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Roberts Ridge: A Story of Courage and Sacrifice on Takur Ghar Mountain, Afghanistan | 
 enlarge | Author: Malcolm Macpherson
Publisher: Dell
Category: Book
List Price: $6.99
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Rating:  28 reviews
Sales Rank: 37529
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Pages: 384
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.9 x 4.2 x 1.2
ISBN: 0553586807
Dewey Decimal Number: 355
EAN: 9780553586800
ASIN: 0553586807
Publication Date: July 25, 2006
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Product Description
Afghanistan, March 2002. In the early morning darkness on a frigid mountaintop, a U.S. soldier is stranded, alone, surrounded by fanatical al Qaeda fighters. For the man’s fellow Navy SEALs, and for waiting teams of Army Rangers, there was only one rule now: leave no one behind. In this gripping you-are-there account–based on stunning eyewitness testimony and painstaking research–journalist Malcolm MacPherson thrusts us into a drama of rescue, tragedy, and valor in a place that would be known as...
ROBERTS RIDGE
For an elite team of SEALs, the mission seemed straightforward enough: take control of a towering 10,240-foot mountain peak called Takur Ghar. Launched as part of Operation Anaconda–a hammer-and-anvil plan to smash Taliban al Qaeda in eastern Afghanistan –the taking of Takur Ghar would offer U.S. forces a key strategic observation post. But the enemy was waiting, hidden in a series of camouflaged trenches and bunkers–and when the Special Forces chopper flared on the peak to land, it was shredded by a hail of machine-gun, small arms, and RPG rounds. A red-haired SEAL named Neil Roberts was thrown from the aircraft. And by the time the shattered helicopter crash-landed on the valley floor seven miles away, Roberts’s fellow SEALs were determined to return to the mountain peak and bring him out–no matter what the cost.
Drawing on the words of the men who were there–SEALs, Rangers, medics, combat air controllers, and pilots–this harrowing true account, the first book of its kind to chronicle the battle for Takur Ghar, captures in dramatic detail a seventeen-hour pitched battle fought at the highest elevation Americans have ever waged war. At once an hour-by-hour, bullet-by-bullet chronicle of a landmark battle and a sobering look at the capabilities and limitations of America’s high-tech army, Roberts Ridge is the unforgettable story of a few dozen warriors who faced a single fate: to live or die for their comrades in the face of near-impossible odds.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 23 more reviews...
Very good history of events on Roberts Ridge October 1, 2005
TacP
36 out of 40 found this review helpful
I read this book over a weekend and was pleasantly surprised by it. I read "Not a Good Day to Die" a couple months ago and was waiting for this book to be published so I could compare the two. Of course, "Day" goes into much more detail regarding Operation Anaconda while "Ridge" focuses on the events on a single mountaintop, but I think both were well-written.
I prefer MacPherson's writing style in that he doesn't personalize the story at all. There is no reference to "me" or "I," only the story as told to him by the people involved. I feel that adding one's own voice to a work of non-fiction just makes the writer sound like a braggart and sometimes even discredits the account.
I do think that the target audience for this book is either military-related, or just very quick, because much of the terminology is not explained, especially when it comes to the "slang" style terms and phrases that the branches use in so much of their work.
As a book focusing on the events of Takur Ghar, it was great. However, if you have no idea what Operation Anaconda was about, I would recommend reading "Day" first, because "Ridge" does not go into the set-up of the Operation at all. "Ridge" is a wonderful way to delve further into the seventeen hours of combat operations of so many service members, and the characterization is much deeper than "Day" simply because there are fewer players involved.
I highly recommend this book, but read "Not a Good Day to Die" first if you have no frame of reference for Afghanistan or Operation Anaconda.
 A moving, heroic story October 30, 2005
R. Miller (Woodstock, Georgia USA)
23 out of 26 found this review helpful
This is an account of a group of US Navy SEALS who are ambushed on a mountain in Afghanistan and require rescue by Army Ranger rapid response team. The Rangers are subsquently ambushed requiring yet another rescue team. The story is told from the perspective of the soldiers on the ground, facing unbelievably cold weather, horrible terrain and a lot of determined enemies. Quite a few don't make it, but the story is more about the determination of these highly trained warriors to never leave a comrade behind. The action is quite detailed and the reader almost feels like he is there with the troops. Highly recommended.
 Biased to the extreme September 15, 2005
David Gideon (Jacksonville, NC)
11 out of 32 found this review helpful
Just like Sean Naylor's "Not a Good Day to Die," this book tells only half the story, and very ineffectively at that. He's obviously biased toward the Navy SEALS who participated in the battle, and did so to the detriment of the book's overall objectivity.
Mr. MacPherson doesn't have the writing flare of Mark Bowden or even Naylor, and his attempts to convey the savagery of close combat were far off the mark and at times almost laughable.
Just another 'shake and bake' book that provides no real input on the ongoing war in Afghanistan.
 Interesting contrast January 3, 2006
James Mone (Los Angeles, CA United States)
11 out of 23 found this review helpful
This is a very different story than the one told in other books, and several news sources. That in itself is a pretty dubious fact. I will leave it at that!
There are three types of books coming out of the Afghanistan conflict - Army Books, CIA Books, and SEAL books (Forgive me but I have not seen or read and USMC/USAF books). All charges of bias aside, it is natural for the author to write about that which he knows - CIA guys tend to focus own universe etc. My point in all of this is: this, is undoubtably a SEAL book.
If you are looking to fill in some blanks from resources available in print, or online by all means pick this up. If you are looking for a more definitive look at Anaconda - I would check out 'Not a Good Day to Die' by Sean Naylor.
An inaccurate book at best...not what it was supposed to be June 6, 2006
K. Longfritz
11 out of 28 found this review helpful
I have been non-recommending this book as much as possible to everyone I know. I was interviewed as a family member and former colleague of one of the fallen.
I guess what bothers me the most about the book is the fact that he went out to everyone and told us he planned to write a book about what sort of boy grows up to be a man who would do that kind of work and make that kind of sacrifice...the environment in which he was raised...the family, town, etc. For this reason, we assumed this is why he wanted to come to his hometown: to see firsthand the environment in which he was raised.
Then...out comes the book...and yes, there are bits and pieces in there about some of the men, but let's face it, it's mostly about the battle of Takur Ghar. Enough had been written already about that.
My take: He told everyone that crap about his intentions and as a result, he was able to get access to people that no other author who'd wrote about Takur Ghar prior to that ever had...no one would talk about it, especially from special ops. However, when people heard he was going to write about some of the guys and their inner character and personality and not focus on the battle, people were willing to open up and talk about their sons, siblings, teammates, and friends. So, I was a extremely disappointed when the book came out and it wasn't what at all what he said it would be. In my mind, he used everyone.
I too, did not finish reading it. I read the part about my brother, then looked at the mistakes he made in names and timelines and just put it right down. He even painted his hometown to seem like some dreary blue-collar town where no one would want to live and even portrayed his dad to sound like some brainless dude with a low self-esteem that did meaningless work to support his family...even his dad was much much more than this.
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