Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of US Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan [Hardcover]

Doug Stanton (Author)

Book Description

Release date: May 5, 2009

From the New York Times-bestselling author of In Harm's Way comes a true-life story of American soldiers overcoming great odds to achieve a stunning military victory.

Horse Soldiers is the dramatic account of a small band of Special Forces soldiers who secretly entered Afghanistan following 9/11 and rode to war on horses against the Taliban. Outnumbered forty to one, they pursued the enemy across mountainous terrain and, after a series of intense battles, captured the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, which was strategically essential if they were to defeat the Taliban.

The bone-weary American soldiers were welcomed as liberators, and overjoyed Afghans thronged the streets. Then the action took a wholly unexpected turn. During a surrender of six hundred Taliban troops, the Horse Soldiers were ambushed. Dangerously outnumbered, they fought for their lives in the city's immense fortress, Qala-i-Janghi, or the House of War. At risk were the military gains of the entire campaign: if the soldiers perished or were captured, the effort to defeat the Taliban might be doomed.

As the Americans struggled to hold the fortress, they faced some of the most intense urban warfare of our time. But until now the full story of the Horse Soldiers has never been told. Doug Stanton received unprecedented cooperation from the U.S. Army's Special Forces soldiers and Special Operations helicopter pilots, as well as access to voluminous after-battle reports. In addition, he interviewed more than one hundred participants and walked every inch of the climactic battleground.

This exciting story is filled with unforgettable characters: brave Special Forces soldiers, tough CIA operatives, cunning Afghan warlords, anxious stateside soldiers' wives who do not know where their husbands have gone, and humble Afghan boys spying on the Taliban.

Deeply researched and beautifully written, Stanton's account of America's quest to liberate an oppressed people touches the mythic. The Horse Soldiers combined ancient strategies of cavalry warfare with twenty-first-century aerial bombardment technology to perform a seemingly impossible feat. Moreover, their careful effort to win the hearts of local townspeople and avoid civilian casualties proved a valuable lesson for America's ongoing efforts in Afghanistan.

Horse Soldiers is a big-hearted and thrilling read, with an epic story that reaches not just across the cold mountains of Afghanistan but into the homes of small-town America, and confirms Doug Stanton as one of our country's preeminent storytellers.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In this absolutely riveting account, full of horror and raw courage, journalist Stanton (In Harm's Way) recreates the miseries and triumphs of specially trained mounted U.S. soldiers, deployed in the war-ravaged Afghanistan mountains to fight alongside the Northern Alliance-thousands of rag-tag Afghans who fought themselves to exhaustion or death-against the Taliban. The U.S. contingent, almost to a man, had never ridden horses-especially not these "shaggy and thin-legged, and short... descendents of the beasts Genghis Khan had ridden out of Uzbekistan"-but that was not the only obstacle: rattling helicopters, outdated maps, questionable air support and insufficient food also played their parts. Stanton brings each soldier and situation to vivid life: "Bennett suddenly belted out: 'It just keeps getting better and better!' Here they were, living on fried sheep and filtered ditchwater...calling in ops-guided bombs on bunkers built of mud and wood scrap, surrounded by Taliban fighters." In less than three months, this handful of troops secured a city in which a fort had been taken over by Taliban prisoners, a tangle of firefights and mayhem that became a seminal battle and, in Stanton's prose, a considerable epic: "Dead and dying men and wounded horses had littered the courtyard, a twitching choir that brayed and moaned in the rough, knee-high grass."

Review

“A fascinating account…This is not just a battle story—it’s also about the home front. An important book.” –The Today Show

“A thrilling action ride of a book.” –Bruce Barcott, cover of The New York Times Book Review

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; First Edition edition (May 5, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416580514
• ISBN-13: 978-1416580515
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1.3 x 9.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (196 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #247,070 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Doug Stanton lives in his hometown of Traverse City, Michigan, and has worked as a creative writing and English teacher at the undergraduate and graduate college level, and at Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan as writer-in-residence. He has also worked as a commercial fisherman, and caretaker of Robert Frost's house in Vermont. He has traveled extensively as a contributing editor (under yearly contract) for Esquire, Men's Journal and Outside magazines, writing travel, adventure, and political pieces, as well as cover stories about Hollywood figures like Harrison Ford, George Clooney, and Clint Eastwood. He is a founder of the high-profile Traverse City Film Festival, an annual celebration of cinema. With his contacts in the Department of Defense, Pentagon, and various branches of the U.S. military, Stanton is a subject matter expert in the areas of insurgency, counter-insurgency, and unconventional and civil wars.

Stanton graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy as a creative writing and theater student, and from Hampshire College in Massachusetts with a B.A.; and he received an MFA from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 47 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excitement personified June 21, 2009

By Charles G. Irvine

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Mr Stanton has created a fascinating narrative of the exploits of the US Special Forces in what was prewar Afghanistan.
The book title refers to the fact that our US SF needed to mount horses in order to stay with the Northern Alliance tribesmen they were helping to drive out the Taliban. Many of them had never before been on a horse. Really tough duty, especially on makeshift wooden saddles. The SF people are introduced by name, and you are given their bios, leading to the reader becoming intimate with all of them. A most interesting approach to telling the story.
I highly recommend this book.

74 of 81 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars a stunning account - The Charge of the 9/11 Brigade May 6, 2009

By wogan TOP 50 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

I was given this book by a friend, so I looked at it and immediately - sat down, started reading and finished it almost one sitting. Horse Soldiers is the impressive story of the US Special Forces team sent into Afghanistan after 9/11 to capture Mazar-I-Sharif. So the first action against terrorists of the 21st century winds up conducted on horse back, more accurately a cavalry charge much like Mosby's raiders during the Civil War. There is action, pathos and even a bit of humor as a group of Special Forces men who had only, for the most part ridden horses in summer camp ride into battle. There was so much that was captivating, I found myself stopping to read passages out loud to my husband.
If I was still teaching current history this would be on the reading list, and I know it would be well received. I will be surprised to not see this book become a movie, its tale is gripping and fascinating. The men in this story will make you proud of our service men, their bravery, courage and at the same time you will be intrigued and awed by the skill and methods of our modern military.
As one who grew up in the army and have always been near those whose hearts and souls are given to protect us - this is a stunning account that reaches the best of a story teller's writing, except this is true and will make those who read it, aware of, and thankful for the skill and bravery that is written of in this book .

63 of 75 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An epic tale brilliantly told May 5, 2009

By Joe Mielke

Format:Hardcover

Horse Soldiers will take readers from the freezing interior of a high tech Chinook helicopter flying higher than it safely can through the mountains of Afghanistan delivering soldiers to desert gun fights fought on horse back harkening America's old west. It's a modern day Odessy written with a journalist's penchant for detail and Homer's gift for telling a warrior's story.

In the end it is also the harrowing tale of how a small group of American Special Forces and the CIA working with Afghan soldiers managed to defeat the Taliban in one of the world's remotest battlefields.

It's not a book about politics. Stanton sets out to tell what happened, how it happened and who it happened to. He does this with startling attention to detail and a an objective overview of U.S. Military actions.

At one point American bombers can't seem to hit a target whether the bombs are guided by Global Positioning System coordinates or LASERs. Near the end of the book they drop a bomb on some of their own men.

But it is Stanton's ability to weave a story that brings the book alive and takes readers to places they would rather not be to hear things they would rather not hear and to see things they would rather not see and to smell things they would rather not smell.

The story is told in a narrative fashion sometimes switching between Afghan battle and a spouse battling her emotions about whether her husband will come back home. And, although this switching back and forth fills in interesting background, it's a technique more akin to screen writing than book writing. It makes it harder for readers to keep track of what's happening to whom....

There are unusual moments as when Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld actually calls and asks why the soldiers aren't making enough progress and one of Special Forces officers writes a reply that Rumsfeld reads from during a press conference describing the miserable conditions and bravery of the Afghan fighters.

Stanton writes about the complexity of flying a helicopter under extreme conditions; cold, wind and extreme altitude like this: "You had essentially flown to the dead end of a physics equation."

Stanton relied on more than 100 books, articles and web sites and an equal number of interviews in writing this well documented book. He also traveled to Afghanistan to flesh out details and to see the fort where one of the major battles took place.

The book appeals to general readers seeking a good story well told as well as to those with an interest in history and the military. It also is a testament to the effectiveness of soldier-philiosphers who can outthink their enemies and think with their allies before they start shooting. Read more ›

85 of 107 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Poor research July 1, 2009

By Robert C. Kolpien

Format:Hardcover

The story of 5th Group and the Northern Alliance is outstanding, but being a 20+ year veteran of Special Forces I was greatly disappointed in the research. After reading that Roger's Rangers fought against the British in the Revolutionary War as opposed to fighting with the British against the French in the French and Indian War I was amazed at such a historical error. Claiming Special Forces committed the majority of attrocities in Vietnam is just false. The story is good, the writing mediocre, and the research horrible.

24 of 31 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Quiet Professions May 6, 2009

By Rodger Shomo

Format:Hardcover

Doug Stanton's new book "The Horse Soldiers" is an engrossing read. Stanton not only vividly brings the reader right into the middle of the firefights and paradoxical scenes of U.S. Special Forces soldiers calling in smart bomb airstrikes from horseback, but also the tender, heart-wrenching personal stories of their wives awaiting their safe return. The success of this small group of men in Afghanistan immediately after 9/11, should be the model for future U.S. involvement in these types of actions. He gives these "Quiet Professionals" their due and rightful place as modern heroes, not only of military action and sacrifice, but as diplomats who think first and shoot only as a last resort. "The Horse Soldiers" should be issued to every Cabinet member of the Obama Administration as required reading for understanding the complexities of one the world's oldest political focal points and a blueprint on how to curtail the Taliban's reemergence in Afghanistan and Pakistan.