
The Ragged Edge
A US Marine’s Account of Leading the Iraqi Army Fifth Battalion
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $18.05
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
John Pruden
About this listen
At a time when the United States debates how deeply to involve itself in Iraq and Syria, Lieutenant Colonel Michael Zacchea, USMC (Ret.), holds a unique vantage point on our still-ongoing war.
Deployed to Iraq in March 2004, his team's mission was to build, train, and lead in combat the first Iraqi army battalion trained by the US military. Zacchea tells a deeply personal and powerful story while shedding light on the dangerous pitfalls of training foreign troops to fight murderous insurgents.
The Ragged Edge is the first American military memoir out of Iraq or Syria that features complex Arab and Kurdish characters and that intimately explores their culture and politics in a dispassionate way. Zacchea's invaluable lessons about Americans working with Arabs and Kurds to fight insurgency and terrorism come precisely when such wartime collaboration is happening more than at any time in US history.
©2017 Michael Zacchea and Ted Kemp (P)2017 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
-
We March at Midnight
- A War Memoir
- By: Ray McPadden
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
The honesty of it all
- By Wendy Rose on 04-14-22
By: Ray McPadden
-
Joker One
- A Marine Platoon's Story of Courage, Leadership, and Brotherhood
- By: Donovan Campbell
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Donovan Campbell's platoon deployed to Ramadi in the spring of 2004, they believed they'd be spending most of their time building schools, training police, and making friends with the citizens. But shortly after arriving, when Campbell awoke to the chilling cry of "Jihad, Jihad, Jihad!" echoing from minaret to minaret across the city, he knew they had an altogether different situation on their hands.
-
-
Terrible Narration Hurts Good Story
- By Chris on 01-29-10
By: Donovan Campbell
-
The Chosen Few
- A Company of Paratroopers and Its Heroic Struggle to Survive in the Mountains of Afghanistan
- By: Gregg Zoroya, William H. McRaven - foreward
- Narrated by: Gregg Zoroya
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A single company of US paratroopers—calling themselves the "Chosen Few"—arrived in eastern Afghanistan in late 2007 hoping to win the hearts and minds of the remote mountain people and extend the Afghan government's reach into this wilderness. Instead, they spent the next fifteen months in a desperate struggle, living under almost continuous attack, forced into a slow and grinding withdrawal, and always outnumbered by Taliban fighters descending on them from all sides.
-
-
Wow! What an amazing group of men!
- By Myla on 06-22-18
By: Gregg Zoroya, and others
-
The Operator
- Firing the Shots That Killed Osama Bin Laden and My Years as a SEAL Team Warrior
- By: Robert O'Neill
- Narrated by: Robert O'Neill
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stirringly evocative, thought provoking, and often jaw dropping, The Operator ranges across SEAL Team Operator Robert O'Neill's awe-inspiring 400-mission career that included his involvement in attempts to rescue "Lone Survivor" Marcus Luttrell and abducted-by-Somali-pirates Captain Richard Phillips and culminated in those famous three shots that dispatched the world's most wanted terrorist, Osama bin Laden.
-
-
One of the best
- By Tim on 04-28-17
By: Robert O'Neill
-
Lone Survivor
- The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10
- By: Marcus Luttrell, Patrick Robinson
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Four US Navy SEALS departed one clear night in early July 2005 for the mountainous Afghanistan-Pakistan border for a reconnaissance mission. Their task was to document the activity of an al Qaeda leader rumored to have a small army in a Taliban stronghold. Five days later, only one of those Navy SEALS made it out alive. This is the story of the only survivor of Operation Redwing, SEAL team leader Marcus Luttrell, and the extraordinary firefight that led to the largest loss of life in American Navy SEAL history.
-
-
Enthralling and authentic story of valor in combat
- By Michael J Canning on 01-25-14
By: Marcus Luttrell, and others
-
Battle Ready
- Memoir of a SEAL Warrior Medic
- By: Mark L. Donald, Scott Mactavish
- Narrated by: Fred Berman
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As A SEAL and combat medic, Mark served his country with valorous distinction for almost 25 years and survived some of the most dangerous combat actions imaginable. From the rigors of BUD/S training to the horrors of the battlefield, Battle Ready dramatically immerses the listener in the unique life of the elite warrior-medic who advances into combat with life-saving equipment in one hand and life-taking weapons in the other. It is also an uplifting human story that reveals how a young Hispanic American bootstrapped himself out of a life that promised a dead-end future by enlisting in the military.
-
-
Captivating, honest, humbling. Just a grade A job
- By jones on 03-20-13
By: Mark L. Donald, and others
-
We March at Midnight
- A War Memoir
- By: Ray McPadden
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
The honesty of it all
- By Wendy Rose on 04-14-22
By: Ray McPadden
-
Joker One
- A Marine Platoon's Story of Courage, Leadership, and Brotherhood
- By: Donovan Campbell
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Donovan Campbell's platoon deployed to Ramadi in the spring of 2004, they believed they'd be spending most of their time building schools, training police, and making friends with the citizens. But shortly after arriving, when Campbell awoke to the chilling cry of "Jihad, Jihad, Jihad!" echoing from minaret to minaret across the city, he knew they had an altogether different situation on their hands.
-
-
Terrible Narration Hurts Good Story
- By Chris on 01-29-10
By: Donovan Campbell
-
The Chosen Few
- A Company of Paratroopers and Its Heroic Struggle to Survive in the Mountains of Afghanistan
- By: Gregg Zoroya, William H. McRaven - foreward
- Narrated by: Gregg Zoroya
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A single company of US paratroopers—calling themselves the "Chosen Few"—arrived in eastern Afghanistan in late 2007 hoping to win the hearts and minds of the remote mountain people and extend the Afghan government's reach into this wilderness. Instead, they spent the next fifteen months in a desperate struggle, living under almost continuous attack, forced into a slow and grinding withdrawal, and always outnumbered by Taliban fighters descending on them from all sides.
-
-
Wow! What an amazing group of men!
- By Myla on 06-22-18
By: Gregg Zoroya, and others
-
The Operator
- Firing the Shots That Killed Osama Bin Laden and My Years as a SEAL Team Warrior
- By: Robert O'Neill
- Narrated by: Robert O'Neill
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stirringly evocative, thought provoking, and often jaw dropping, The Operator ranges across SEAL Team Operator Robert O'Neill's awe-inspiring 400-mission career that included his involvement in attempts to rescue "Lone Survivor" Marcus Luttrell and abducted-by-Somali-pirates Captain Richard Phillips and culminated in those famous three shots that dispatched the world's most wanted terrorist, Osama bin Laden.
-
-
One of the best
- By Tim on 04-28-17
By: Robert O'Neill
-
Lone Survivor
- The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10
- By: Marcus Luttrell, Patrick Robinson
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Four US Navy SEALS departed one clear night in early July 2005 for the mountainous Afghanistan-Pakistan border for a reconnaissance mission. Their task was to document the activity of an al Qaeda leader rumored to have a small army in a Taliban stronghold. Five days later, only one of those Navy SEALS made it out alive. This is the story of the only survivor of Operation Redwing, SEAL team leader Marcus Luttrell, and the extraordinary firefight that led to the largest loss of life in American Navy SEAL history.
-
-
Enthralling and authentic story of valor in combat
- By Michael J Canning on 01-25-14
By: Marcus Luttrell, and others
-
Battle Ready
- Memoir of a SEAL Warrior Medic
- By: Mark L. Donald, Scott Mactavish
- Narrated by: Fred Berman
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As A SEAL and combat medic, Mark served his country with valorous distinction for almost 25 years and survived some of the most dangerous combat actions imaginable. From the rigors of BUD/S training to the horrors of the battlefield, Battle Ready dramatically immerses the listener in the unique life of the elite warrior-medic who advances into combat with life-saving equipment in one hand and life-taking weapons in the other. It is also an uplifting human story that reveals how a young Hispanic American bootstrapped himself out of a life that promised a dead-end future by enlisting in the military.
-
-
Captivating, honest, humbling. Just a grade A job
- By jones on 03-20-13
By: Mark L. Donald, and others
-
Bravo Company
- An Afghanistan Deployment and Its Aftermath
- By: Ben Kesling
- Narrated by: Ben Kesling
- Length: 12 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A decade ago, the soldiers of Bravo Company deployed to Afghanistan for a tour in Kandahar’s notorious Arghandab Valley. By the time they made it home, three soldiers had been killed in action, a dozen more had lost limbs, and an astonishing half of the company had Purple Hearts. In the decade since, two of the soldiers have died by suicide, more than a dozen have tried, and others admit they’ve considered it. Written with an insider’s eye and ear and drawing on extensive interviews and original reporting, Bravo Company follows the men from their initial enlistment on.
-
-
Inspiring and well written
- By Britanny on 03-07-23
By: Ben Kesling
-
Black Hawk Down
- By: Mark Bowden
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 15 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ninety-nine elite American soldiers are trapped in the middle of a hostile city. As night falls, they are surrounded by thousands of enemy gunmen. Their wounded are bleeding to death. Their ammunition and supplies are dwindling. This is the story of how they got there - and how they fought their way out. Black Hawk Down drops you into a crowded marketplace in the heart of Mogadishu, Somalia with the U.S. Special Forces and puts you in the middle of the most intense firelight American soldiers have fought since the Vietnam war.
-
-
A Classic Of Military Writing...
- By Joshua on 11-06-16
By: Mark Bowden
-
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
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Hard truth.
- By D on 04-17-17
By: Roger Hill, and others
-
Red Platoon
- A True Story of American Valor
- By: Clinton Romesha
- Narrated by: Will Damron, Clinton Romesha
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2009 Clinton Romesha of Red Platoon and the rest of the Black Knight Troop were preparing to shut down Command Outpost Keating, the most remote and inaccessible in a string of bases built by the US military in Nuristan and Kunar in the hope of preventing Taliban insurgents from moving freely back and forth between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Three years after Keating's construction, the army was finally ready to concede what the men on the ground had known immediately: It was simply too isolated and too dangerous to defend.
-
-
Must Read for Comfortable, Non-combatant Americans
- By Rum Runner on 11-21-18
By: Clinton Romesha
-
Lions of Kandahar
- The Story of a Fight Against All Odds
- By: Major Rusty Bradley, Kevin Maurer
- Narrated by: Eric G. Dove
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Southern Afghanistan was slipping away. That was clear to then-Captain Rusty Bradley as he began his third tour of duty there in 2006. The Taliban and their allies were infiltrating everywhere, poised to reclaim Kandahar Province, their strategically vital onetime capital. To stop them, the NATO coalition launched Operation Medusa, the largest offensive in its history. The battlefield was the Panjwayi Valley, a densely packed warren of walled compounds that doubled neatly as enemy bunkers.
-
-
'Merica!
- By NKeene on 03-07-15
By: Major Rusty Bradley, and others
-
Freaks of a Feather
- A Marine Grunt's Memoir
- By: Kacy Tellessen
- Narrated by: Patrick Kirchner
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Kacy Tellessen is a grunt. After completing high school in rural Washington, he enlisted in the Marine Corps and began the hero's journey he imagined might parallel those epic tales he'd consumed throughout adolescence. But what Tellessen lived through—from boot camp to the battlefield and home again—had little in common with Homer's tales or Hollywood's depictions. In his memoir, Tellessen offers a truer account of life as an infantryman: the complicated, conflicting, adrenaline-pumping, and traumatic experience of war.
-
-
The full arch of the GWOT grunt experience
- By Josh C. on 04-11-22
By: Kacy Tellessen
-
Black Ops
- The Life of a CIA Shadow Warrior
- By: Ric Prado
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Enrique Prado found himself in his first firefight at age seven. The son of a middle-class Cuban family caught in the midst of the Castro Revolution, his family fled their war-torn home for the hope of a better life in America. Fifty years later, the Cuban refugee retired from the Central Intelligence Agency as the CIA equivalent of a two-star general. Black Ops is the story of Ric’s legendary career that spanned two eras, the Cold War and the Age of Terrorism.
-
-
Impressive and Inspiring!
- By medardo on 03-12-22
By: Ric Prado
-
The Good Soldiers
- By: David Finkel
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was the last-chance moment of the war. In January 2007, President George W. Bush announced a new strategy for Iraq. He called it "the surge". "Many listening tonight will ask why this effort will succeed when previous operations to secure Baghdad did not. Well, here are the differences," he told a skeptical nation. Among those listening were the young, optimistic Army infantry soldiers of the 2-16, the battalion nicknamed the Rangers.
-
-
Honest opinion folks
- By james on 11-06-11
By: David Finkel
-
Outlaw Platoon
- Heroes, Renegades, Infidels, and the Brotherhood of War in Afghanistan
- By: Sean Parnell, John Bruning
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At 24 years of age, U.S. Army Ranger Sean Parnell was named commander of a forty-man elite infantry platoon - a unit that came to be known as the Outlaws - and was tasked with rooting out Pakistan-based insurgents from a mountain valley along Afghanistan's eastern frontier. Parnell and his men assumed they would be facing a ragtag bunch of civilians, but in May 2006 what started out as a routine patrol through the lower mountains of the Hindu Kush became a brutal ambush.
-
-
Great book...Everyone should listen to this book!!
- By Chris on 04-09-12
By: Sean Parnell, and others
-
Service
- A Navy SEAL at War
- By: Marcus Luttrell
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell returned from his star-crossed mission in Afghanistan with his bones shattered and his heart broken. So many had given their lives to save him-and he would have readily done the same for them. As he recuperated, he wondered why he and others, from America's founding to today, had been willing to sacrifice everything-including themselves-for the sake of family, nation, and freedom.
-
-
love this book ~ add it to your must read list!!
- By HYoung on 05-18-12
By: Marcus Luttrell
-
Inside Delta Force
- The Story of America’s Elite Counterterrorist Unit
- By: Command Sergeant Major Eric L. Haney
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 13 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Delta Force—the US Army’s most elite top-secret strike force. They dominate the modern battlefield, but you won’t hear about their heroics on CNN. No headlines can reveal their top-secret missions, and no book has ever taken readers inside—until now. Here, a founding member of Delta Force takes us behind the veil of secrecy and into the action to reveal the never-before-told story of First Special Forces Operational Detachment-D (Delta Force).
-
-
Finally I get the low down on Delta Force
- By Amazon Customer on 08-15-13
-
Trident
- The Forging and Reforging of a Navy SEAL Leader
- By: Jason Redman, John Bruning
- Narrated by: Erik Bergmann
- Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Decorated Navy SEAL Lieutenant Jason Redman served his country courageously and with distinction in Colombia, Peru, Afghanistan, and Iraq, where he commanded mobility and assault forces. But his journey was not without its supreme challenges. He was critically wounded in 2007 when he was struck by machine-gun fire at point blank range. During his intense recovery period, Redman posted a sign on his door, warning all who entered not to "feel sorry for [his] wounds."
-
-
SEALS and Leadership
- By Pamela Dale Foster on 06-20-14
By: Jason Redman, and others
What listeners say about The Ragged Edge
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Doofy
- 06-13-20
important message
being ideologically consumed and denying reality likely will result in harm than good. this book is a very good lesson on why the previous statement has relevance to Western leaders.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Timothy J Davis
- 06-23-23
Compelling story
I felt like I was living this story right along side Mike! Very well written and performed
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 02-11-24
A Good Listen
This was a really interesting read. The author broke his experience into a captivating story .
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 10-12-22
A great and gripping read! Highly recommend!
Mike Zacchea was a personal friend, fellow military officer, and veteran. I worked with him through the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans (EBV) program, a cutting-edge training course that teaches small business management to post-9/11 veterans.
In The Ragged Edge, Mike tells a deeply personal and powerful story while shedding light on the dangerous pitfalls of training foreign troops to fight murderous insurgents. He immersed himself in Iraq’s culture: learning its languages, eating its foods, observing its traditions—even getting inducted into one of its Sunni tribes.
His book is the first American military memoir out of Iraq that features complex Arab and Kurdish characters, and which intimately explores their culture and politics as he experienced it. His invaluable lessons about Americans advising Iraqis to combat a growing insurgency tells an unknown history of the war.
The advisor's role at this stage in the war was arguably the most critical element in the U.S. military strategy in Iraq. As advisors, Mike and his team lived, worked, and fought alongside his Iraqi soldiers, mentoring them and earning their trust. As embedded trainers, they went into combat alongside the Iraqis. As mentors, they were specially trained to act as emissaries for this strategic mission. The goal was for the Iraqi Army to stand alone one day and quiet their country's terrorist elements by themselves, allowing U.S./Coalition forces to pull out of Iraq for good.
Mike's book starts in March 2004, a year after the American-led invasion of Iraq. He relates his experiences as leader of the Iraqi Army 5th Battalion, the first Iraqi battalion to be activated after the fall of Sadaam, at a time when the insurgency exploded. He exposes the origins of the tragic and confounding story of building the Iraqi Army, exploring the history of Saddam's Iraq and detailing the stories of Iraqi and U.S. soldiers heroic and doomed, shadowed by the recklessness of their commanders in Washington, D.C. and a war built on constantly shifting sands.
He reminds the reader the last Westerner to build and lead an Arab army was Col. T.E. Lawrence, more famously known as Lawrence of Arabia, more than 100 years before. After several months of training and equipping, the 5th Iraqi Battalion became part of the Second Battle of Fallujah (Operation Phantom Fury) a successful joint operation by American, Iraqi and British forces that took nearly seven weeks and became the bloodiest battle of the entire Iraq War.
Mike's memoir is important book, because it gives us the unvarnished account of one combat advisor's tour of duty in Baghdad during the tumultuous year after the American occupation. The reader will learn much about what went wrong in Iraq, and also what was wrong with the American military. There are also valuable lessons for anyone about command in combat.
After being retiring from the Marine Corps., Mike continued to serve, devoting himself to veteran economic reintegration through business ownership, serving on numerous state and federal organizations to assist veterans. In 2009, he founded the UConn EBV program, through which he has helped veterans start more than 140 businesses. Mike helped form a non-profit organization of military advisers in 2006 to help Iraqi interpreters immigrate to the United States, known nationally as Netroots: the List Project. He served on a multi-agency cross-disciplinary working group chaired by the CT Dept of Veterans Affairs focusing on veteran reintegration, education, training, and workforce re-entry issues.
Mike Zacchea passed away in April 2022.
A great and gripping read. The versatile narrator's voice rings loud in this no-holds-barred memoir that traces this decorated veteran's essential story.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- lorraine
- 04-05-24
Lessons on cultural values
Oration was good. Story was great. Good mix of war and reflection of war. Great!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Adam
- 10-10-22
Amazing account from a true hero
Great account of the Iraq war from great man. We will miss you Mike. Thanks for all you did for us.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!