It’s fun! Read it last year after rewatching the movie

Thank you! I’m not a military veteran, however — I’m a journalist who spent a lot of my twenties (2007-17) covering the war from the perspective of U.S., UK, and Afghan units I “embedded” with around the country.

As at Want, US soldiers died because senior officers had a hard time accepting withdrawal.

2-503 could’ve left the Waygal without consolidating at Want. 1-327 could’ve left the Pech without a risky Watapur pilgrimage.

But selling the pullout involved compromises—which cost lives too.

Bulldog Bite killed 7 Americans—the worst US KIA toll in the area since Want—and an ANA officer, and 100+ insurgents.

Ryan said it showed the enemy they weren't safe even in Gambir.

But it was also about reassuring US generals in Bagram and Kabul of that, as Ryan pitched pulling out of the Pech.

Team Darby (from 1/75 Rangers) flew up from Paktika and inserted outside Gambir along with TF East's 2/75 platoon.

1/75 squad leader Kevin Pape was killed in the ensuing firefight, after which the Rangers holed up and pounded the mountains with air strikes—two AC-130s stayed into daylight.

Abu Company was spent, so Ryan called for help from SOF. A Green Beret A-team and ANA Commando company (pictured) helped clear Katar, but SIGINT showed the enemy retreating up the mountainside to Gambir.

For that, the JSOC task force (now renamed TF 310) committed a Ranger unit, Team Darby.

These photos were taken in a house in Katar that one of the Abu Company platoons searched after entering the village the next day. The one on the right appears to show a rifle being fired at a Chinook (not sure what the boat is doing there below it).

Five Abu Company soldiers were killed in the attack, in which the upper platoon—the one in the forest—was nearly overrun before air support could help.

These USAF Pave Hawks flying out of Asadabad put PJs on the ground in the forest under fire and hoisted out the WIAs and KIAs.

Katar was only a mile and a half north of Tsangar along the mountainside, but getting there took Abu Company two days.

On the outskirts of Katar on Nov. 14, insurgents attacked from uphill, in the forest, where the drones overhead couldn't spot them. This is the battlefield:

Here are two photos I took of the Watapur in 2010 and 2013, looking north from where it meets the Pech.

The events of Bulldog Bite in November 2010 took place along the mountainside in the upper right, culminating around Gambir—near where you can see the snow on either side of the .50-cal barrel.

On Nov. 12, 2010, 1-327 launched its Watapur pilgrimage as its A Co (nicknamed Abu) flew up to Tsangar for Operation Bulldog Bite. A platoon was quickly nearly overrun and its medic killed, and Ryan re-directed the company northward, toward the village of Katar deeper in the valley (pictured).

Read this as “Armageddon is one of the best games of all time, according to worms”

If you just say “bat,” not “baseball bat” or “cricket bat” or whatever, I’m absolutely going to think you mean the creature

During Bennett’s time with SEAL Team 6, the unit ran JSOC’s air campaign in Somalia and Yemen (first as TF 48-4, then as TF 111, while Delta was running the command’s Iraq/Syria task force and the Rangers the Afg task force). Before becoming DDSO, he was JSOC’s assistant commander for operations.