Bringing you to a more recent battle in a different part of the world, The Chosen Few by Gregg Zoroya is a detailed account of how a U.S. Paratroopers company fought in eastern Afghanistan in 2007.
In hopes to go in on a single, swift mission in order to befriend the isolated people who lived high in the peaks, detached from society, the mission turned to anything but quick. This long, drawn-out battle of survival, struggle, and defense against an outnumbered attack is detailed in Zoroya's book.
An absolute must to be added to the reading list of any paratrooper, The Chosen Few follows a particular story of a Paratroopers' Company in the war in Afghanistan through their 15-month journey that ended in the 2008 Battle of Wanat.
Zoroya details the horrors of how a mission that was meant to reach out to the remote mountain people in the wilderness of Afghanistan turned ghastly wrong. Overtaken in sheer numbers by Taliban fighters, defending themselves against rocket-propelled grenades and machine-gun fire, the paratroopers' drawn-out battle then ended violently near the village of Wanat, with 300 of them against 50 of us—in the bloodiest battle of the war in Afghanistan.
Relayed to Zoroya by the men who experienced it, this award-winning journalist doesn't just go over the moment-by-moment details of that particular battle in his book, but draws the reader into an exclusive look at what was going on in the minds of the soldiers of the paratroopers' decorated Company.
In a story of bravery and loss, The Chosen Few should inspire any military reader with character, courage, and commitment—the same that was within the Company during their last battle.
Who is the author? Gregg Zoroya is a decorated journalist and on the editorial board member at USA Today. He has ventured nearly 30 times into war zones both in South Asia and the Middle East to report war as accurately as possible to the general public. In this book, he relays a highly detailed account of the war in Afghanistan by the paratroopers in the war themselves.
