Need a book?

Lone Survivor:

The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10

With the proliferation of top ten summer reading lists, let me share one more amazing book: Lone Survivor, by Marcus Luttrell. Luttrell, a Navy SEAL, bares the tolls of war in this gripping account of a "reconnaissance mission" along the mountainous Afghanistan-Pakistan border. His team's initial task - to document the activity of an al Qaeda leader rumored to have a small army in a Taliban stronghold - quickly deteriorates:

The SEALs scrambled across the unforgiving terrain toward their target, but after daylight broke the mission started to go awry. Three goat herders--and their goats--happened upon the SEALs. The Americans recognized that they had a potentially lethal problem: The herders glowering at them were likely Taliban sympathizers who would report the Americans' presence.

With deep misgivings, the SEALs resolved to let the herders go--a decision they quickly regretted. Radio communications problems prevented the SEALs from calling headquarters for assistance; moving across the mountainsides with little cover in daylight would almost certainly attract enemy attention. All they could do was hunker down. And then the shooting started. Dozens of Taliban fighters had taken up a position above the SEALs and were pouring lead down on them.

(~from the Wall Street Journal's Weekend Interview)

Five days later, only one of those SEALS -- Luttrell -- made it out alive. A tremendous read...