A War Like This One

"A gripping, intelligent account of combat in our nation's longest war."-General David Petraeus, US Army (Ret.), former commander of Coalition Forces in Afghanistan

"A compelling and vivid account of combat leadership under challenging conditions." -Lieutenant General H. R. McMaster, US Army (Ret.), former national security advisor

In 2011, United States Army Captain A. J. Koss led the 145 men of Action Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, into Wardak Province, charged with securing the most contested stretch of Afghanistan's Highway 1. The predeployment briefings promised a war winding down, an Afghan National Army nearly ready to take the lead, and a population whose hearts and minds were finally turning. The valley that surrounded the remote combat outpost where he and his men found themselves would tell a different story.

For the next eleven months, Koss and his soldiers relentlessly patrolled hostile territory, fought through ambushes and IEDs, and worked alongside an Afghan partner force they could not trust. They killed, they bled, and they buried friends-all for ground that would never be theirs to hold.

A War Like This One is the unvarnished account of small-unit command in America's longest war: the weight of 145 lives, the chasm between official optimism and ground truth, and the quiet cost of duty.