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| The Kunar Province lies in eastern Afghanistan, abutting the Pakistani border in the Hindu Kush mountains. The Kunar is a storied region, relatively untamed, very beautiful, and one of the 'hot spots' in the Global War on Terror. Due to its mountainous physiography and location along the Pakistani border, the area continues to see the influx of Islamic extremist fighters. |
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Location of the Kunar Province / Ed Darack
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U.S. Marines near Nangalam, Kunar Province / Ed Darack |
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The Kunar is the setting of two U.S. Marine Corps operations documented in the non-fiction book, VICTORY POINT: Operations Red Wings and Whalers - The Marine Corps' Battle for Freedom in Afghanistan. The target of both operations was a terrorist / insurgent cell led by a man named Ahmad Shah, who based his operations, in part, out of the Korangal Valley. The Marine Corps planners of Red Wings brought in Navy SEALs for the opening phases of the op (for reasons to be disclosed for the first time in VICTORY POINT); the four-man SEAL reconnaissance and surveillance team tasked to positively identify Shah inserted near the summit of the mountain named Sawtalo Sar (which defines the eastern periphery of the Korangal Valley) on the night of 27 June, 2005. Just hours later, in the late morning of the 28th, they fell into a horrific ambush at the hands of Shah and his men, killing three, with only one survivor. 16 special operations personnell (8 Navy SEALs and 8 Army special operations aviators of the 160th SOAR(A)) subsequently perished when one of Shah's men shot the Army Special Operations MH-47 Chinook they were in down during the rescue attempt. Operation Whalers, which had the same goal as Red Wings, utilized only U.S. Marines with attached Afghan National Army Soldiers, had a much different outcome. |
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– VICTORY POINT named one of the 20 best books of 2009 by the United States Naval Institute – |
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| Learn more about VICTORY POINT and Operation Red Wings and Operation Whalers by going to the book's companion / primer page at www.darack.com/victorypoint |
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