June 29, 2025 • 39 mins
Paratrooper Andrew Bragg wrote "The Devil's Playground" as a tribute to his comrades from Charlie Company’s 2nd Platoon and their 2009-2010 deployment to the Arghandab River valley in Afghanistan. His platoon would suffer 50% casualties and 6 KIA during the deployment.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
We all owe them, but very few of us know them.
They are the men and women of our military and
first responder communities, and these are their stories. American Warrior
Radio is on the air.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hello, ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to American Warrior Radio. This
is your host, Ben Dila Garcia. American Warrior Radio broadcast
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(00:47):
confirm if owning a slencer is legal in your state.
As a civilian, I'm grateful for many things that from
our men and women of the military. Course, as a
radio host, my perspective might be a little bit different
than yours. We receive a lot of pitches from publicists
to be perfectly honest. Because I insist on reading every
author's book before doing the interview. Sometimes I get backed up.
(01:08):
Sometimes they're just not a right fit or a timely
fit for us. However, I'm increasingly and grateful that we've
reached a point in history when many of our global
War on Terror veterans are putting their thoughts and experiences
down on paper. I never wore the uniform, but I
can't help but think that it's a certain element of
catharsis involved in getting it all out. Whatever form they choose,
(01:29):
it also gives the rest of us a deeper understanding
of what these warriors went through during their time in
combat and also afterwards. The book written by today's guest
Slash Bright on my radar for one perhaps very selfish reason,
Army specialist Christopher Moon is a product of my owntown.
A standout high school baseball player, Christopher walked away from
a college scholarship and an offer to play professional baseball
(01:50):
for the Atlanta Braves to inst serve our nation. Christopher
was twenty years old when he was wounded by an
emperized clost advice on July sixth and Argandab Valley of Afghanistan.
He would succumb to those wounds a little bit later
on July thirteen. I've had a lot of guests on
American Warrior Radio that left the lasting impact. One was
a remote broadcast from Christopher's gold Star mother on Reach
(02:11):
across America day from the cemetery where Christopher was laid
to rest. I've always warned more about Christopher Moon, and
Andrew Bray is giving me that chance. Andrews served with
Christopher Moon in the second Platoon, Sea Company and a
place that came to be known as the Devil's Playground.
There are times a subject of his book, The Devil's Playground,
The Story of two Charley and the Argandev Brewer Valley
Is Unit experienced fifty percent casualties at six KA during
(02:35):
that deployment. Andrew Bray, Welcome to American Warrior Radio.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Thanks for having me here.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
We're seeing other any reason you've done, and most of them,
we like podcasts, were with other folks that have military service.
Mine might be a little bit different there because I
never served, so I don't know all the lingo and
all the secret handshakes and stuff, so this might take
a little bit of a different turn. But I did
read the book, and I want to start off by saying,
I really, as a civilian, I really appreciate you writing
(03:02):
this book, and it was powerful, powerful stuff unlike very
few that I've seemed like it.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Well, I appreciate you taking the time to hear our story.
That was one of the objectives for writing the book
was just you know, have people know what we did
in the Argandau River Valley. But it was a lot
more than just a book. It kind of became like
a tool to you know, get the guys back together.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Now we have three affiliates up there in Ohio. Do
you want to, you know, give a shout out to
your Hilliard peeps.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Yeah, so.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
You're talking about the guys into Charlie that live in
Ohio or.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Well, no, that's where you're from originally, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Yeah, I grew up in Hilliard, Ohio. Yeah, another two Charlie,
guy Young, he was in Hilliard, Ohio as well. We
grew up literally down the street from each other, and
we never knew each other until we met in the
Argandaud River Valley when we were in the eighty can
airborn together. So that was a pretty wild experience being
able to talk with someone about you know, same streets
(04:08):
and local grocery store stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Small world.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Yeah, so you you.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Were in if I'm not mistaken, Andrew, you were in
eighth grade when you saw the nine to eleven attacks,
and you pretty much decided at that point in time
you wanted to serve our nation, and you joined up
right out of high school.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
You know, as a little kid, you always you watch
war movies and I think it's cool, and you just
you had this idea of what it is, and you
I just had this huge patriotic pride and I wanted
to serve my country. And when nine and eleven happened,
that kind of stealed the deal for me. I knew
in eighth grade that once I graduated high school I'd
(04:51):
be joining the military, and decided to join the army.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Now you had, if I'm not mistaken, you served four
and a half years true deployments to Afghanistan, fifteen months
with the one hundred and seventy third and then twelve
months with eighty second, which is the kind of the
centerpiece of your book. Were those back to back deployments
And that's a lot of for only four and a
half years in that's a lot of time overseas.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Yeah, it's pretty much back to back.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
So I got in, went through basic airborne, and then
got assigned to my unit, which was the one seventy
third in Italy. Once I got to the one seventy third.
Basically within a month. We were in Germany training for
our month long training cycle before we deployed, and then
deployed for fifteen months, got back to Italy PCs two
(05:40):
Fort Bragg, North Carolina and became part of the eighty
second and within so I got there January, and then
we deployed in September. So we went through our training
cycles before we deployed. So I had about a year
break in between deployments, but it was spent basically just
getting ready for the next one.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
I'm kind of curious how always like to ask people's
why how on earth does a mechanical engineer become an author? Well,
I wasn't not writing about mechanial engineer stuff.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
I was in the mechanical engineer until after the army.
So after I got out, I went to school. I
did a lot of things. I became an EMT, did
that for about six years while I was going to
school for mechanical engineering. And yeah that I mean so
I have the math brain, but I also have the
(06:34):
artistic style used to do art in high school and stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
I read a quote I don't know if it was
in the book, and the cover of the book, Andrew
Or it was one of the interviews you did, and
you said that I thought about the guys on my
built two in every single day for twelve years, but
I never reached out. Why do you think that is?
Speaker 3 (06:52):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
That's something that a lot of veterans struggle with. We
probably do think about each other every single day, and
I don't know if it's you just I don't want
to bother him, or I don't know what the excuse is. Partially,
it might be if you're in a bad place yourself,
you just don't want to let them know that you're
in the hole. But yeah, that's something that the veteran
(07:17):
community we kind of need to work on, is reaching
out to each other. And through this whole process of
writing this book, it's something that I've been trying to
improve on, and it's something that Dale Nollinger, another two
Charlie guy. He says, you know, if you think about him,
text him and if they have time, they'll get back
to you.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
You know.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
But sometimes just reaching out you can help a guy
out if he's in a rough spot, or just letting
him know you're thinking about him. It can make someone's stay,
especially guys who've been through stuff that we have.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Okay, And was it, as I understand it, was another
book that was released about Bravo Company that maybe sets
you on this path.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
So originally there was a book written by Ben Kessling
called Bravo Company, and he had attended a basically a
reunion with the Bravo Company guys, and after seeing them
at this reunion, he wanted to write a book and
(08:20):
he told the story of kind of Bravo Company. So
when it came out, it brought back the sites, it
brought back the sounds, it brought back the smells of
the Argandaud River Valley. So I read that book in
four days. And I'm not much of a reader, but
I flew through that book and I reached out to
(08:41):
all the two Charlie guys, the guys in my platoon
that I was in contact. I wasn't really in contact.
I just you know, Facebook stocked them. But I reached
out to him in a mass group message and kind
of said, Hey, guys, the cat's out of the bag.
What are you guys thinking about telling our What do
you guys think about me coming around interviewing us and
(09:06):
just writing this book, and to my surprise, they were
all in because there was some hesitation in the past.
I don't know if the scabs were still too fresh,
still too tender, but it just the timing of this
was just right.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
So that book came out.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
And then during the process of me writing my book,
another book from Bravo Company came out, written by William Yeski.
It's called Damn the Valley.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
So yeah, we've had him on the show.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Oh yeah, very good book.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
And I tell you well, we got to take a
quick break when we come back to continue telling your story.
Lates and gentlemen, this is your host, Ben Deeler Garcier.
We're talking with Andrew Bragg and the book is called
The Devil's Playground, The Story of Too Charlie and the
Argundette River Valley. We'll be right back. Welcome back to
(10:12):
American Warrior Radio. Lasion, gentlemen, there's your host Ben Bieler
Durse here. We're talking with Andrew Bragg. He's a four
and a half years in the Army, some very intense
time in the Argon Dab Valley. Am I get am
I pronouncing that right?
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (10:24):
It's Argon daub argandas can you just call it the
dob That's what we called it.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Fair enough, Andrew so Ben, like I said, you know,
I'm a civilian, so I get several dumb questions. I
have to ask. Were you ever stationed at Fort Bragg?
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Yes, I was.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
That's where the eighty second is based out of his
Fort Bragg, North Carolina, So I was there.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Did you claim any special privileges, being, you know, with
the last name Bragg.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
I didn't have the rink at the time to do that,
So a couple of sergeant majors asked if I was
in any if it was a relative of mine, and
I would tell him, yeah, get off my grass.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
But it never really worked.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
So you had mentioned William Yesky. He wrote Damn the Valley,
which is also a book about the Argandab Valley, and
he was we're talking about your journey in writing this book.
And I know he shared with me that there was
an issue, some reticence, but because he was one of
them writing the book, that that faded pretty quickly and folks,
(11:25):
you know his teammates felt more comfortable. Did you have
a similar kind of experience.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
Yeah, like I had mentioned, there was hesitation in the
past we had been approached before about writing a story
about us. There are other articles out there, but those
journalists were actually embedded with us while we were over
seas during that deployment, so they wrote their pieces for
their magazines and stuff, but actually doing like a full story.
(11:54):
We were hesitant to have anybody on the outside do that.
So I think that because it was me and it
was one of us, like the guys are more open
to it and more willing to participate. And it wasn't
just like some guy that wanted to, you know, make
his name known by writing a story about, you know,
(12:15):
this platoon of paratroopers in one of the worst places
in Afghanistan. It was me trying to get the guys
together and tell our story, like through our eyes, and
make sure that each guy had to say And it
just became like our book, not just my book.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
So you talk about it a labor of love. As
I understand that you pretty much dropped everything. We're living
out of your truck for what sixteen months, travel to
twenty states to interview thirty five. I think of your
comrades that had to have been a challenge for you.
I mean just I mean most of us wouldn't drop
(12:56):
everything that we're doing and getting our truck and go
to twenty States.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
Yeah, the stars kind of a ligne for me there.
So I had been living out of my truck prior
to that, just trying to save money. I wanted to
purchase land. So I was working for a log cabin
company living in National Forest disperse camping.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
But when that Bravo Company book came out.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
Something about it is like, I need to stop doing this,
and I need I'm just in the right spot. I
didn't have I didn't have rent to pay, I didn't
have a mortgage, I didn't have anything, and I was
gonna I was looking at moving anyways. So that was
just kind of the the fire that I needed to
do it. So I put in my two weeks from
(13:42):
that job and uh yeah, I decided I'm going to
travel around the country. So the truck life wasn't horrible.
Like I said, I was used to that and I
had a system down for that. It was interesting going
around the country and doing that, but yeah, it's it
needed to be done because it's so much more personal
(14:04):
when you're face to face with the guys, and it
was so much more powerful too. To have me show
up these at these guys doorstep instead of just over
a zoom call or over some you know, some Google
meets or Google teams or whatever. You could do that,
but it just meant a lot more to the guys
to be able to like or it meant a lot
more to me to be able to give them a
(14:25):
hug and to actually see them after twelve years of
never not even speaking to them. And it was awesome
because I got to see the men they had become.
I got to see their wives, I got to see
their kids. I got to see where they live their
their lives now, and it definitely, uh, it gives me
(14:45):
something to move forward to, you know, accomplish.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
You know, if they can do it, I can too.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
You O stretch with you. You mentioned that you said
the scabs are still relatively fresh in these one on
one conversations that you're having a recording for the book.
That had to brought up some some stuff that've been
buried a long time. Imagine that was not easy.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
Oh yeah, there's a I realized what I was doing
was I was kind of playing with fire, So.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
I had to try and kind of tread softly.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
It wasn't like I just showed up at their door
and threw down the recording equipment on their dining room
table and was like, all right, let's do this. I
kind of felt each guy out where they were, what
kind of life they.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Had, and if it was right.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
There were a couple of guys where I didn't interview.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
I didn't I didn't think it was the time.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
And there were some guys that didn't didn't want to
be interviewed, and I respected that, but I still wanted
to see them. So I met him for like coffee
or I met one guy at a casino in Reno, Nevada,
and it was it was good to see them.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
That's really what I wanted.
Speaker 4 (15:53):
But for some guys were less willing to participate, but
others were super willing to participate because a lot of
the guys are proud of what we did uh in
that valley, and they wanted something to kind of just
be proud of, to kind of show throughout time, show
their kids, show their families, be like, hey, look like
(16:14):
this is what we did. And I knew that that
was super important to us, and I had to make
that happen.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
So andrew one thing. I really enjoyed about the book.
The book reads like a novel. I mean, if someone
didn't know any better, they would think they're they're reading
a fictional account. And the other thing two that struck me,
I have to assume this was you did this on purpose.
You're you're writing this in the third person. I mean,
you're in the book. But the book is not about Andrew.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
Yeah, it's a I didn't want it to be about me.
I want, like I said, I wanted it to be
about us. It's not my story, it's our story. I
could tell it from my perspective, but it just wouldn't
be right. It wouldn't have done this story justice. You know,
I was there for a lot of these events, most
of these events, but I might have been on the
other side of the wall, and I don't know what
(17:06):
happened on that side. So I tried to do my
best to kind of give guys spotlights, you know, throughout
the book. And it's really hard to and you have
so many characters, uh, and try to get the reader
to fall in love with characters and not just be like, oh.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Who's this guy?
Speaker 4 (17:26):
But I wanted to give the reader like a fly
in the wall experience, but not just a fly in
the wall experience. I wanted you guys to kind of
feel like you were part of too. Charlie and you
were one of the one of the guys, and I
wanted you to feel the hurt that we felt, the suffering,
the the suck, you know. I wanted you to go
through it. So I tried my best, and hopefully I
(17:50):
gave the reader that experience.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
I would say you were you were very successful and
very often ander when I read a book like this, Again,
particularly coming up from Celia's perspective, I don't want to
say I enjoyed the book because it was very difficult
to absorb some of the stuff that you and your
comrades went through. But at the same time, that's why
I think it's so absolutely essential that particularly civilians out
(18:14):
there read this book so they can understand or begin
to even you know, come close to comprehending the things
that you all went through and the sacrifices that you
made on our behalf, and continue to do so as
you try and move forward to your life. Andrew, when
we come back, i'd like you to go ahead and
introduce us to the Devil's Playground. There were some lighter
(18:34):
moments in the book as well that I'd like to
talk about, you know, starting with building building, creating cop time. So,
ladies and gentlemen, there's your host, Ben Biler Garcia. We're
talking with Andrew Bragg. The book is called The Devil's Playground,
The Story of Two Charlie and the Argun dab Ruber Valley.
Stick around will be right, Matt, Welcome back to American
(19:15):
Warrior Radio. Lason, Gentlemen, this is your host, Ben Bueler Garcia.
We're coming to you from the Silencer Central Studios. Adding
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(19:37):
zero three two seven zero, or visit soundcercentral dot com.
We're talking with Andrew Bragg, who's written a very very
powerful book about his time in the Argandau Valley. It's
called The Devil's Playground, The Story of too Charlie and
the Argandab Riber Valley. Now again I'm a civilian, So COP,
what does COP stand for?
Speaker 4 (19:57):
COP stands for a combat outpost.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Okay, so combat outpost times. I mean, you guys get there.
The folks that were holding that outpost before you could
not wait to get out of there, which might have
been a bad sign to start things off with. But
I mean you there was nothing there. I mean, you
guys had to beg, borrow, or steal whatever you could
to I'm sorry, not steal, appropriate whatever you could to
(20:23):
get this thing even functional. I mean right on up
to Outhouses.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
Yeah, the unit that we replaced, they were hit pretty
hard in the fighting season right before we got there,
so they had taken a lot of casualties, just as
any unit had in the Argandab River Valley. You could
tell that kind of the unit that we were replacing
had reached their expiration date.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
They were done.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
And I mean we kind of reached our expiration day
two at the end of our tour when the hun
first came and relieved us. But going back to when
we first got there, yeah, we kind of inherited a
bare bones outpost. There was a pile of burning trash.
In one corner, there was a couple of bed mattresses
on the roofs that they were using as quote unquote
(21:09):
towers to pull security. They used their strikers for to
like basically keep vehicles out of the compound, the like
patch gaps in the walls and stuff. And it was
a it wasn't a lot. So our platoon, sergeant Sergeant Santos,
he kind of saw it as like a blank slate
(21:33):
to kind of work with. So we got right on improving,
filling hescoes by hand, which a hesco is kind of
like a big sand bag, if you will, and they're
not fun to fill by hand, but we did. So
we built our we built up our outposts, We built
our defenses. First, we made three towers, we established a
(21:55):
talk with where all our radios and communications were. And
then once we got our defense is up, that's when
we kind of tried to make our quality of life
a little bit better. That's when we started building the
wood structure we would call home. And how that thing
didn't fall over, I have no idea.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
But uh, you describe you you bought some plywood from
some local, so you said, it's a Dennis toilet paper
looking plywood you'd ever seen in your life. I guess
there were, you know, maybe their home depots are not
quite the same.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
I have no idea where that local got that plywood,
but we were just happy to have it. And uh yeah,
we so we got we got the plywood, made our
structure with each individual rooms for the guys and stuff.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
It was the villa, if you will.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
And now all we were doing all of this though
while patrolling the the argandab, so it wasn't like we
were just building.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
We we had to.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
We went out on three patrols a day, and then
when you got back from patrol, you you know, take
your gear off and you start filling sandbags and get
getting to work, or you start hammering plywood or working
on something.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
There was.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
There was always something to do and always some to improve.
And from the time that we got there to the
time that we left, people were jealous of cop Times.
I know all the other platoons in Charlie Company, they
when they got a chance to come over to cop Times,
they were pretty like surprised, like, wow, you guys have this,
you guys have this.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
It's like yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
So how did Pink crocs become the unofficial uniform of
the date.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
So we got some humanitarian aid, which is usually blankets
and like bags of beans or rice that we could
hand out to the locals. So I think the intent
was for us to hand out the pink crocs to
the women in the area, which never goes well. The
men don't like us interacting with the women, so we decided, well,
(23:47):
we're not gonna give them this suggest so they can
burn them or sell them or whatever, so we're going
to keep these. So you have a bunch of infantry
men at an outpost walking around with pink crocs.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
That was kind of the thing.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
That might make a good movie someday. Andrew in the
Valley is I mean you talked about the history. It's
very very unforgiving, not just the geography but the people
there were. You know, I hear stories of you know,
the traditions with some of the Afghanistans or those tribes.
But I mean, you guys, there's a short story where
(24:24):
that you had some stuff that you brought in at
the blankets, the coloring books, that sort of stuff you get,
delivered them to the villagers and next thing you know,
they literally burned it. I mean they started a bonfire
and just burned it, and that was probably a kind
of a fine how do you do to introduce you
to that which you're to be facing there? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (24:42):
It.
Speaker 4 (24:44):
The relations between the coalition forces and the populace were
always kind of there's some tension, right, because they don't
know who they want to support. They could either support
us and then have the Taliban threatened to kill their families.
Some of them might have family members in the Taliban,
which was probably the case in the Arghandab River valley.
(25:05):
So you're not going to go against your uncle or
your brother or your dad if the police officers show
up to your door. You know, if my brother's sitting
in the living room and they asked for him, I'm
gonna be like, oh, he's not here. So I get
why they didn't help us, But I also don't think
they really wanted to help the Taliban either. They just
really wanted to farm and live their lives. The fact
(25:27):
that we were there meant that the Taliban would come
and we'd fight in their fields and mess stuff up,
and it just yeah, we were just an inconvenience to them, really,
And we were sitting there trying to win their hearts
and win their minds, and they just didn't want us there.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Andrew, you you mentioned earlier in our conversation about the
fighting season, and there was a quote that you said,
when the leaves returned to the great fields, so did
the fighting. And this was that. You also describe it
almost as Vietnam. Once the leaves were on the vines
and the trees, things got pretty thin. And I found
it interesting that almost all your patrols, I think were
(26:04):
dismounted patrols. You weren't able to drive into some of
these places.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:08):
So the Argandaud River Valley is a maze of grape
fields and pomegranate orchards. The pomegranate orchards are super thick,
just like the ones you probably would see in like
California area. And the grape fields they're not like grape
fields we have here where we nail or we'd hammer
(26:28):
sticks in the ground and have the grapes grow up.
Those they build about three foot tall mud walls, so
they have rows of rows upon rows of these mud walls.
So it's literally a labyrinth of mud walls. And then
you have the grape vines growing up them. So once
the leaves were turned, that's all vegetated. It's all thick,
that's all. It's hard to see through. In the wintertime,
(26:50):
we could see hundreds of yards because it's like a skeleton,
leafless tree. You can see right through all the branches
and stuff. You can see the next village. But once
the lee started to bloom, yeah, you couldn't see more
than fifty feet in some areas, and they took full
advantage of that.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
In walls. The walls play a big part in these stories.
I noticed, Andrew. I think you said you're not a
very tall guy, so maybe you and I would have
the same issue with all those walls. But I've got
a question about that because while we got about a
minute left. So Ben's other dumb question. So you found
out of these things they called murder holes, where they
(27:30):
had cut these holes in these walls and they're using
them to shoot at you. Why couldn't you have just
used an RPG or an AT four or something that.
Why couldn't you just blow holes in these walls?
Speaker 4 (27:43):
Well, so that's a good question. Trying to describe these
mud walls. Man, they were so hard and so compact,
like they've been here since the time of like Jesus.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
You know, they aren't going anywhere.
Speaker 4 (27:57):
They would stop a fifty caliber bullet, and we used
the M two fifty cal and those those it doesn't
do a thing to those mud wolves. It's they're super
hard and super compact. So they provided amazing cover in firefights.
There isn't a place that I wouldn't want to get
into a fight besides that great field. But they also
(28:18):
provided cover for the enemy as well, and that's why
they kind of like carved out those holes. So yeah,
you could shoot an RPG at them or at four,
but it wouldn't do much.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Well, that's that's why I asked these questions, Endrew, I
try when we come back, I want to touch briefly
on one of your real I don't want to call
it naha momics, it's kind of scary. And then if
you don't mind, I'd like to chat a little bit
about Christip from him as well. Ladies and gentlemen, there's
your host, Ben biler Garcia. We're talking with Andrew Bright.
The book is called The Devil's Playground, The Story of
Two Charlie and the arghandab Riverbelly.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
We'll be right there.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Welcome back to American Warrior Radio Lations. Gentlemen, there's your hosts,
Ben deeler Garcia. We're talking with Andrew Bragg. Andrew has
event in a very very powerful book. It's called The
Devil's Playground, The Story of Too Charlie and the Argandab
River Valley. Lots of stuff, and I want people to
buy and read the book, Andrew, So I don't want
to give too much away, but you guys were pretty
much out there all on your own, very low air support.
(29:33):
If you could, you know, maybe you'd get a kiau
or two. Very often the meadowback was a long ways away,
if it was even coming. What was different is I
understand here, Andrew, was the enemy was using significant deployments
of IDs. A lot of your people that you lost
were wounded or killed in that way. You had one
(29:54):
particular experience we talked about getting over the walls. So often,
you know, these walls were challenging. You come down off
this wall, you fall into a canal and you're kind
of looking around and you see this this shimmer. You
describe it like a spider web, and it turns out
you were well within a couple of feet of a tripwire. ID.
Speaker 4 (30:15):
Yeah, the tripwire itself was basically right over my shoulder.
It was just dumb luck that I saw it. Like
you said, it looked like when you're walking through the
woods in the morning and you can see the rays
through the through the tree branches and then you catch
like a spider web or something that shimmer. That's what
it looked like. And I just looked at it. And
(30:36):
then I kind of saw this spot on the path
that I was on that looked like turned up dirt.
And then I saw some like kind of puttied mud
along the wall, and I just kept looking at the three,
not putting two and two together, just being like and
then it just hit me. I was like, oh my god,
there's a trip wire right here. And my team was
(30:56):
piling over the wall at that time. I saw Gunner Young.
If he would have gone left, we would have been dead.
But he decided to go right to pull security on
an old man that was on that path. So just
again the stars aligned for us that day. And yeah,
I was able to find the I D instead of
find the I D.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
You know, the one part of that story that kind
of made me Smillow. But Andrew. I mean EOD guys,
I mean, God bless him. You know, not enough money
in the world of paying me to do that. And
you one might claim that they don't have all their faculties,
that's why they're blowing stuff up. But so they finally
show up, they get you your team back to safe distance,
and you know, a big boom and someone said, well,
(31:38):
you know how much she Ford did you have to
use to set it off? And the EOD guys said, none,
we just pulled the tripwire. Yeah, that's kind of unconventional.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
I think it was a big boom.
Speaker 4 (31:49):
So we were surprised when they told us didn't really
put a charge on it. And it's actually kind of
cool because one of those the EUOD guy that was
there that day, he got in contact with me after
the book and he was able to actually share me
photos of that day. I have pictures of that trip wire,
I have pictures of that boom, and it's just like,
that's the day. That's one of those days where I
(32:10):
just look back and if there's parallel universes out there,
I'm dead in a lot of them.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Yeah, I tell you, if you don't mind, I know,
the book's not about any one person, But I'd like
to know a little bit more about Christopher Moon, if
you would. In the book, you talk abo and he
was a sniper and I'm very very good at his job,
apparently so much so that the enemy literally started to
target the man with the Tan rifle. And I found
(32:38):
it very touching in the book here late where he
was on the phone call with his mother, like I said,
who I've met, and she says, I'll pray. His first
initial phone call said I'll pray for He says, well,
don't pray for me, pray for the guys. But then
as time went on, he did ask his mother to
pray for him too, and they ended up literally targeting
him with an ID. I mean, they were waiting for
that guy with the Tan rifle to come within the
(32:59):
blast ranger and then they shut it up.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (33:03):
Moon was one of the greatest guys I've ever known.
He didn't need to join the army. He could have
been a pro baseball player, but that just shows what
kind of a character he had, because he wanted to
serve his country, and he was in the eighty second
Airborn with us and he was part of the Scout
(33:23):
sniper platoon, so part of the HHC, he got assigned
to our platoon, Charlie. He got kind of bounced around
between the companies because there was a big need for
snipers in the Argonaut River Valley. But because our AO
was became one of the most connected fighting area, we
got him for a good portion of that time, and
(33:43):
him and Rush were our snipers and they you felt
a little bit better when you had him on patrol.
He was basically like car Chris Kyle. When we knew
he was overwatching us, you felt like you had a
different type of body because, like you said, those the
enemies were shooting at us through these little murder holes
(34:05):
and uh, you know, we choot back, and but we're
not snipers. So but he was able to engage them
through those holes and kind of hit back at the
enemy and they didn't like that.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
And you go for the.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
Most casualty producing weapon, whether that's the machine gun team
or like the guy with the radio. You can identify
those guys. But you know, Moon had the sniper rifle.
He had the M one ten sniper rifle and it
was tan so and he was a big guy too,
so he was it. He was they could pick him out,
and they knew he was the one that was reaching
out and touching them through those walls. So yeah, that
(34:44):
day he just so happened to be the one that
they decided to uh set the id, the main id
off on and uh yeah, he he was injured that day,
but he didn't die that day. He he lived, and
we thought he was going to live. He has sustained
severe injuries, so we don't know what kind of life
(35:07):
he would have had had he, you know, pulled through.
But he ended up dying seven days later of a
septic shock. And that was a big hit kick in
the gut for us, you know, after going through a
whole other week of fighting and stuff, thinking that your
friend is gonna probably pull through, only to hear that
(35:29):
he didn't. It felt like another loss to the valley.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Sure well, ladies and gentlemen, as long as we speak,
their names are not forgotten. Specialist Marcus Tynes, Sergeant James Nolan,
Sergeant first Class Carlos Santana Silva, Specialist Brendon Neenan Steph,
Sergeant Eduardo or Laredo Edward Laredo, and specialist Christopher Moon
got just about three minutes left, Andrew, and I'm curious
(35:54):
about Like I said, I'm glad that you wrote this book,
and I hope Otherterans would. And you'd mentioned there's a
number of other books that take place or written about
this this area of the valley, and you're not. You're
happy to promote those guys too, and they probably promote.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
You, right.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
Absolutely, It's about getting it.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
I know this one is your favorite.
Speaker 4 (36:15):
Yeah, yeah, No, it's about getting story guys stories out there.
So you have the Bravo Company book by Ben Kesling,
you have Damn the Valley by William Yeski, and then
you have my book, The Devil's Playground by me. But
this month, I believe Sons of the Argandaub comes out,
and that's the story of the Hunter and first guys
(36:36):
who replaced us in the Valley at cop times.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
So the stories of the Argandab are starting to come out.
Speaker 4 (36:42):
And it's not just about getting those stories out though,
it's about getting the band back together and basically healing
with the guys that you went through all this stuff with.
No one else truly understands that except for the that
was in the hole with you. So this whole process
(37:03):
has been pretty amazing. And these other guys have gone
through it as well, and I hope that other units
kind of once they see these books out there, they
don't have to write a book, but reach out to
your guys and start getting the band back together.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
You might feel a little bit better.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
And now that's a hugely important part of the story
and all the more reason why I'm gled you did
it and or would you given your experience, would you
recommend this to other veterans that they start putting pen
to paper.
Speaker 4 (37:36):
Oh yeah, if that's it's by no means this is
an easy task. It took me like six months to
get this story together and just of writing, but it
took me longer to go travel around the country and
you know, see the guys and do the interviews and stuff.
But if if you think, or if you're like I think,
everyone has a story, right, so it get out there
(38:01):
and tell it. You know, what do you what do
you have to lose?
Speaker 3 (38:04):
You know?
Speaker 2 (38:04):
So, was it was it difficult shopping for a publisher?
Do you think this got picked up pretty quickly? I
know some of these guys self published.
Speaker 4 (38:12):
Oh yeah, it that was the hardest part, I thought.
The hardest part was writing it, but then I had
to find a publisher and I got denied by literary
agents and it was I owe a big thanks to
William y Esky. He was the one that kind of
introduced me to Casemate and opened the door for us,
(38:32):
So I owe him a huge thanks because I don't know,
I probably would have had to have gone the self
publishing or out myself.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
It's very hard to find a publisher.
Speaker 4 (38:41):
But I kind of passed the torch on to Joseph
Fontineau who's the author of Sons of the argandab the
Hunter and First Guy. So, you know, if I can
help out any other veteran wants to tell their story, yeah,
please contact me and I'll see. I'll do what I
can do. But that's a difficult thing, is finding an
actual publisher.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
That's Stanley. Well, we appreciate you spending your time with
us today, Andrew. Ladies and gentlemen, check it out. It's
called The Devil's Playground, The Story of Too Charlie and
the Ardundad River Valley. You can find that at Amazon
or wherever you get your books. And please, you know,
please share. Not you read the book, please share the
stories as you've heard here today with your friends and associates,
so folks can really begin to understand. Until next time,
(39:22):
ladies and gentlemen, all policies and procedures are remaining place.
Take care.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
You've been listening to American Warrior Radio. Archived episodes may
be found at americanwarriorradio dot com or your favorite podcast
platform
We all owe them, but very few of us know them.
They are the men and women of our military and
first responder communities, and these are their stories. American Warrior
Radio is on the air.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hello, ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to American Warrior Radio. This
is your host, Ben Dila Garcia. American Warrior Radio broadcast
from the Sallencer Central Studios of the nation's largest suppressor dealer,
and ready to make your silencer buying journey as simple
as possible. Visit slenct central dot com or call them
today at eight six six six four zero three two
seven zero. Be sure to check Silencercentral dot com to
(00:47):
confirm if owning a slencer is legal in your state.
As a civilian, I'm grateful for many things that from
our men and women of the military. Course, as a
radio host, my perspective might be a little bit different
than yours. We receive a lot of pitches from publicists
to be perfectly honest. Because I insist on reading every
author's book before doing the interview. Sometimes I get backed up.
(01:08):
Sometimes they're just not a right fit or a timely
fit for us. However, I'm increasingly and grateful that we've
reached a point in history when many of our global
War on Terror veterans are putting their thoughts and experiences
down on paper. I never wore the uniform, but I
can't help but think that it's a certain element of
catharsis involved in getting it all out. Whatever form they choose,
(01:29):
it also gives the rest of us a deeper understanding
of what these warriors went through during their time in
combat and also afterwards. The book written by today's guest
Slash Bright on my radar for one perhaps very selfish reason,
Army specialist Christopher Moon is a product of my owntown.
A standout high school baseball player, Christopher walked away from
a college scholarship and an offer to play professional baseball
(01:50):
for the Atlanta Braves to inst serve our nation. Christopher
was twenty years old when he was wounded by an
emperized clost advice on July sixth and Argandab Valley of Afghanistan.
He would succumb to those wounds a little bit later
on July thirteen. I've had a lot of guests on
American Warrior Radio that left the lasting impact. One was
a remote broadcast from Christopher's gold Star mother on Reach
(02:11):
across America day from the cemetery where Christopher was laid
to rest. I've always warned more about Christopher Moon, and
Andrew Bray is giving me that chance. Andrews served with
Christopher Moon in the second Platoon, Sea Company and a
place that came to be known as the Devil's Playground.
There are times a subject of his book, The Devil's Playground,
The Story of two Charley and the Argandev Brewer Valley
Is Unit experienced fifty percent casualties at six KA during
(02:35):
that deployment. Andrew Bray, Welcome to American Warrior Radio.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Thanks for having me here.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
We're seeing other any reason you've done, and most of them,
we like podcasts, were with other folks that have military service.
Mine might be a little bit different there because I
never served, so I don't know all the lingo and
all the secret handshakes and stuff, so this might take
a little bit of a different turn. But I did
read the book, and I want to start off by saying,
I really, as a civilian, I really appreciate you writing
(03:02):
this book, and it was powerful, powerful stuff unlike very
few that I've seemed like it.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Well, I appreciate you taking the time to hear our story.
That was one of the objectives for writing the book
was just you know, have people know what we did
in the Argandau River Valley. But it was a lot
more than just a book. It kind of became like
a tool to you know, get the guys back together.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Now we have three affiliates up there in Ohio. Do
you want to, you know, give a shout out to
your Hilliard peeps.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Yeah, so.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
You're talking about the guys into Charlie that live in
Ohio or.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Well, no, that's where you're from originally, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Yeah, I grew up in Hilliard, Ohio. Yeah, another two Charlie,
guy Young, he was in Hilliard, Ohio as well. We
grew up literally down the street from each other, and
we never knew each other until we met in the
Argandaud River Valley when we were in the eighty can
airborn together. So that was a pretty wild experience being
able to talk with someone about you know, same streets
(04:08):
and local grocery store stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Small world.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Yeah, so you you.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Were in if I'm not mistaken, Andrew, you were in
eighth grade when you saw the nine to eleven attacks,
and you pretty much decided at that point in time
you wanted to serve our nation, and you joined up
right out of high school.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
You know, as a little kid, you always you watch
war movies and I think it's cool, and you just
you had this idea of what it is, and you
I just had this huge patriotic pride and I wanted
to serve my country. And when nine and eleven happened,
that kind of stealed the deal for me. I knew
in eighth grade that once I graduated high school I'd
(04:51):
be joining the military, and decided to join the army.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Now you had, if I'm not mistaken, you served four
and a half years true deployments to Afghanistan, fifteen months
with the one hundred and seventy third and then twelve
months with eighty second, which is the kind of the
centerpiece of your book. Were those back to back deployments
And that's a lot of for only four and a
half years in that's a lot of time overseas.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Yeah, it's pretty much back to back.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
So I got in, went through basic airborne, and then
got assigned to my unit, which was the one seventy
third in Italy. Once I got to the one seventy third.
Basically within a month. We were in Germany training for
our month long training cycle before we deployed, and then
deployed for fifteen months, got back to Italy PCs two
(05:40):
Fort Bragg, North Carolina and became part of the eighty
second and within so I got there January, and then
we deployed in September. So we went through our training
cycles before we deployed. So I had about a year
break in between deployments, but it was spent basically just
getting ready for the next one.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
I'm kind of curious how always like to ask people's
why how on earth does a mechanical engineer become an author? Well,
I wasn't not writing about mechanial engineer stuff.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
I was in the mechanical engineer until after the army.
So after I got out, I went to school. I
did a lot of things. I became an EMT, did
that for about six years while I was going to
school for mechanical engineering. And yeah that I mean so
I have the math brain, but I also have the
(06:34):
artistic style used to do art in high school and stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
I read a quote I don't know if it was
in the book, and the cover of the book, Andrew
Or it was one of the interviews you did, and
you said that I thought about the guys on my
built two in every single day for twelve years, but
I never reached out. Why do you think that is?
Speaker 3 (06:52):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
That's something that a lot of veterans struggle with. We
probably do think about each other every single day, and
I don't know if it's you just I don't want
to bother him, or I don't know what the excuse is. Partially,
it might be if you're in a bad place yourself,
you just don't want to let them know that you're
in the hole. But yeah, that's something that the veteran
(07:17):
community we kind of need to work on, is reaching
out to each other. And through this whole process of
writing this book, it's something that I've been trying to
improve on, and it's something that Dale Nollinger, another two
Charlie guy. He says, you know, if you think about him,
text him and if they have time, they'll get back
to you.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
You know.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
But sometimes just reaching out you can help a guy
out if he's in a rough spot, or just letting
him know you're thinking about him. It can make someone's stay,
especially guys who've been through stuff that we have.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Okay, And was it, as I understand it, was another
book that was released about Bravo Company that maybe sets
you on this path.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
So originally there was a book written by Ben Kessling
called Bravo Company, and he had attended a basically a
reunion with the Bravo Company guys, and after seeing them
at this reunion, he wanted to write a book and
(08:20):
he told the story of kind of Bravo Company. So
when it came out, it brought back the sites, it
brought back the sounds, it brought back the smells of
the Argandaud River Valley. So I read that book in
four days. And I'm not much of a reader, but
I flew through that book and I reached out to
(08:41):
all the two Charlie guys, the guys in my platoon
that I was in contact. I wasn't really in contact.
I just you know, Facebook stocked them. But I reached
out to him in a mass group message and kind
of said, Hey, guys, the cat's out of the bag.
What are you guys thinking about telling our What do
you guys think about me coming around interviewing us and
(09:06):
just writing this book, and to my surprise, they were
all in because there was some hesitation in the past.
I don't know if the scabs were still too fresh,
still too tender, but it just the timing of this
was just right.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
So that book came out.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
And then during the process of me writing my book,
another book from Bravo Company came out, written by William Yeski.
It's called Damn the Valley.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
So yeah, we've had him on the show.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Oh yeah, very good book.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
And I tell you well, we got to take a
quick break when we come back to continue telling your story.
Lates and gentlemen, this is your host, Ben Deeler Garcier.
We're talking with Andrew Bragg and the book is called
The Devil's Playground, The Story of Too Charlie and the
Argundette River Valley. We'll be right back. Welcome back to
(10:12):
American Warrior Radio. Lasion, gentlemen, there's your host Ben Bieler
Durse here. We're talking with Andrew Bragg. He's a four
and a half years in the Army, some very intense
time in the Argon Dab Valley. Am I get am
I pronouncing that right?
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (10:24):
It's Argon daub argandas can you just call it the
dob That's what we called it.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Fair enough, Andrew so Ben, like I said, you know,
I'm a civilian, so I get several dumb questions. I
have to ask. Were you ever stationed at Fort Bragg?
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Yes, I was.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
That's where the eighty second is based out of his
Fort Bragg, North Carolina, So I was there.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Did you claim any special privileges, being, you know, with
the last name Bragg.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
I didn't have the rink at the time to do that,
So a couple of sergeant majors asked if I was
in any if it was a relative of mine, and
I would tell him, yeah, get off my grass.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
But it never really worked.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
So you had mentioned William Yesky. He wrote Damn the Valley,
which is also a book about the Argandab Valley, and
he was we're talking about your journey in writing this book.
And I know he shared with me that there was
an issue, some reticence, but because he was one of
them writing the book, that that faded pretty quickly and folks,
(11:25):
you know his teammates felt more comfortable. Did you have
a similar kind of experience.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
Yeah, like I had mentioned, there was hesitation in the
past we had been approached before about writing a story
about us. There are other articles out there, but those
journalists were actually embedded with us while we were over
seas during that deployment, so they wrote their pieces for
their magazines and stuff, but actually doing like a full story.
(11:54):
We were hesitant to have anybody on the outside do that.
So I think that because it was me and it
was one of us, like the guys are more open
to it and more willing to participate. And it wasn't
just like some guy that wanted to, you know, make
his name known by writing a story about, you know,
(12:15):
this platoon of paratroopers in one of the worst places
in Afghanistan. It was me trying to get the guys
together and tell our story, like through our eyes, and
make sure that each guy had to say And it
just became like our book, not just my book.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
So you talk about it a labor of love. As
I understand that you pretty much dropped everything. We're living
out of your truck for what sixteen months, travel to
twenty states to interview thirty five. I think of your
comrades that had to have been a challenge for you.
I mean just I mean most of us wouldn't drop
(12:56):
everything that we're doing and getting our truck and go
to twenty States.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
Yeah, the stars kind of a ligne for me there.
So I had been living out of my truck prior
to that, just trying to save money. I wanted to
purchase land. So I was working for a log cabin
company living in National Forest disperse camping.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
But when that Bravo Company book came out.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
Something about it is like, I need to stop doing this,
and I need I'm just in the right spot. I
didn't have I didn't have rent to pay, I didn't
have a mortgage, I didn't have anything, and I was
gonna I was looking at moving anyways. So that was
just kind of the the fire that I needed to
do it. So I put in my two weeks from
(13:42):
that job and uh yeah, I decided I'm going to
travel around the country. So the truck life wasn't horrible.
Like I said, I was used to that and I
had a system down for that. It was interesting going
around the country and doing that, but yeah, it's it
needed to be done because it's so much more personal
(14:04):
when you're face to face with the guys, and it
was so much more powerful too. To have me show
up these at these guys doorstep instead of just over
a zoom call or over some you know, some Google
meets or Google teams or whatever. You could do that,
but it just meant a lot more to the guys
to be able to like or it meant a lot
more to me to be able to give them a
(14:25):
hug and to actually see them after twelve years of
never not even speaking to them. And it was awesome
because I got to see the men they had become.
I got to see their wives, I got to see
their kids. I got to see where they live their
their lives now, and it definitely, uh, it gives me
(14:45):
something to move forward to, you know, accomplish.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
You know, if they can do it, I can too.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
You O stretch with you. You mentioned that you said
the scabs are still relatively fresh in these one on
one conversations that you're having a recording for the book.
That had to brought up some some stuff that've been
buried a long time. Imagine that was not easy.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
Oh yeah, there's a I realized what I was doing
was I was kind of playing with fire, So.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
I had to try and kind of tread softly.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
It wasn't like I just showed up at their door
and threw down the recording equipment on their dining room
table and was like, all right, let's do this. I
kind of felt each guy out where they were, what
kind of life they.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Had, and if it was right.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
There were a couple of guys where I didn't interview.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
I didn't I didn't think it was the time.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
And there were some guys that didn't didn't want to
be interviewed, and I respected that, but I still wanted
to see them. So I met him for like coffee
or I met one guy at a casino in Reno, Nevada,
and it was it was good to see them.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
That's really what I wanted.
Speaker 4 (15:53):
But for some guys were less willing to participate, but
others were super willing to participate because a lot of
the guys are proud of what we did uh in
that valley, and they wanted something to kind of just
be proud of, to kind of show throughout time, show
their kids, show their families, be like, hey, look like
(16:14):
this is what we did. And I knew that that
was super important to us, and I had to make
that happen.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
So andrew one thing. I really enjoyed about the book.
The book reads like a novel. I mean, if someone
didn't know any better, they would think they're they're reading
a fictional account. And the other thing two that struck me,
I have to assume this was you did this on purpose.
You're you're writing this in the third person. I mean,
you're in the book. But the book is not about Andrew.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
Yeah, it's a I didn't want it to be about me.
I want, like I said, I wanted it to be
about us. It's not my story, it's our story. I
could tell it from my perspective, but it just wouldn't
be right. It wouldn't have done this story justice. You know,
I was there for a lot of these events, most
of these events, but I might have been on the
other side of the wall, and I don't know what
(17:06):
happened on that side. So I tried to do my
best to kind of give guys spotlights, you know, throughout
the book. And it's really hard to and you have
so many characters, uh, and try to get the reader
to fall in love with characters and not just be like, oh.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Who's this guy?
Speaker 4 (17:26):
But I wanted to give the reader like a fly
in the wall experience, but not just a fly in
the wall experience. I wanted you guys to kind of
feel like you were part of too. Charlie and you
were one of the one of the guys, and I
wanted you to feel the hurt that we felt, the suffering,
the the suck, you know. I wanted you to go
through it. So I tried my best, and hopefully I
(17:50):
gave the reader that experience.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
I would say you were you were very successful and
very often ander when I read a book like this, Again,
particularly coming up from Celia's perspective, I don't want to
say I enjoyed the book because it was very difficult
to absorb some of the stuff that you and your
comrades went through. But at the same time, that's why
I think it's so absolutely essential that particularly civilians out
(18:14):
there read this book so they can understand or begin
to even you know, come close to comprehending the things
that you all went through and the sacrifices that you
made on our behalf, and continue to do so as
you try and move forward to your life. Andrew, when
we come back, i'd like you to go ahead and
introduce us to the Devil's Playground. There were some lighter
(18:34):
moments in the book as well that I'd like to
talk about, you know, starting with building building, creating cop time. So,
ladies and gentlemen, there's your host, Ben Biler Garcia. We're
talking with Andrew Bragg. The book is called The Devil's Playground,
The Story of Two Charlie and the Argun dab Ruber Valley.
Stick around will be right, Matt, Welcome back to American
(19:15):
Warrior Radio. Lason, Gentlemen, this is your host, Ben Bueler Garcia.
We're coming to you from the Silencer Central Studios. Adding
a silencer can make shootings safer, more enjoyable, and improve
your accuracy. Begin the process by visiting solencercentral dot com
to see if owning a souncer is legal in your state.
They can then walk you through the permitting process and
ship you a new suncer right to your front door.
Call Silencer Central today at eight six six six four
(19:37):
zero three two seven zero, or visit soundcercentral dot com.
We're talking with Andrew Bragg, who's written a very very
powerful book about his time in the Argandau Valley. It's
called The Devil's Playground, The Story of too Charlie and
the Argandab Riber Valley. Now again I'm a civilian, So COP,
what does COP stand for?
Speaker 4 (19:57):
COP stands for a combat outpost.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Okay, so combat outpost times. I mean, you guys get there.
The folks that were holding that outpost before you could
not wait to get out of there, which might have
been a bad sign to start things off with. But
I mean you there was nothing there. I mean, you
guys had to beg, borrow, or steal whatever you could
to I'm sorry, not steal, appropriate whatever you could to
(20:23):
get this thing even functional. I mean right on up
to Outhouses.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
Yeah, the unit that we replaced, they were hit pretty
hard in the fighting season right before we got there,
so they had taken a lot of casualties, just as
any unit had in the Argandab River Valley. You could
tell that kind of the unit that we were replacing
had reached their expiration date.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
They were done.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
And I mean we kind of reached our expiration day
two at the end of our tour when the hun
first came and relieved us. But going back to when
we first got there, yeah, we kind of inherited a
bare bones outpost. There was a pile of burning trash.
In one corner, there was a couple of bed mattresses
on the roofs that they were using as quote unquote
(21:09):
towers to pull security. They used their strikers for to
like basically keep vehicles out of the compound, the like
patch gaps in the walls and stuff. And it was
a it wasn't a lot. So our platoon, sergeant Sergeant Santos,
he kind of saw it as like a blank slate
(21:33):
to kind of work with. So we got right on improving,
filling hescoes by hand, which a hesco is kind of
like a big sand bag, if you will, and they're
not fun to fill by hand, but we did. So
we built our we built up our outposts, We built
our defenses. First, we made three towers, we established a
(21:55):
talk with where all our radios and communications were. And
then once we got our defense is up, that's when
we kind of tried to make our quality of life
a little bit better. That's when we started building the
wood structure we would call home. And how that thing
didn't fall over, I have no idea.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
But uh, you describe you you bought some plywood from
some local, so you said, it's a Dennis toilet paper
looking plywood you'd ever seen in your life. I guess
there were, you know, maybe their home depots are not
quite the same.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
I have no idea where that local got that plywood,
but we were just happy to have it. And uh yeah,
we so we got we got the plywood, made our
structure with each individual rooms for the guys and stuff.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
It was the villa, if you will.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
And now all we were doing all of this though
while patrolling the the argandab, so it wasn't like we
were just building.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
We we had to.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
We went out on three patrols a day, and then
when you got back from patrol, you you know, take
your gear off and you start filling sandbags and get
getting to work, or you start hammering plywood or working
on something.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
There was.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
There was always something to do and always some to improve.
And from the time that we got there to the
time that we left, people were jealous of cop Times.
I know all the other platoons in Charlie Company, they
when they got a chance to come over to cop Times,
they were pretty like surprised, like, wow, you guys have this,
you guys have this.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
It's like yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
So how did Pink crocs become the unofficial uniform of
the date.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
So we got some humanitarian aid, which is usually blankets
and like bags of beans or rice that we could
hand out to the locals. So I think the intent
was for us to hand out the pink crocs to
the women in the area, which never goes well. The
men don't like us interacting with the women, so we decided, well,
(23:47):
we're not gonna give them this suggest so they can
burn them or sell them or whatever, so we're going
to keep these. So you have a bunch of infantry
men at an outpost walking around with pink crocs.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
That was kind of the thing.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
That might make a good movie someday. Andrew in the
Valley is I mean you talked about the history. It's
very very unforgiving, not just the geography but the people
there were. You know, I hear stories of you know,
the traditions with some of the Afghanistans or those tribes.
But I mean, you guys, there's a short story where
(24:24):
that you had some stuff that you brought in at
the blankets, the coloring books, that sort of stuff you get,
delivered them to the villagers and next thing you know,
they literally burned it. I mean they started a bonfire
and just burned it, and that was probably a kind
of a fine how do you do to introduce you
to that which you're to be facing there? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (24:42):
It.
Speaker 4 (24:44):
The relations between the coalition forces and the populace were
always kind of there's some tension, right, because they don't
know who they want to support. They could either support
us and then have the Taliban threatened to kill their families.
Some of them might have family members in the Taliban,
which was probably the case in the Arghandab River valley.
(25:05):
So you're not going to go against your uncle or
your brother or your dad if the police officers show
up to your door. You know, if my brother's sitting
in the living room and they asked for him, I'm
gonna be like, oh, he's not here. So I get
why they didn't help us, But I also don't think
they really wanted to help the Taliban either. They just
really wanted to farm and live their lives. The fact
(25:27):
that we were there meant that the Taliban would come
and we'd fight in their fields and mess stuff up,
and it just yeah, we were just an inconvenience to them, really,
And we were sitting there trying to win their hearts
and win their minds, and they just didn't want us there.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Andrew, you you mentioned earlier in our conversation about the
fighting season, and there was a quote that you said,
when the leaves returned to the great fields, so did
the fighting. And this was that. You also describe it
almost as Vietnam. Once the leaves were on the vines
and the trees, things got pretty thin. And I found
it interesting that almost all your patrols, I think were
(26:04):
dismounted patrols. You weren't able to drive into some of
these places.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:08):
So the Argandaud River Valley is a maze of grape
fields and pomegranate orchards. The pomegranate orchards are super thick,
just like the ones you probably would see in like
California area. And the grape fields they're not like grape
fields we have here where we nail or we'd hammer
(26:28):
sticks in the ground and have the grapes grow up.
Those they build about three foot tall mud walls, so
they have rows of rows upon rows of these mud walls.
So it's literally a labyrinth of mud walls. And then
you have the grape vines growing up them. So once
the leaves were turned, that's all vegetated. It's all thick,
that's all. It's hard to see through. In the wintertime,
(26:50):
we could see hundreds of yards because it's like a skeleton,
leafless tree. You can see right through all the branches
and stuff. You can see the next village. But once
the lee started to bloom, yeah, you couldn't see more
than fifty feet in some areas, and they took full
advantage of that.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
In walls. The walls play a big part in these stories.
I noticed, Andrew. I think you said you're not a
very tall guy, so maybe you and I would have
the same issue with all those walls. But I've got
a question about that because while we got about a
minute left. So Ben's other dumb question. So you found
out of these things they called murder holes, where they
(27:30):
had cut these holes in these walls and they're using
them to shoot at you. Why couldn't you have just
used an RPG or an AT four or something that.
Why couldn't you just blow holes in these walls?
Speaker 4 (27:43):
Well, so that's a good question. Trying to describe these
mud walls. Man, they were so hard and so compact,
like they've been here since the time of like Jesus.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
You know, they aren't going anywhere.
Speaker 4 (27:57):
They would stop a fifty caliber bullet, and we used
the M two fifty cal and those those it doesn't
do a thing to those mud wolves. It's they're super
hard and super compact. So they provided amazing cover in firefights.
There isn't a place that I wouldn't want to get
into a fight besides that great field. But they also
(28:18):
provided cover for the enemy as well, and that's why
they kind of like carved out those holes. So yeah,
you could shoot an RPG at them or at four,
but it wouldn't do much.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Well, that's that's why I asked these questions, Endrew, I
try when we come back, I want to touch briefly
on one of your real I don't want to call
it naha momics, it's kind of scary. And then if
you don't mind, I'd like to chat a little bit
about Christip from him as well. Ladies and gentlemen, there's
your host, Ben biler Garcia. We're talking with Andrew Bright.
The book is called The Devil's Playground, The Story of
Two Charlie and the arghandab Riverbelly.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
We'll be right there.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Welcome back to American Warrior Radio Lations. Gentlemen, there's your hosts,
Ben deeler Garcia. We're talking with Andrew Bragg. Andrew has
event in a very very powerful book. It's called The
Devil's Playground, The Story of Too Charlie and the Argandab
River Valley. Lots of stuff, and I want people to
buy and read the book, Andrew, So I don't want
to give too much away, but you guys were pretty
much out there all on your own, very low air support.
(29:33):
If you could, you know, maybe you'd get a kiau
or two. Very often the meadowback was a long ways away,
if it was even coming. What was different is I
understand here, Andrew, was the enemy was using significant deployments
of IDs. A lot of your people that you lost
were wounded or killed in that way. You had one
(29:54):
particular experience we talked about getting over the walls. So often,
you know, these walls were challenging. You come down off
this wall, you fall into a canal and you're kind
of looking around and you see this this shimmer. You
describe it like a spider web, and it turns out
you were well within a couple of feet of a tripwire. ID.
Speaker 4 (30:15):
Yeah, the tripwire itself was basically right over my shoulder.
It was just dumb luck that I saw it. Like
you said, it looked like when you're walking through the
woods in the morning and you can see the rays
through the through the tree branches and then you catch
like a spider web or something that shimmer. That's what
it looked like. And I just looked at it. And
(30:36):
then I kind of saw this spot on the path
that I was on that looked like turned up dirt.
And then I saw some like kind of puttied mud
along the wall, and I just kept looking at the three,
not putting two and two together, just being like and
then it just hit me. I was like, oh my god,
there's a trip wire right here. And my team was
(30:56):
piling over the wall at that time. I saw Gunner Young.
If he would have gone left, we would have been dead.
But he decided to go right to pull security on
an old man that was on that path. So just
again the stars aligned for us that day. And yeah,
I was able to find the I D instead of
find the I D.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
You know, the one part of that story that kind
of made me Smillow. But Andrew. I mean EOD guys,
I mean, God bless him. You know, not enough money
in the world of paying me to do that. And
you one might claim that they don't have all their faculties,
that's why they're blowing stuff up. But so they finally
show up, they get you your team back to safe distance,
and you know, a big boom and someone said, well,
(31:38):
you know how much she Ford did you have to
use to set it off? And the EOD guys said, none,
we just pulled the tripwire. Yeah, that's kind of unconventional.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
I think it was a big boom.
Speaker 4 (31:49):
So we were surprised when they told us didn't really
put a charge on it. And it's actually kind of
cool because one of those the EUOD guy that was
there that day, he got in contact with me after
the book and he was able to actually share me
photos of that day. I have pictures of that trip wire,
I have pictures of that boom, and it's just like,
that's the day. That's one of those days where I
(32:10):
just look back and if there's parallel universes out there,
I'm dead in a lot of them.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Yeah, I tell you, if you don't mind, I know,
the book's not about any one person, But I'd like
to know a little bit more about Christopher Moon, if
you would. In the book, you talk abo and he
was a sniper and I'm very very good at his job,
apparently so much so that the enemy literally started to
target the man with the Tan rifle. And I found
(32:38):
it very touching in the book here late where he
was on the phone call with his mother, like I said,
who I've met, and she says, I'll pray. His first
initial phone call said I'll pray for He says, well,
don't pray for me, pray for the guys. But then
as time went on, he did ask his mother to
pray for him too, and they ended up literally targeting
him with an ID. I mean, they were waiting for
that guy with the Tan rifle to come within the
(32:59):
blast ranger and then they shut it up.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (33:03):
Moon was one of the greatest guys I've ever known.
He didn't need to join the army. He could have
been a pro baseball player, but that just shows what
kind of a character he had, because he wanted to
serve his country, and he was in the eighty second
Airborn with us and he was part of the Scout
(33:23):
sniper platoon, so part of the HHC, he got assigned
to our platoon, Charlie. He got kind of bounced around
between the companies because there was a big need for
snipers in the Argonaut River Valley. But because our AO
was became one of the most connected fighting area, we
got him for a good portion of that time, and
(33:43):
him and Rush were our snipers and they you felt
a little bit better when you had him on patrol.
He was basically like car Chris Kyle. When we knew
he was overwatching us, you felt like you had a
different type of body because, like you said, those the
enemies were shooting at us through these little murder holes
(34:05):
and uh, you know, we choot back, and but we're
not snipers. So but he was able to engage them
through those holes and kind of hit back at the
enemy and they didn't like that.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
And you go for the.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
Most casualty producing weapon, whether that's the machine gun team
or like the guy with the radio. You can identify
those guys. But you know, Moon had the sniper rifle.
He had the M one ten sniper rifle and it
was tan so and he was a big guy too,
so he was it. He was they could pick him out,
and they knew he was the one that was reaching
out and touching them through those walls. So yeah, that
(34:44):
day he just so happened to be the one that
they decided to uh set the id, the main id
off on and uh yeah, he he was injured that day,
but he didn't die that day. He he lived, and
we thought he was going to live. He has sustained
severe injuries, so we don't know what kind of life
(35:07):
he would have had had he, you know, pulled through.
But he ended up dying seven days later of a
septic shock. And that was a big hit kick in
the gut for us, you know, after going through a
whole other week of fighting and stuff, thinking that your
friend is gonna probably pull through, only to hear that
(35:29):
he didn't. It felt like another loss to the valley.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Sure well, ladies and gentlemen, as long as we speak,
their names are not forgotten. Specialist Marcus Tynes, Sergeant James Nolan,
Sergeant first Class Carlos Santana Silva, Specialist Brendon Neenan Steph,
Sergeant Eduardo or Laredo Edward Laredo, and specialist Christopher Moon
got just about three minutes left, Andrew, and I'm curious
(35:54):
about Like I said, I'm glad that you wrote this book,
and I hope Otherterans would. And you'd mentioned there's a
number of other books that take place or written about
this this area of the valley, and you're not. You're
happy to promote those guys too, and they probably promote.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
You, right.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
Absolutely, It's about getting it.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
I know this one is your favorite.
Speaker 4 (36:15):
Yeah, yeah, No, it's about getting story guys stories out there.
So you have the Bravo Company book by Ben Kesling,
you have Damn the Valley by William Yeski, and then
you have my book, The Devil's Playground by me. But
this month, I believe Sons of the Argandaub comes out,
and that's the story of the Hunter and first guys
(36:36):
who replaced us in the Valley at cop times.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
So the stories of the Argandab are starting to come out.
Speaker 4 (36:42):
And it's not just about getting those stories out though,
it's about getting the band back together and basically healing
with the guys that you went through all this stuff with.
No one else truly understands that except for the that
was in the hole with you. So this whole process
(37:03):
has been pretty amazing. And these other guys have gone
through it as well, and I hope that other units
kind of once they see these books out there, they
don't have to write a book, but reach out to
your guys and start getting the band back together.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
You might feel a little bit better.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
And now that's a hugely important part of the story
and all the more reason why I'm gled you did
it and or would you given your experience, would you
recommend this to other veterans that they start putting pen
to paper.
Speaker 4 (37:36):
Oh yeah, if that's it's by no means this is
an easy task. It took me like six months to
get this story together and just of writing, but it
took me longer to go travel around the country and
you know, see the guys and do the interviews and stuff.
But if if you think, or if you're like I think,
everyone has a story, right, so it get out there
(38:01):
and tell it. You know, what do you what do
you have to lose?
Speaker 3 (38:04):
You know?
Speaker 2 (38:04):
So, was it was it difficult shopping for a publisher?
Do you think this got picked up pretty quickly? I
know some of these guys self published.
Speaker 4 (38:12):
Oh yeah, it that was the hardest part, I thought.
The hardest part was writing it, but then I had
to find a publisher and I got denied by literary
agents and it was I owe a big thanks to
William y Esky. He was the one that kind of
introduced me to Casemate and opened the door for us,
(38:32):
So I owe him a huge thanks because I don't know,
I probably would have had to have gone the self
publishing or out myself.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
It's very hard to find a publisher.
Speaker 4 (38:41):
But I kind of passed the torch on to Joseph
Fontineau who's the author of Sons of the argandab the
Hunter and First Guy. So, you know, if I can
help out any other veteran wants to tell their story, yeah,
please contact me and I'll see. I'll do what I
can do. But that's a difficult thing, is finding an
actual publisher.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
That's Stanley. Well, we appreciate you spending your time with
us today, Andrew. Ladies and gentlemen, check it out. It's
called The Devil's Playground, The Story of Too Charlie and
the Ardundad River Valley. You can find that at Amazon
or wherever you get your books. And please, you know,
please share. Not you read the book, please share the
stories as you've heard here today with your friends and associates,
so folks can really begin to understand. Until next time,
(39:22):
ladies and gentlemen, all policies and procedures are remaining place.
Take care.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
You've been listening to American Warrior Radio. Archived episodes may
be found at americanwarriorradio dot com or your favorite podcast
platform
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