The Devil’s Playground was the name given to the Arghandab Valley of Afghanistan by the US troops who fought there. It is also the title of a book written by Andrew Bragg about his fellow paratroopers of Charlie Company’s 2nd Platoon and their 2009-2010 deployment to the valley. His unit experienced fifty percent casualties and six KIA during that deployment.
Andrew says “I thought about the guys in my platoon every single day for 12 years, but I never reached out”. After reading Ben Kesling’s book “Bravo Company” and William Yeske’s “Damn the Valley,” Andrew reached out to his Two-Charlie Company comrades about authoring a book. Previous trepidations were overcome by the fact that one of their own would be the author. Andrew spent 16 months traveling to 20 states to reunite with 35 fellow soldiers. He says that because the “scabs were still fresh” he knew he was playing with fire but it ended up being very cathartic.
Two Charlie Company “inherited” combat outpost Tynes and had to rebuild the site with anything they could beg, borrow or “acquire”. They soon learned that “When the leaves returned to the grape fields so did the fighting.” Other challenges included a less than friendly native population and the constant threat of IED’s during their patrols. Andrew relates a situation where he came within a couple of feet triggering a trip wire device.
We spend some time talking about Christopher Moon, a product of my own hometown who passed up the opportunity to play Major League baseball to serve our nation. Chris was the platoon sniper and was so deadly, the enemy began to specifically target “the man with the brown rifle.” He would become of those six KIA, succumbing to wounds received from an IED.
The Devil’s Playground is an immensely powerful book. It reads like a novel because even though Andrew was there, he writes in the third person as a tribute to his fellow soldiers.