The Chosen Few: A Company of Paratroopers and Its Heroic Struggle to Survive in the Mountains of Afghanistan

Zoroya, an award-winning journalist at USA Today, seeks to make sense of the chaos we call the War in Afghanistan. He follows the action of the Chosen Company through their bloodiest tour of duty in the Waigal Valley from the spring of 2007 through the summer of 2008. He begins with a subtle comparison between our soldiers today and those of the Great Generation who fought in the Second World War.

The pulse of battle starts throbbing merely seventy pages into the book with the description of enemy infiltration of an outpost in the mountains where the Taliban moves freely. Pausing to offer background on those paying the highest premium for the American cause, Zoroya follows the conflict through the ambush of November 9, the siege of Bella, and finally the devastation at Wanat.

In the aftermath of this bloodiest battle, several investigations attempted to fix the blame for the 67 percent casualty rate we suffered. Ultimately, there is no question that our soldiers measure up with the valor of those in WWII, or any other war for that matter. What Zoroya leaves unsaid about the abandoned ground we held with American blood is more indicting of an indifferent public who has forgotten why we went into those deadly mountains.