Combat Outpost Keating...the story by Jake Tapper...

[billc]

Here is a little known story of our troops fighting in Afghanistan, by one of the few actual journalists covering the White House.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2012/11/19/Jake-Tapper-Interview-the-outpost

Jake Tapper's "The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor" more than lives up to its title. It's a remarkably compelling, heartbreaking, and inspiring tale about a little known battle in the Afghan War that cost the lives of eight brave Americans during a brutal sneak attack that found us outnumbered 53 to 400.

Other than themes exploring American sacrifice and heroism, the most important element in "The Outpost" is the context. Too often the stories reported about our military are told through a soda straw context that's mean to further an agenda while still hiding behind the term "historical accuracy." Tapper's having none of that. He tells the full story and any conclusions drawn come from the only people who have earned that right: the men who fought that day.

BNN: I've read that you heard the story of Combat Outpost Keating when you were in the hospital holding your newborn son. At what point, though, did you know what you really had -- that you had something special and, better still, all to yourself?

JT: The stories as I began to hear them from the troops and their families were just on their faces so moving and incredible, that I pretty much knew right away that potentially this project could be special, just because the tales were already so tragic, and inspiring, and in some cases surreal. As for having it “all too myself” – unfortunately given the limited coverage of the war in Afghanistan, that was never really a concern.

BNN: In the book's closing notes you thank some people for convincing you to make the project more ambitious than what you originally had intended. What changed?

JT: “The Outpost” was originally going to be titled “Enemy In the Wire” and it was going to focus just on the last troop at the camp, Black Knight Troop from 3-61 Cav, and the last, terrifying battle, in which Taliban fighters got inside the outpost and during which eight U.S. troops were killed.
But after he read about my book project, a former intelligence officer with 3-71 Cav, the first squadron to push into Kunar/Nuristan, reached out to me. Former Army captain Ross Berkoff wanted to make sure that I knew about all the incredible stories that took place during his deployment, from 2006 through 2007, about Lt. Col. Joe Fenty, and about Lt. Ben Keating – whom the outpost is named after – and Medal of Honor winner Jared Monti, and Oklahoma National Guardsman Buddy Hughie.
And then Dave Roller, a former lieutenant with Bulldog Troop, 1-91 Cav, did a similar thing – he wanted me to tell the stories of Captain Tom Bostick and Staff Sergeant Ryan Fritche and Private First Class Chris Pfeifer -- and it went on from there.

BNN: Something I see a lot from Hollywood is how they construct a story to make America the arch-villain even as they present our troops as the good guys fighting some sort of enemy (aliens, terrorists, Nazis). It's a sleight-of-hand that allows Hollywood to pose as patriotic, even as they portray our national security infrastructure or military brass as incompetent or made up of cold, selfish calculating types. The Bourne films are a good example; so is "The Dirty Dozen" and the last couple of Jack Ryan films. I'll admit that when I read the "The Outpost" dust jacket my left-wing trope-alert went off, but that's not the story you told. And with all the mistakes that were made at the highest levels, it would've been very easy to tell the story that way. My question is -- and I do have one -- if Hollywood comes calling (and they should) will you please make sure they don't change that?

JT: Of course. But I can’t imagine anyone reading this book and feeling anything but empathy and admiration for the troops who served at the outpost. Those in Hollywood who have reached out did so because they found the stories so moving and compelling.
I do note some examples of decisions that seem questionable in retrospect made by commanders (and folks in Washington, D.C.) but for the most part they weren’t examples of incompetence or selfishness, they were born from a desire to win the war, they just don’t hold up very well in retrospect given what happened. I tried to make it very clear that the only “bad guys” in the book are the ones with guns trying to kill Americans.

 

[billc]

BNN: One of the book's touching themes established early on, is how so many of these guys, and not for cynical reasons, see the military as something truly wonderful that allows them a second chance in life or a way out of a life they felt was dragging them down. After all the hell they went through, do you think they still feel that way?

JT: Absolutely. For many of these troops, if they hadn’t joined the Army they would have ended up dead or in jail. The military offered them discipline, self-respect and a purpose that had previously eluded them. None of that changes because of the tragedies of war.

What some of them are dealing with now, though, are Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury. That’s dragging them down quite a bit and this country better get its act together quickly to figure out how to provide the help for these heroes that they need.

One of the stories I told in the book was that of a hero, Ed Faulkner, Jr., who survives the attack on Combat Outpost Keating but comes back home and faces an enemy even worse than that he faced in the mountains of Nuristan: the demons in his mind and the indifference of the Army. His tale was one I told as a cautionary tale: there are a lot more Ed Faulkners out there.

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[arnisador]

Whatever brings more attention to what's happening there is a good thing, I say.