	p. 120
Quagmire	p. 122
Make Ready to Move Out	p. 124
Drive North	p. 126
Across the Tigris	p. 129
Press on to the Capital	p. 130
Into Baghdad and Beyond	p. 133
The "Thunder Runs"	p. 138
Liberation Loses its Luster	p. 153
Tikrit, Iraq	p. 153
Bayji, Iraq	p. 154
Missteps and the Rise of the Insurgency	p. 158
Dying to Kill Us	p. 164
Bloody AnBar	p. 169
"The Most Violent Place on the Planet"	p. 169
Battlefield Innovation	p. 174
"No Greater Friend, No Worse Enemy"	p. 177
No Good News?	p. 179
Hearts and Minds	p. 180
The Fight for Fallujah	p. 183
Will Democracy Work?	p. 187
The Election in Afghanistan	p. 187
Iraqi Vote I: National Assembly Election	p. 189
Iraq Vote II: The Constitutional Referendum	p. 192
Iraq Vote III: The New Government	p. 194
Turnaround	p. 199
Closing the Terror Pipeline	p. 199
Ramadi: IED Central	p. 206
The Awakening	p. 211
Hero Values	p. 217
Courage	p. 217
Commitment	p. 220
Compassion	p. 223
Faith	p. 227
Wounded Warriors	p. 233
Sgt Luke Cassidy	p. 235
Sgt Gregory Edwards	p. 236
2nd Lt. Andrew Kinard	p. 238
LCpl Aaron Mankin	p. 241
The Bottom Line	p. 244
The "Other Heroes"	p. 247
When Dad is at War	p. 251
Keeping it Together at Home and at War	p. 254
E-mail Cuts the Time but Can't Close the Distance	p. 257
Getting it Done!	p. 259
How Iraq has Changed	p. 262
Why Don't We Hear More of this Kind of News?	p. 268
How they Did it	p. 270
Can it all Still Go Wrong?	p. 274
Where We Could Do Better	p. 274
Dispatches From A Forgotten War	p. 279
Index	p. 297
Glossary	p. 301
Image Credits	p. 303
Freedom Alliance	p. 304
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Supplemental Materials

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.