The Wolves of Helmand

A View from Inside the Den of Modern War

Frank "Gus" Biggio

• Publisher: Forefront Books
• Year: 2020
• Topic: Social Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9781948677653
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

At turns poignant, funny, philosophical, and raw—but always real— The Wolves of Helmand is both a heartfelt homage to the Marine brotherhood with whom Biggio served and an expression of respect and love for the people of Afghanistan who ultimately trusted, shared, and appreciated their purpose. Ten years after serving his country as a U.S. Marine, Captain Frank "Gus" Biggio signed up once again because he missed the brotherhood of the military. Leaving behind his budding law career, his young wife, and newborn son, he was deployed to Helmand Province—the most violent region in war-torn Afghanistan—for reasons few would likely understand before reading this book. Riven by conflict and occupation for centuries because of its strategic location, the region he landed in was, at that time, a hotbed of Taliban insurgency. As a participant in the landmark U.S.-led Operation Khanjar, Biggio and his fellow Marines were executing a new-era military strategy. Focused largely on empowerment of the local population, the offensive began with a troop surge designed to thwart the Taliban, but was more importantly followed by the restoration of the local government and real-time capacity building among the withdrawn and destitute Afghan people. The Wolves of Helmand is unlike other war memoirs. It takes us less into the action—though there is that too—and more into the quiet places of today's war zones. Yes, you'll read of our Marines' stealth arrival in a single night, our advanced weaponry, and our pop-up industrial village command centers. You'll read, as well, about the ambushed patrols and the carnage of IEDs. But you will also read of the persistence, humility, ruggedness, loneliness, tedium, diplomacy, and humanity of our Marines' jobs there, which more than anything else reveals the magnitude of even the smallest victories. Completed years after the author's return from his mission, The Wolves of Helmand is most of all a decade-long self-examination of a warrior's heart, conscience, and memory. Whether intended or not, Biggio's deep reflections and innate honesty answer every question you've ever wanted to ask about life and death in war—and even questions you probably never thought to ask. What calls a warrior to duty? What makes, sustains, plagues, and even breaks a warrior? These are bigger questions than the ones impolite society pokes around when a veteran returns home— Did you kill anyone? Did you have to go? Why would you fight for another country? Why were we even there? Yet the answers to those queries are here, too, in this thoughtful memoir that will make you think about war, family, love, and loss.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Author’s Note
• Foreword
• Chapter 1: Hit the Ground Running
• Chapter 2: Coming Home (Part 1)
• Chapter 3: Pray for Peace, but Prepare for War
• Chapter 4: The Art of War by PowerPoint
• Chapter 5: Crossing the Rubicon
• Chapter 6: Where the Wild Things Are
• Chapter 7: Badges? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Badges!
• Chapter 8: That First Night
• Chapter 9: Envy
• Chapter 10: The Governor Arrives
• Chapter 11: Lingua Franca
• Chapter 12: Killing Mir Wut
• Chapter 13: BOLO
• Chapter 14: The Cost of Conflict
• Chapter 15: Conversations with God
• Chapter 16: PID
• Chapter 17: Tiny Little Graves
• Chapter 18: Time and Toil
• Chapter 19: An Honest Man in the ’Stan
• Chapter 20: The Mullahs
• Chapter 21: On the Home Front
• Chapter 22: Izzy
• Chapter 23: Holy Cow!
• Chapter 24: Tea with the Taliban
• Chapter 25: Indecent Proposal
• Chapter 26: The Hidden Half
• Chapter 27: Call Me Ishmael
• Chapter 28: Winning
• Chapter 29: Coming Home (Part 2)
• Chapter 30: What It’s Like to Go to War
• Chapter 31: Being Home
• Chapter 32: The Governor’s Farewell
• Chapter 33: There and Back Again
• Award Recipients from Nawa 2009 Deployment
• Corps Quotes: Things People Say in a War Zone
• Photographs
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Glossary of Military Terms, Acronyms, and Pashto Words and Phrases
• Endnotes
• Copyright