A Company of Paratroopers and Its Heroic Struggle to Survive in the Mountains of Afghanistan

Since i am a prior paratrooper of the 173rd Airborne A"co 3/503rd and had served in Viet Nam the book got my attention. When i received the book i started reading it right away and have not placed the book down..I take it every where i go and read when ever possible...Almost done with it...The book is outstanding and a must read for those who have served or other wise....I am glad i got it.

I give this book 5 stars because of the excellent job it did in clearly laying out - even if not especially intentionally - how senior commanders squandered the lives of America's warriors in Afghanistan.

The brotherhood established in this warrior team was exemplary.
Their total lack of Islamic KNOWLEDGE REDUCED THEIR effectiveness. All warriors should
be required to read "Living to Die"(the store) by Carl Nurick for a summary immersion
into the "Couldron in which we will be boiled." ISLAM is the ENEMY.

I read The Chosen Few this weekend and was spellbound not only by the raw imagery of battle, but by the compelling stories of these young men. Gregg Zoroya artfully captures the essence of soldiering in a post-9/11 era. He masterfully interweaves the fear, violence and sacrifice of war, with the thoughts, dreams and goals of young men searching for meaning in their lives.This story of some of the bravest and bloodiest fighting in the War in Afghanistan is cast against a backdrop of young men, many of whom came from broken families, and are in search of love, purpose and a better life. While they grew to become proven warriors in combat, they often struggle as they return home with a desire to thrive and contribute as civilians. Zoroya skillfully and compassionately tells difficult and intimate stories of real men, in such a way that allows us to honor them for their actions, while acknowledging their imperfections. Well-founded on a strong body of research, Gregg Zoroya brings home the struggles and challenges of the war in Afghanistan, while capturing the human dimension of the men who fought, and the families who were affected. As a 30 year Army veteran with four combat deployments including Iraq and Afghanistan, I'm sure The Chosen Few will become required professional reading in the near future. For those who want to better understand the strengths, commitment and loyalty of today's veteran, The Chosen Few is a must read!

The author does a tremendous job on the background stories of these soldiers and their families. I also appreciated the amount of detail about the daily living conditions of the troops and their individual actions in combat. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in a very well researched story about modern American soldiers and the adversity they face in remote and hostile places. I couldn't put it down!

I just read this book it's the really deal with the BS our people deal with. Time limits on holding people who just clearly shot at you. Cowboy OF's that come out of the FOB just long enough to engage thew enemy so they can have a little smoke in the background only to transform back into a FOBIT for the rest of the tour screw air support picture be for the mission. This is a story about one OF that had the balls to tell it like it is and show the brotherhood of grunts to to leave his buddies behind. It also show's how Washington is more interested in protecting the enemy and frying our people if they are taking fire and don't wait on ROE clearance that takes 20 mins.Our people are not only fighting the enemy but Washington has caused a number of our people to come come covered in a flag. This book will open your eyes on what it's like to fight a war and fight the upper brass because they don't want to rock the boat or hurt any career advancement.To sum it up, This is a story about FUBAR that other grunts didn't. It will make you stop and help you understand PTSD and the anger our people come home wit.........Thank a Vet you owe it to them they still fight today.

The author, Gregg Zoroya, has done extensive research on his account of this paratrooper company’s grueling experience during their one year tour during 2007-2008, their heroic actions, and fatal results - due largely to the failure of US military command in Afghanistan. While painful at times, and inspiring at others, this book does is very helpful to understand what our men endure during combat there. Further, and just as importantly, Zoroya does a good job to explain the Afghan political and military situation, and, as a result, why many of our efforts there are futile. The Afghans largely do not want us there, many are untrustworthy and incompetent, and the concept of nation building through our military is a non-starter. (We should have learned from the British and Soviet failures.) My only gripe about the book is that Zoroya has attempted to cram too much into it by trying to create a biography for each of the men. This is too much information to reasonably absorb and distracts from his book’s readability.

Exceptional book. As a former member of 1/506 PIR I waited impatiently for the postman's delivery. I wasn't disappointed. The portrayal of these young men and their actions is at least at par with those of the "Band of Brothers" by Stephen Ambrose. For a civilian to portray the technical data, weapons, and tactics nearly flawlessly can only be accomplished through exhaustive research, for which I salute the author. The combat action descriptions kept me on the edge of my seat and up reading until way past midnight.

As I read the description of the men I developed an image of them being from broken homes, down-on-their luck,or otherwise struggling with society which spurred them to join up. This well-worn theory has been around since the Vietnam War and is too simplistic and mostly incorrect. Hopefully it's just my impression and not a portrayal effort by the author.

Having read all of Stephen Ambose's WWII books, Sebastian Junger's "War" (which portrays the actions of Chosen's sister company in an adjacent valley), and as many Iraq/AStan war book I can get a hold of, this ranks at the very top. This is one of the best non-fiction books I've read, period.

My final thoughts are about the young men, themselves. We're bombarded daily about young men and women being "micro aggressed", demanding to use different restrooms, protesting the President, etc., and occasionally rioting when not granted their wishes. It can shake your confidence in America's youth. You need only to read Mr. Zoroya's book to regain any lost confidence and realize these young men might very well be the "Greatest Generation". May the Lord comfort the living brothers and bless and keep those by his side, until they are all reunited.

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" - John 15:13

This is an eye-opening book for those who think the relatively low casualties of the war in Afghanistan is an indication that the war is somehow less horrific than previous American wars. If the weekly numbers of those killed and wounded seem small compared to Vietnam, Korea, or World War II it is only because we have fewer troops engaged in actual combat. Mr. Zoroya's descriptions of the three major battles fought by C/2/503 show that the fighting in Afghanistan is as intense and gut-wrenching as the first ten minutes of Saving Private Ryan. Their story is a sad, but ultimately inspiring telling of men in battle. Their courage and devotion to each other is nothing less than touching. Forget the parades, the medals, the words of thanks for their service, The best way to honor those who go in harm's way for us is to read books like this and come away with even a shred of understanding of what they went through.

A Book for a Generation: In each generation there is a book that captures the essence of that generation at war, For my generation, that book was "We were Soldiers Once and Young" by General Hal Moore. "The Chosen Few" has the potential to play that role for the current generation. It is that good. The author places the reader there in Afghanistan to participate in the challenges of leadership, and what it is like to live and work in remote sections of that country opposed by an intelligent and well equipped enemy. I had my map out, augmenting those in the book, to follow step-by-step the movement of out troops and the excellent minute-by-minute development of each battle. That the book also bears witness to the higher level question of why the US commits our soldiers to conflicts like the one in Afghanistan, helps the reader become and informed participant in those discussions.

This is a great story - actually, it presents a number of combat stories about the "Chosen Few" in Afghanistan. It belongs up there with Red Platoon, another book about a combat outpost in Afghanistan that was nearly overrun by Taliban terrorists. You won't be disappointed.

WOW! I have to say this book truly shook me to my core and has inspired me to find a way to do more for our vets --- we truly do not do enough to support these unbelievably amazing young men and women when they come home. Shame on us. Zoroya does a phenomenal job introducing each of the soldiers, you really get to feel like you know them. They were so relatable. When they get to Afghanistan you get a pit in your stomach because you know not everyone is going to have a happy ending. But I was so unprepared for what those amazing young men faced. When I was reading about the guys coming back from the meeting with the elders in town and had to walk back along a goat road, learning what they had to endure on the way back to camp sent tears streaming down my face. I was so devastated for them.

A tough read due to the human narrative, but essential and vitally import to understand "what it was like" & should open the discussion about what a country is truly asking of it's young soldiers (what do you want done here/ how do you define winning). Superb read!

This book is a masterpiece of modern warfare. I must admit that I'm biased in my option of this book. I lived through the 15 month deployment with the men and heros in this book. It is a real and it is factual.
Gregg Zoroya did an amazing job telling our story. Given the men and their personalities true transparency. It is so well research about our time in Afghanistan. I even found out hard truths that happen on the battlefield through this book.
Gregg thank you so much for being our voice and telling our story. You have told it so clear and concise! The American people should read this book to better understand what our troops sacrifice to stabilize the world today!!

A riveting story. More Americans should know the story of this group of modern-day heroes. They are truly inspirational. The battle scenes are so well written that it is very hard to put the book down. I highly recommend this book.

I am a retired Army Colonel who had direct oversight of the original Army Combat Studies Institute publication on Wanat. I found Gregg Zoraya's account to be somewhat rushed lacking many important details about individual soldiers and key decision makers in the chain of command to include primary staff officers. What Gregg Zoraya did an excellent job conveying was the delusional and arrogant decisions of the company and battalion leadership that directly led to the deaths of so many brave American soldiers.

If you’ve read Sebastian Junger’s War and Lutrell’s Lone Survivor or watched Restrpo or the adaptation of the later book with Mark Wahlberg then you’ve had some experience of the territory this book enters. The tribes in this mountainous region of Afghanistan have been feuding with each other for 5000 years and only want to be left alone. Half a million Russians made no impact on them and why we thought we could do better eludes me. The locals know their back yard and are adapted to it in ways interlopers can never hope to understand. What we have provided them with are more efficient means of killing and in the process we’ve created new enemies.

As the book progresses we are introduced in detail to each of the protagonists and the locale that will become their ultimate battle scene as foreshadowed in the prologue. The memoir documents arrogance and a gross under-estimation of the strength and organizational capacity of the enemy.