Damn the Valley, William Yeske
Damn the Valley, William Yeske
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Damn the Valley
1st Platoon, Bravo Company, 2-508 PIR, 82nd Airborne in the Arghandab River Valley Afghanistan

Author: William Yeske, LTG Ben Hodges, USA (Ret.)

Narrator: William Yeske, Basil Sands

Unabridged: 11 hr 16 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 02/27/2024


Synopsis

"DAMN THE VALLEY" was a phrase regularly uttered by the men that spent any amount of time in the Arghandab River Valley during the deployment of 2 Fury to Afghanistan in 2009–2010. The valley has claimed bodies from the troops of Alexander the Great, the British Empire, and more recently, the Russian Army. Operating in the valley was like nothing the men could have envisaged, they called it the "meat grinder."

It was a deployment that the media didn't talk about, and the government doesn't acknowledge. Three of the company were KIA, more than a dozen suffered life-changing injuries, and half the company had Purple Hearts—not many modern-day deployments have a 52% casualty rate. At one point, the entire prosthetics ward at Walter Reed was full of the men who patrolled that deadly area of the world.

Since their return, many of the survivors have struggled to move on with their lives, and the unit has been declared at "extraordinary risk" by the Department of Veteran Affairs. No one who entered that region was left unscathed. This book shares the perspective of the men that were on the ground for that deployment during the fighting season of 2010.

About William Yeske

William Yeske is a combat veteran who served eleven years in the U.S. Army. He is a serial entrepreneur who brings significant expertise in marketing, IT, and project management. He currently runs and operates a marketing company, No Limits Marketing Group (NLMG), founded to help small businesses survive the COVID-19 pandemic. It uses a combination of modern marketing techniques coupled with a non-lethal targeting framework learned in the military to provide clients with winning strategies. Will was also a founding board member of a Veteran non-profit, Rally for the Troops (now part of Racing for Heroes) and has worked on other veteran-based projects.

He is currently attending Columbia Business School while running current business projects, creating new possibilities for future endeavors, and parenting his two children with his wife, who is also a US military veteran.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Sabrina on December 14, 2023

Let me start this with - I’m usually a very fast reader, but I’m also the mother of one of the paratroopers from this deployment. My son was a “replacement”, he was in basic training when the unit originally deployed & joined them in March, just after his 20th birthday. I started this book expecting......more

Goodreads review by Reggie on July 24, 2023

Man you absolutely helped me remember things and people I had completely forgotten.......more

Goodreads review by Urey on February 02, 2025

This is an account of the experiences of soldiers in 82nd Airborne during their combat deployment into the Arghandab River valley, Afghanistan, in 2010. Specifically it is the story and perspectives of soldiers of Bravo Company, 4th Brigade of the 82nd that suffered 50% casualties during this deploy......more

Goodreads review by Joe on February 15, 2025

A little different from other books in the same criteria. This book felt to me like if I was reading a journal of a soldier who deployed to Afghanistan for a deployment. He tells you his story and experience in chronological order. It has some added perspective from others. He tries to explain the re......more

Goodreads review by James on July 24, 2023

Take walk in the mine fields of Afghanistan with us, as Author William Yeske (Wild Bill) holds no punches in this captivating excerpt of war on the ground for Paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne. Several different views of events are expressed, giving the reader a comprehensive view of the battlefield......more