Victory Point: Operations Red Wings and Whalers - the Marine Corps' Battle for Freedom in Afghanistan Hardcover – April 7, 2009

“Victory Point” is an excellent book about Marines operating in some of the most extreme geography in their history: the Hindu Kush. While most of the Marine Corps operations in Afghanistan were in Helmand province, Marines operated in smaller units as part of Combined Joint Task Force (CJTF) 180 and later CJTF-76 out of Bagram. As Marines have fought in “every clime and place”, the actions depicted in “Victory Point” may well be the highest altitude combat operations in the Corps’ history.

In the beginning of the book, Mr. Darack does an accurate job of detailing, in a concise but comprehensive manner:

The history of the Marine Corps’ “small wars” operations and its long culture of working with and reaching out to and gaining the trust of local indigenous populations.

The combined arms approach (air/ground team) of the Marine Corps to war fighting. Not only is this an important part of the Corps’ ethos and methodology, it plays an important role, in fact THE decisive role, in the combat actions depicted in the book.

The history of armed conflict in Afghanistan and the background on the Russian military involvement and the irony of the importance of Nangalam, where Camp Blessing is located, in drawing the Russian military into Afghanistan in the first place.

The history of the Taliban and how they originated and became a powerful force in Afghanistan.

The unique and challenging operating environment and command structure of the Combined Joint Task Force (CJTF) operating out of Bagram. These command relationships and how those relationships changed as units and Commanders cycled in and out of the CJTF became important issues as the action develops particularly in the “Red Wings” portion of the book.

So, before the action even starts, Mr. Darak gives the reader an important history lesson on the units involved, their cultures, methods of operations and the historical backdrop of the operational area.

In the same manner as “We Were Soldiers Once and Young” by Hal Moore, his depictions of the two operations: “Red Wings” and “Whalers” provide some great lessons for students of military history and especially those interested in high altitude, steep topographical terrain operations. The choice of radios, helicopters (or not…), appropriate caliber weaponry, supporting arms coordination (mortars, artillery, and air), the importance of maintaining the high ground, risk assessment and most importantly: decision-making and how these are different in the two operations are very instructive.

In addition, the Marines’ bias towards “bridging the cultural divide” as the key to winning the overall campaign in Afghanistan and how this draws on the Corps’ small wars tradition is an important part of not only the events in Victory Point but the entire Coalition efforts in Afghanistan.

I flew out of Bagram with a Marine Reserve H-53 squadron one year prior to the events in Victory Point for eight months in support as part of CJTF-180 and then CJTF-76. I also supported some operations out of Camp Blessing during the time the SOF units were turning it over to the Marines. From my perspective, this is a very accurate rendition of the challenges faced by units operating within the unusual command structure of the CJTF. Often the synergy of the units from different services can be very effective and very powerful but when personalities change and units change out, the working relationships can change too.

Ed Darak has done a great service to students of military history and documented a very unique chapter in US Military history and Marine Corps history. This book is also an indictment on the value of a professional embedded journalist during a combat deployment. As I said, the events depicted may well be the highest altitude combat operations in the history of the Marine Corps. This is an excellent read for those interested in military operations in Afghanistan.

The book is a must read in my opinion if you want to learn more about the history of Afghanistan and how they came to be where they are today and all the different provinces and people of that area. While this book does encompass Operation Red Wings, it does not spend a lot of time dwelling on it. It covers more of the build up with operation before that, during, and after. This book is very detail oriented, to the point where I just had to skip over some of the technical jargon to get to the action of the story. It also details somewhat the history of the Marines, and more so the men involved there, from all branches of the military, and how they all made a difference in the war there. God Bless America and God Bless all our American men and women who fight for our freedom on a daily basis.

This is, as Paul Harvey used to say, the rest of the story.
That story is the one told in the book and movie, Lone Survivor.

This book gives you the whole story of how politics and Rules of Engagement needlessly put US forces in harm's way.

If you liked Lone Surviver, you must read this.

Be prepared to laugh, cry and pound your fists in frustration. My heart both cheers on our Marines and Army as they surpass whatever stupidity is commanding them and it breaks that they even have to put up with such an incompetent and self-serving command structure. I served 20 years in the command and control field and witnessed those officers and senior enlisted who only worried about their next promotion. While frustrating, as in Victory Point, good officers and NCOs will always find a way around it or ignore them altogether.

I was in the Air Force - this makes me want to hug every Marine I see.

I really enjoyed this book. While I found the history lessons to informative, though they did drag out the first third of the book. Once the action started, it was a very fast read. I thought the book presented an portrayal of events that rang true with my military experiences. I did not feel, as some do, that the book was a scathing condemnation of the actions taken by the SEALs during Operation Red Wings. Rather, I felt it pointed out the failures of the various operational commands and it illustrates how bureaucracy, ego, and lack of cooperation leads to the death of good men. To be specific; In this case the Marines developed and planned this mission and were most the framilar with it. What they needed were helicopters and expert pilots and thats what they should have got. Instead, they got a military bureaucracy that told them that they couldnt borrow some special operations helicopters and pilots withouth special operations running the whole thing. I believe this last minute change in command and control contributed largely to the inital failure.

Victory Point goes into great detail about the reason, the planning, and the execution of Operation Red Wings (Redwing). It even reveals the reason for the name. The author includes a lot of historical detail for background, and at times trying to understand the command lines can be tough, but the way it was presented showed it to be convoluted, which is in part why things went bad during Red Wings. Very pro Marine Corps, but also pro Navy SEAL as well as pro Army (especially the helicopter pilots). Victory Point also goes into great detail on Operation Whalers--where the Marines take down Ahmad Shah's army.
There are other books on Red Wings, and none on Whalers. There are different accounts of Red Wings, but in my opinion none lays it out in as even headed, straight forward manner as Victory Point.

Excellent book with some great insight into these operations. For non-military folks, the endless use of abbreviations are going to be a bit challenging to remember.

All you Marines get this book.