Welcome To Afghanistan: Send More Ammo
by Benjamin Tupper
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Book Summary Information
Author: Benjamin TupperEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-08-10
ISBN: 0982525508
Number of pages: 208
Publisher: Epigraph Publishing
Book Reviews of Welcome To Afghanistan: Send More Ammo
Book Review: I don't like war stories and I don't read blogs, but......
Summary: 5 Stars
Without ever intending to be one, "Welcome to Afghanistan: Send More Ammo" is a story. It's about war. And I liked it.
Written during and after Captain Benjamin Tupper's year long deployment to Afghanistan in 2006-2007, it tells the story of his experiences as a member of an Embedded Training Team working with a hundred man unit of the Afghan National Army. It is a compilation of his blogs, some of which he narrated on National Public Radio's Morning Edition, and is seasoned with photographs that capture some of the people and places he encountered.
My disclaimer is that I belong to that unenviable group of people who wait at home for a loved one who has gone off to war. When my son was deployed in Afghanistan as an ETT, training, living, and fighting with Afghan soldiers, I had no understanding of what his days and nights were really like; I was reduced to imagining only the worst. Most news stories were two dimensional, flat, and yet capable of striking fear in a mother's heart. A morning news hour without an Afghanistan report made for a good day.
Tupper's blogs fill in the blanks. He captures the faces and heart of the people he fought with and against.
My imagination goes on hiatus as he reveals a few American soldiers and the Afghan soldiers charged with seeking and fighting the Taliban. Lives in this inhospitable landscape frequently hung in a balance easily tipped by ramshackle machinery, pride, military policy, and the hidden loyalties of natives torn between competing tribal, family, and cultural allegiances.
The book is divided into five sections: War Stories; Laughter Is Our Best Defense; Culture Shock; Farewell Fallen Comrades; and Home. There are moments filled with fear, sweat, levity, and shrapnel, hours colored with compassion, self-deprecation, and blood. Tupper fleshes out the days with humor, tactical maneuvers and blunders, brotherhood where you might least expect to find it, and wrenching loss.
The ending of his story hasn't been played out yet, not in Afghanistan or in the lives of the people the war brought together. Tupper reflects upon whether such a war can ever be won and characterizes the future for some of the soldiers returning from the war as painfully uncertain and often frightening. There are cruel ironies in country and at home. This book made me laugh out loud and shed tears; I muttered a few cuss word, too. But mostly I wanted to touch the shoulder of each of these very real warriors, American and Afghan, alive and gone, and whisper, "Thank you."
"Welcome to Afghanistan" shines a light on our humanity and makes the days my son was away more real. He came home whole and mostly healthy. I am grateful that Tupper chose to share his experiences in this book. They bring me closer to my son.
Summary of Welcome To Afghanistan: Send More Ammo
Working in teams of two, ETTs are tasked with training, leading in combat, and mentoring the Afghan Army to victory against the thriving and brutal Taliban insurgency. Writing and recording from a remote outpost, Benjamin Tupper's boots-on-the-ground dispatches were broadcast on NPR and posted on Doonesbury's milblog The Sandbox. Now he takes us inside the intricacies of the war, opening up a unique and multifaceted view of Afghan culture and war tactics. From the rush of gunfi re to surreal, euphoric moments of cross-cultural understanding, this emotional and thought-provoking narrative is rich with humor, eloquence and contradiction. Writing of danger and desire, confusion and camaraderie, outrage and inspiration, Tupper illuminates the challenges of the war, vividly bringing to life both the mundane and the extraordinary and seeking a way forward. Readers will take away an understanding of the Afghan people, from soldiers to interpreters to villagers, that is critical to shaping our policies in what will soon be America's longest war. His journey comes full circle; from direct involvement in fi ghting for Afghanistan's future he is suddenly transported back home, haunted by dreams and enduring the travails of PTSD. Welcome to Afghanistan offers new insight into America's eight-year mission, and takes readers to a place where our warriors need us to go.Afghanistan Books
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