
The Devil's Playground
The Story of Two Charlie and the Arghandab River Valley
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Narrated by:
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Kevin P. Mullan
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By:
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Andrew Bragg
About this listen
This book shares the story of the men of Two Charlie and their fight for survival in the Arghandab River Valley, the Devil’s Playground.
“The Devil’s Playground” was anything south of the second canal to the men of Charlie Company’s 2nd Platoon—Two Charlie—during their 2009–2010 deployment to the Arghandab River Valley in Afghanistan. The valley had been a notorious hot spot throughout history, with the Russians unable to maintain a foothold in the 80s and Coalition forces now facing the same problem during Operation Enduring Freedom.
The Two Charlie paratroopers deployed as part of the 2-508th PIR, Two Fury, of the 82nd Airborne Division, but always seemed to be on their own. They started their deployment attached to Canadian forces in Panjwai but were shortly moved into the Arghandab with one of the battalion’s biggest Areas of Operation. They inherited a bare-bones outpost that they worked hard to turn into the defendable position known as COP Tynes while patrolling the grape fields and orchards of the valley. Little did they know that when the leaves returned to the valley in the spring, so too would the fighting.
As the fighting picked up in the valley, the men of Two Charlie continued to sustain casualties as they fought day in and day out. There was never a dull moment in the Arghandab, and the fact that Two Charlie had to patrol, act as a quick reaction force, and secure their outpost on their own ensured that they never stopped. The men were constantly brought to their breaking point as their numbers dwindled and the fighting intensified. The men all started to believe that they weren’t going to make it out of the valley alive. The one rule of the valley would be proved time and time again: in the end, the valley always wins.
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Story
What does an elite Navy SEAL Team operator trained to kill the United States’ most dangerous enemies do when he realizes his skills aren’t being properly utilized? He leaves the Navy. In American Mercenary, Daniel Corbett takes listeners on a wild ride through the unadulterated, morally ambiguous, and riveting world of being a hired gun. From Abu Dhabi to Washington, D.C., Cairo to San Diego, Belgrade to places that must remain secret, this is a world where money rules, and where adventure, danger, and absurdity often follow.
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Great story beginning to end.
- By Mark Knight on 05-14-25
By: Daniel Corbett
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Guns, Girls, and Greed
- I Was a Blackwater Mercenary in Iraq
- By: Morgan Lerette
- Narrated by: Jay Mohr
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Lerette, a private contractor employed by the notorious Blackwater in the early days of the Iraq War, pulls no punches in calling out the incompetence of both the US military and the Department of State during the collapse of Iraq. You can decide if the insertion of private contractors in Iraq assisted or detracted from the war effort and if the costs in blood and treasure were worth the carnage.
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Tucker Max Meets Gun For Hire
- By Tommy on 03-06-24
By: Morgan Lerette
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LRRPs, LRPs, and Rangers in Vietnam
- Phantom Warriors, Book I
- By: Gary A. Linderer, Kenn Miller - introduction
- Narrated by: Chris Monteiro
- Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Here are some of the most courageous missions executed by six-man teams on their own deep behind enemy lines. Ranging from the Central Highlands to the Mekong Delta to excursions—authorized and unauthorized—into Cambodia, these gripping accounts begin when the call first went out for covert US long-range reconnaissance patrols in late 1965, continue through the battles of Tet, and go all the way up to the final, tortured pullout.
By: Gary A. Linderer, and others
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Echo in Ramadi
- The Firsthand Story of U.S. Marines in Iraq's Deadliest City
- By: Scott A. Huesing
- Narrated by: David Marantz
- Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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From the winter of 2006 through the spring of 2007, 250 marines from Echo Company, Second Battalion, Fourth Marine Regiment, fought daily in the dangerous, dense city streets of Ramadi, Iraq, during the Multi-National Forces Surge ordered by President George W. Bush. The marines' mission: to kill or capture anti-Iraqi forces. Their experience: like being in hell. Now Major Scott A. Huesing, the commander who led Echo Company through Ramadi, takes listeners back to the streets of Ramadi in a visceral, gripping portrayal of modern urban combat.
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Combat is Combat
- By Calvin Guthrie on 05-21-18
By: Scott A. Huesing
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Dagger 22
- U.S. Marine Corps Special Operations in Bala Murghab, Afghanistan
- By: Michael Golembesky
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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The unforgiving Afghan winter settled upon the 22 men of Marine Special Operations Team 8222, call sign Dagger 22, in the remote and hostile river valley of Bala Murghab, Afghanistan. The Taliban fighters in the region would have liked nothing more than to once again go dormant and rest until the new spring fighting season began. No chance of that - this winter would be different.
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Good Story, but...
- By Donovan Russian on 10-10-16
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Zero Footprint
- The True Story of a Private Military Contractor's Covert Assignments in Syria, Libya, and the World's Most Dangerous Places
- By: Simon Chase, Ralph Pezzullo
- Narrated by: Eric Brooks
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Armored cars, burner phones, top-notch weaponry, and top-secret missions - this is the life of today's private military contractor. Like author Simon Chase, many PMCs were once the world's top military operatives, and since retiring from outfits like US Navy SEAL TEAM Six and the UK's Special Boat Service, they have devoted their lives to executing missions too sensitive for the government to acknowledge. Chase reveals here for the first time the operations too hazardous and politically volatile to be officially sanctioned by his employers.
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Read Amazon reviews, not Audible reviews
- By Andrew M on 02-22-16
By: Simon Chase, and others
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Land with No Sun
- A Year in Vietnam with the 173rd Airborne
- By: Command Sergeant Major Ted G. Arthurs
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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A no-holds-barred, straight-in-your-face account of combat in Vietnam. You know it's going to be hot when your brigade is referred to as a Fireball unit. From May 1967 through May 1968, Ted Arthurs was in the thick of it, humping an eighty-pound rucksack through triple canopy jungle, chasing down the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam. As sergeant major for a battalion of eight-hundred men, it was his job to see them through this jungle hell and get them back home again.
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Great non fiction Vietnam
- By Amazon Customer on 05-08-25
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Razor 03
- A Night Stalker’s Wars
- By: Alan C. Mack
- Narrated by: Alan C. Mack
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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The attacks of September 11, 2001, prompted the creation of a robust and deadly special operations force—Task Force Dagger. Alan C. Mack, Callsign Razor 03, led a team of MH-47E helicopters and armed MH-60s. Their two-fold mission–Personnel Recovery (PR) and Unconventional Warfare (UW) involved flying in terrain and weather previously not thought possible. If that wasn’t enough, they pushed the flight envelope of their specially modified Chinooks to the limit and beyond.
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The honesty of the author
- By Daniel on 06-10-24
By: Alan C. Mack
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Shock Factor
- American Snipers in the War on Terror
- By: Gunnery Sgt. Jack Coughlin USMC (Ret.), John R. Bruning
- Narrated by: Tony Ward
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Retired Marine sniper Jack Coughlin and John Bruning pull back the curtain of secrecy to take an insider's look at the dark and misunderstood world of America's sniper force. Long considered the redheaded stepchildren of the infantry, snipers have been loathed by their fellow warriors, called "ten cent killers" by our media, and portrayed as unbalanced psychopaths by Hollywood.
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Snipers are Needed
- By Pamela Dale Foster on 11-23-14
By: Gunnery Sgt. Jack Coughlin USMC (Ret.), and others
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Serving God and Country
- United States Military Chaplains in World War II
- By: Lyle W. Dorsett
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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In World War II, over 12,000 Protestant ministers, Catholic priests, and Jewish rabbis left the safety of home to join the Chaplain Corps, following the armed forces into battle across Europe, Asia, North Africa, and the high seas. These are the personal stories of some of the bravest and most selfless men who served. All of them battled the pain of separation from their own loved ones as they gave some of the best years of their lives to keep the military personnel spiritually awake, morally fit—and prepared to make the journey from this world to the next without fear or despair.
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Just not Long Enough
- By J.Brock on 09-14-22
By: Lyle W. Dorsett
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Gentlemen Bastards
- On the Ground in Afghanistan with America's Elite Special Forces
- By: Kevin Maurer
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Until the war in Iraq, the Special Forces were the military's counterinsurgency experts. Their specialty was going behind enemy lines and training insurgent forces. In Afghanistan, they toppled the Taliban by transforming Northern Alliance fighters into cohesive units. But in the almost nine years since, Special Forces units have forgone their previous mission, instead focusing on offensive raids.
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The book that shouldn't been written.
- By jeffrey on 05-30-15
By: Kevin Maurer
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Warfighter
- The Story of an American Fighting Man
- By: Col. Jesse L. Johnson, Alex Holstein
- Narrated by: Corey M. Snow
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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In Warfighter, Colonel Jesse L. Johnson, one of the most decorated living American veterans, recounts the action-packed true-life tale of a man who stood and fought at the crossroads of history. Spanning forty years of conflict, from the jungles of Vietnam to the deserts of Iran and Iraq, never has a modern military memoir covered such a vast landscape of all-out warfare.
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Ain"t I Great!
- By RJW on 04-02-24
By: Col. Jesse L. Johnson, and others
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Gray Work
- Confessions of an American Paramilitary Spy
- By: Jamie Smith
- Narrated by: Jeff Gurner
- Length: 15 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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In this unprecedented audiobook, a paramilitary contractor with more than two decades of experience gives us a firsthand look into the secret lives of America's private warriors and their highly covert work around the world. Author Jamie Smith has planned and executed hundreds of missions on behalf of government agencies and private industry in some of the world's most dangerous hot spots - and lived to tell the tale.
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Don't believe a word of it.
- By Dustin Harry on 08-26-15
By: Jamie Smith
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When the Tempest Gathers
- From Mogadishu to the Fight Against ISIS, a Marine Special Operations Commander at War
- By: Andrew Milburn
- Narrated by: Andrew Milburn
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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These are the combat experiences of the first Marine to command a special operations task force, recounted against a backdrop of his journey from raw Second Lieutenant to seasoned Colonel and Task Force Commander; from leading Marines through the streets of Mogadishu, Baghdad, Fallujah and Mosul to directing multi-national special operations forces in a dauntingly complex fight against a formidable foe.
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One of the very best books I’ve read in any genre.
- By Lisa on 11-10-20
By: Andrew Milburn
Incredibly powerful and well written
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Heartfelt, Raw, and Real.
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amazing read
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God Bless our American Soldiers🙏🏼
Heart Wrenching
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Gritty and real
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Andrew Bragg wrote one hell of a book.
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Closing Remarks
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From the very first page, I was captivated. The author did a phenomenal job of making a complex and painful subject both accessible and gripping. Despite the chaos and sorrow that unfolds throughout the story, the narrative is clear and easy to follow. It never once lost my attention, and I found myself unwilling to put it down, completely immersed in the lives of these brave men.
What really struck me about this book was its portrayal of the cost of freedom — not just in terms of the sacrifices made on the battlefield, but also the emotional and psychological toll these soldiers endured. The book doesn't shy away from showing the trauma that stays with them long after the fighting ends. The way the author honors both the fallen and the living is deeply moving, reminding readers of the true price of war.
If you're on the fence about reading this book, let this review be your sign to pick it up. It’s a powerful and emotional story that not only informs but also resonates long after you turn the final page. This is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the true cost of war and the incredible men who fought for our freedom.
Support these heroes, learn their stories, and gain a deeper understanding of the sacrifices made for our country. Don’t hesitate — buy the book and experience it for yourself.
The true cost of freedom: A captivating story
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The honesty
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The devils playground by Andrew Bragg
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