Boots-on-the-ground memoir of fighting in the bloody Arghandab River Valley with 2/508th PIR, 82nd Airborne. "DAMN THE VALLEY" was a phrase regularly uttered by the men that spent any amount of time in the Arghandab River Valley during the deployment of 2 Fury to Afghanistan in 2009-2010. The valley has claimed bodies from the troops of Alexander the Great, the British Empire, and more recently, the Russian Army. Operating in the valley was like nothing the men could have envisaged, they called it the "meat grinder." It was a deployment that the media didn't talk about, and the government doesn't acknowledge. Three of the company were KIA, more than a dozen suffered life-changing injuries, and half the company had Purple Hearts-not many modern-day deployments have a 52% casualty rate. At one point, the entire prosthetics ward at Walter Reed was full of the men who patrolled that deadly area of the world. Since their return, many of the survivors have struggled to move on with their lives, and the unit has been declared at "extraordinary risk" by the Department of Veteran Affairs. William Yeske has no idea how he got out of the Arghandab unscathed. In this book he shares his perspective as a lower enlisted in this bloody deployment. AUTHOR: William (Will) Yeske is a combat veteran who served 11 years in the U.S. Army. He is a serial entrepreneur who brings significant expertise in marketing, IT, and project management. He currently runs and operates a marketing company, No Limits Marketing Group (NLMG), founded to help small businesses survive the COVID-19 pandemic. It uses a combination of modern marketing techniques coupled with a non-lethal targeting framework learned in the military to provide clients with winning strategies. Will was also a founding board member of a Veteran non-profit, Rally for the Troops (now part of Racing for Heroes) and has worked on other veteran-based projects. He is currently attending Columbia Business School while running current business projects, creating new possibilities for future endeavors, and parenting his two children with his wife, who is also a US military veteran. 30 b/w photographs
Industry Reviews
"Damn the Valley belongs on the bookshelf of every person who wants to know what war in Afghanistan was like--the remote outposts, the blistering heat and frigid cold, the tasteless food, the mountains, deserts, and terraced valleys, and the challenge of fighting ghosts among a population who called places like the Arghandab Valley home."-- "Modern War Institute"
"This book transcends the genre of military memoirs. Damn the Valley offers an unparalleled glimpse into the heart of the Afghanistan conflict as experienced by a platoon of 82nd Airborne Paratroopers. The author's firsthand account is both riveting and deeply moving, shedding light on the courage, sacrifice, and resilience of those who served. It's an essential read for comprehending the complexities and personal toll of modern warfare."--Jason Kasper, former Special Forces officer and USA Today Bestselling Author of the "Shadow Strike Series"
"Damn the Valley is a riveting book, written by a combat veteran of the same operations. It has the grit and realism that only can be achieved by personal experience. It also is interspersed with the macabre humor that only combat can hone and act as that release valve for surviving by a hair. I found myself transported to the battle and walked beside the author and his comrades. The writing is crisp and resourceful. One can almost feel the dust, the misery, the long hours and sleep deprivation, the smell of poor sanitation, sweat, and fear permeate its pages as you follow the authors journey."--Nick Brockhausen, author of "We Few" and "Whispers in the Tall Grass"
"A riveting, unsparing, gritty, first-hand account of life in a great airborne unit that engaged in some of the toughest fighting in Afghanistan, in "the Arghandab," a district whose name became a metaphor for brutal close combat against tenacious enemies. Damn the Valley captures vividly the intense dynamics and relationships in the brotherhood of the close fight in the toughest imaginable conditions - and also the extraordinary reliance of paratroopers on their airborne buddies on their left and right and their leaders. A great read!" --General David Petraeus, former Commander of the Surge in Iraq, US Central Command, and NATO/US Forces in Afghanistan; former Director of the CIA; and co-author of "Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine"
