Full battle rattle
Subtitle: my story as the longest-serving special forces A-Team soldier in American history
By: Changiz Lahidji and Ralph Pezzullo
Contributors: Pezzullo, Ralph, author
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2018
Language: eng
Number of pages: 290
ISBN-13: 9781250121158
Copyright date: 2018
Subjects: Persian Gulf War, 1991; Iranian Americans; Officers; United States; American Personal narratives; Special operations (Military science); Afghan War, 2001-; United States. Army. Special Forces; Biography; History
Other titles: My story as the longest-serving special forces A-Team soldier in American history
Description: Over 100 combat missions, 24 years as a Green Beret--Full Battle Rattle tells the legend of a soldier who served America in every war since Vietnam. Master Sergeant Changiz Lahidji served on Special Forces A teams longer than anyone in history, completing over a hundred combat missions in Afghanistan. Changiz is a Special Forces legend. He also happens to be the first Muslim Green Beret. Changiz served this country starting with Operation Eagle Claw in 1980, when he entered Tehran on a one-man mission to spy on Iranian soldiers guarding the US Embassy where 52 US diplomats were being held hostage. Three years later, he was in Beirut, Lebanon when a suicide car bomb exploded in front of the US Embassy killing 83 people. Weeks after that, he was shot by Hezbollah terrorists on a night mission. In Operation Iraqi Freedom, he led a convoy that was ambushed on its way to Fallujah. He was clearing houses in Mogadishu, Somalia on October, 1993 when a US Black Hawk helicopter was shot down 50 feet away from him in the incident that inspired Black Hawk Down. In 2002, he dressed as a farmer and snuck into Eastern Afghanistan and located Osama Bin Laden for the CIA. Along the way, Changiz earned numerous commendations, including the Special Forces Legion of Merit, Purple Hearts, and many others. Last year he was nominated for induction in Military Intelligence Hall of Fame and cited as "the finest noncommissioned officer to ever serve in Special Forces." His story is an amazing tale of perseverance and courage, of combat and one man's love of his adopted country.
Table of contents: title: Prologue; title: Tehran, 1980; title: Childhood, Iran; title: Pakistan; title: Beirut; title: Grenada; title: The Far East; title: First Gulf War; title: FBI special assignment; title: Black Hawk down; title: Haiti; title: Spain; title: Afghanistan; title: Darfur; title: Combined Joint Task Force Paladin; title: 10th Group Special Forces; title: Epilogue: Hearts and minds.