What's New on the Library Shelves? | Non-Fiction Edition

 Check out these new books at the Exeter Public Library.

Red Platoon Chronicles: A Soldier's Memoir by Boyd Jones

Explore the terrifying and inspirational experiences of troops sent into the heart of battle in Red Platoon Chronicles: A Soldier's Memoir. This engrossing biography explores the struggles and victories of Red Platoon in great detail, providing an unvarnished story of their journey from the front lines of combat to their introspective times back home.

The author leads readers on a captivating journey through friendship, selflessness, and the enduring human spirit, all while describing the story in vivid detail and with genuine passion. Every page conveys the deep effects of war on the lives of those who serve, from the tumultuous, adrenaline-filled madness of battle to the serene moments of companionship around the campfire.

Red Platoon faces dread, loss, and the unbreakable connections of brotherhood that get them through the worst of times as they negotiate the difficulties of war. They create ties that go beyond the confusion of combat when they have moments of clarity and connection through the fog of war.

Red Platoon: A True Story of American Valor by Clinton Romesha

The only comprehensive, firsthand account of the fourteen-hour firefight at the Battle of Keating in Afghanistan by Medal of Honor recipient Clinton Romesha, for readers of Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden and Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell.
 
“‘It doesn't get better.’ To us, that phrase nailed one of the essential truths, maybe even the essential truth, about being stuck at an outpost whose strategic and tactical vulnerabilities were so glaringly obvious to every soldier who had ever set foot in that place that the name itself—Keating—had become a kind of backhanded joke.”
 
In 2009, Clinton Romesha of Red Platoon and the rest of the Black Knight Troop were preparing to shut down Command Outpost (COP) Keating, the most remote and inaccessible in a string of bases built by the US military in Nuristan and Kunar in the hope of preventing Taliban insurgents from moving freely back and forth between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Three years after its construction, the army was finally ready to concede what the men on the ground had known immediately: it was simply too isolated and too dangerous to defend. 
 
On October 3, 2009, after years of constant smaller attacks, the Taliban finally decided to throw everything they had at Keating. The ensuing fourteen-hour battle—and eventual victory—cost eight men their lives. 
 
Red Platoon is the riveting firsthand account of the Battle of Keating, told by Romesha, who spearheaded both the defense of the outpost and the counterattack that drove the Taliban back beyond the wire and received the Medal of Honor for his actions.