
Black Hearts
One Platoon's Descent into Madness in Iraq's Triangle of Death
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Narrated by:
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Corey Snow
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By:
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Jim Frederick
About this listen
This is the story of a small group of soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division's fabled 502nd Infantry Regiment - a unit known as the Black Heart Brigade. Deployed in late 2005 to Iraq's so-called Triangle of Death, a veritable meat grinder just south of Baghdad, the Black Hearts found themselves in arguably the country's most dangerous location at its most dangerous time. Hit by near-daily mortars, gunfire, and roadside bomb attacks, suffering from a particularly heavy death toll, and enduring a chronic breakdown in leadership, members of one Black Heart platoon - 1st Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion - descended, over their year-long tour of duty, into a tailspin of poor discipline, substance abuse, and brutality.
Four 1st Platoon soldiers would perpetrate one of the most heinous war crimes U.S. forces have committed during the Iraq War - the rape of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the cold-blooded execution of her and her family. Three other 1st Platoon soldiers would be overrun at a remote outpost - one killed immediately and two taken from the scene, their mutilated corpses found days later booby-trapped with explosives.
Black Hearts is an unflinching account of the epic, tragic deployment of 1st Platoon. Drawing on hundreds of hours of in-depth interviews with Black Heart soldiers and first-hand reporting from the Triangle of Death, Black Hearts is a timeless story about men in combat and the fragility of character in the savage crucible of warfare. But it is also a timely warning of new dangers emerging in the way American soldiers are led on the battlefields of the 21st century.
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Great book
- By Retired Recruiter on 03-31-17
By: Mitch Weiss, and others
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Delta Force
- A Memoir by the Founder of the U.S. Military's Most Secretive Special-Operations Unit
- By: Charlie A. Beckwith, Donald Knox
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 14 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Wanted: Volunteers for Project Delta. Will guarantee you a medal. A body bag. Or both. With this call to arms, Charlie Beckwith revolutionized American armed combat. Beckwith's acclaimed memoir tells the story of Delta Force as only its maverick creator could tell it - from the bloody baptism of Vietnam to the top-secret training grounds of North Carolina to political battles in the upper levels of the Pentagon itself. This is the heart-pounding, first-person insider's view of the missions that made Delta Force legendary.
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Good Military History
- By Drew on 02-01-15
By: Charlie A. Beckwith, and others
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Dog Company
- A True Story of American Soldiers Abandoned by Their High Command
- By: Roger Hill, Lynn Vincent
- Narrated by: Christopher Ryan Grant
- Length: 14 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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The army does not want you to listen to this book. It does not want to advertise its detention system that coddles enemy fighters while putting American soldiers at risk. It does not want to reveal the new lawyered-up Pentagon war ethic that prosecutes US soldiers and marines while setting free spies who kill Americans. This very system ambushed Captain Roger Hill and his men.
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Hard truth.
- By D on 04-17-17
By: Roger Hill, and others
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Foxtrot in Kandahar
- A Memoir of a CIA Officer in Afghanistan at the Inception of America’s Longest War
- By: Duane Evans
- Narrated by: Eric Martin
- Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Kandahar. The ancient desert crossroads and, as of fall of 2001, ground zero for the Taliban and al-Qa'ida in southern Afghanistan. In the northern part of the country, the US-supported Northern Alliance has made progress on the battlefield, but in the south, the country is still under the Taliban's bloody hold and al-Qa'ida continues to operate there. With no "Southern Alliance" for the US to support, a new strategy is needed if victory is to be achieved. Veteran CIA officer Duane Evans is dispatched to Pakistan to "get something going in the South." Foxtrot in Kandahar is his story.
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Fascinating look into CIA ground forces in early Afghanistan
- By Invictus on 09-23-18
By: Duane Evans
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In the Presence of My Enemies
- By: Gracia Burnham
- Narrated by: Pam Ward
- Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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In the Presence of My Enemies, the gripping true story of American missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham's year as hostages in the Philippine jungle, was a New York Times best seller and has sold nearly 350,000 copies. This updated audio edition has a new look and contains never-before published information.
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Good book ruined by bad reader
- By Michael on 05-13-22
By: Gracia Burnham
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We March at Midnight
- A War Memoir
- By: Ray McPadden
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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We March at Midnight is award-winning author Ray McPadden’s chronicle of his experience as a highly decorated Ranger officer leading some of the most dangerous missions during the height of the Iraq and Afghan wars. In 2005, Ray joined the army in search of what he calls “the moment” - a chance to prove to himself and his brothers in arms that he is a true leader. His job is to establish the first outpost in the Korengal, Afghanistan’s deadliest valley, and his decisions and mistakes will have a permanent impact on the men he commands.
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The honesty of it all
- By Wendy Rose on 04-14-22
By: Ray McPadden
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Call Sign Chaos
- Learning to Lead
- By: Jim Mattis, Bing West
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Call Sign Chaos is the account of Jim Mattis’ storied career, from wide-ranging leadership roles in three wars to ultimately commanding a quarter of a million troops across the Middle East. Along the way, Mattis recounts his foundational experiences as a leader, extracting the lessons he has learned about the nature of warfighting and peacemaking, the importance of allies, and the strategic dilemmas - and short-sighted thinking - now facing our nation.
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A pleasant surprise
- By Fountain of Chris on 09-06-19
By: Jim Mattis, and others
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Generation Kill
- By: Evan Wright
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 13 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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They were called a generation without heroes. Then they were called upon to be heroes. Within hours of 9/11, America's war on terrorism fell to those like the 23 Marines of the First Recon Battalion, the first generation dispatched into open-ended combat since Vietnam.
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Politically Neutral??.....Not.
- By Brett on 11-26-12
By: Evan Wright
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Uncommon Valor
- The Recon Company that Earned Five Medals of Honor and Included America’s Most Decorated Green Beret
- By: Stephen L. Moore
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 15 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Uncommon Valor is a look into the formation and operation of an advanced Special Forces recon company during the Vietnam War. Code-named the Studies and Observations Group, SOG was the most covert US military unit in its time and contained only volunteers from such elite units as the Army's Green Berets, Navy SEALs, and Air Force Air Commandos. SOG warriors operated in small teams, going behind enemy lines in Laos and Cambodia and along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, tasked with performing special reconnaissance, sabotaging North Vietnamese Army ammunition, and far more.
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Pass this one by
- By WE Cleghorn on 01-21-21
By: Stephen L. Moore
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LRRP (Provisional) 2nd Bde 4th Infantry Division Vietnam 1966-67
- By: Frank Camper
- Narrated by: Virtual Voice
- Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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True story of the 2nd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division's small, ragtag "provisional" long range patrol platoon that was so effective it became the official model for 1st and 2nd Field Force MACV LRRP's covering the whole country, authorized by General Westmoreland. The 2nd Brigade LRRP's made history.
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This is an excellent book
- By Anonymous User on 06-13-24
By: Frank Camper
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A Night in the Pech Valley
- A Memoir of a Member of the 75th Ranger Regiment in the Global War on Terrorism
- By: Grant McGarry
- Narrated by: Corey M. Snow
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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A Night in the Pech Valley is Grant McGarry's account of what it takes to become an Army Ranger and what life is like in the 75th Ranger Regiment. More importantly, it is about an operation in the most dangerous terrain for US forces anywhere in the world. The Pech Valley is surrounded by Taliban-filled mountains on the Pakistan border in the Kunar Province, where the mountain peaks push 10,000 feet.
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RANGER UP! Then buy this book
- By THE NOBLE MARRIAGE on 03-08-17
By: Grant McGarry
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Hunting the Jackal
- A Special Forces and CIA Soldier's Fifty Years on the Frontlines of the War Against Terrorism
- By: Billy Waugh, Tim Keown
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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For more than half a century, Special Forces and CIA legend Billy Waugh dedicated his life to tracking down and eliminating America's most virulent enemies. Operating from the darkest shadows and most desolate corners of the world, he made his mark in many of the most important operations in the annals of US Spec Ops. He spent seven and a half years behind enemy lines in Vietnam as a member of a covert group of elite commandos.
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Hunting the Jackal - epic accounting of SOF/SOG and CIA IV
- By Eric on 01-08-18
By: Billy Waugh, and others
This is my current unit
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Read for PME
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great application of battlefield leadership
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Depressing but good
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Accurate portrayal of the challenges of war
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Very good view of social concepts and theories of.
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Frederick states in the prologue something to the effect that there were " good leaders that had bad days, and bad leaders that had good days." And that this account was not an indictment against the leaders decisions that ultimately resulted in this horrific war crime, and it is not, yet does not absolve guilt either.
Black Hearts, is a harrowing tale of war and the impossible situations that leaders and soldiers on the ground experienced. Which unfortunately resulted in, while not unprecedented a preventable war crime.
If you want to know what you're getting into with this book, imagine Karl Marlantes' novel on Vietnam "Matterhorn" meets Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", set in the worst location and time during the Iraq war and sadly nothing about is fiction.
I highly recommend this book, but warn it pack a punch.
Difficult, Eye Opening, Moving Book
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Cold truth
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Fantastic
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5 Stars
Powerful
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