Black Hearts: One Platoon's Descent into Madness in Iraq's Triangle of Death
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This is the story of a small group of soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division’s fabled 502nd Infantry Regiment—a unit known as “the Black Heart Brigade.” Deployed in late 2005 to Iraq’s so-called Triangle of Death, a veritable meat grinder just south of Baghdad, the Black Hearts found themselves in arguably the country’s most dangerous location at its most dangerous time. Hit by near-daily mortars, gunfire, and roadside bomb attacks, suffering from a particularly heavy death toll, and enduring a chronic breakdown in leadership, members of one Black Heart platoon—1st Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion—descended, over their year-long tour of duty, into a tailspin of poor discipline, substance abuse, and brutality.Four 1st Platoon soldiers would perpetrate one of the most heinous war crimes U.S. forces have committed during the Iraq War—the rape of a fourteen-year-old Iraqi girl and the cold-blooded execution of her and her family. Three other 1st Platoon soldiers would be overrun at a remote outpost—one killed immediately and two taken from the scene, their mutilated corpses found days later booby-trapped with explosives.Black Hearts is an unflinching account of the epic, tragic deployment of 1st Platoon. Drawing on hundreds of hours of in-depth interviews with Black Heart soldiers and first-hand reporting from the Triangle of Death, Black Hearts is a timeless story about men in combat and the fragility of character in the savage crucible of warfare. But it is also a timely warning of new dangers emerging in the way American soldiers are led on the battlefields of the twenty-first century. The Washington Post - Chris Bray …a meticulous look at an ill-fated platoon that served in the Iraq war…the book demands to be read, particularly by military leaders.
Prelude: March 12, 2006 1Summer 20051 "We've Got to Get South Baghdad Under Control" 112 The Kunk Gun 24October 20053 "This Is Now the Most Dangerous Place in Iraq" 414 Relief in Place, Transfer of Authority 515 1st Platoon at the JS Bridge 656 Contact 77November 20057 Route Sportster and Bradley Bridge 938 Communication Breakdowns 1089 The Mean Squad 11910 "Soldiers Are Not Stupid" 125December 200511 Nelson and Casica 13512 "It Is Fucking Pointless" 14813 Britt and Lopez 16114 Leadership Shake-up 170January 200615 Gallagher 185February 200616 February 1 20317 Fenlason Arrives 223March 200618 Back to the TCPs 24119 The Mayor of Mullah Fayyad 25120 The Janabis 25821 Twenty-one Days 271April-June 200622 "We Had Turned a Corner" 28523 The Alamo 30124 Dilemma and Discovery 31025 "Remember That Murder of That Iraqi Family?" 316July-September 200626 The Fight Goes On 33327 "This Was Life and Death Stuff" 340Epilogue: The Triangle of Death Today and Trials at Home 350Postscript 365List of Characters 371Military Units and Ranks 375Acronyms and Abbreviations 377Acknowledgments 379Notes 385Selected Bibliography 417Index 431
