At turns poignant, funny, philosophical, and raw—but always real—The Wolves of Helmand is both a heartfelt homage to the Marine brotherhood with whom Biggio served and an expression of respect and love for the people of Afghanistan who ultimately trusted, shared, and appreciated their purpose.
Ten years after serving his country as a U.S. Marine, Captain Frank “Gus” Biggio signed up once again because he missed the brotherhood of the military. Leaving behind his budding law career, his young wife, and newborn son, he was deployed to Helmand Province—the most violent region in war-torn Afghanistan—for reasons few would likely understand before reading this book.
Riven by conflict and occupation for centuries because of its strategic location, the region he landed in was, at that time, a hotbed of Taliban insurgency. As a participant in the landmark U.S.-led Operation Khanjar, Biggio and his fellow Marines were executing a new-era military strategy. Focused largely on empowerment of the local population, the offensive began with a troop surge designed to thwart the Taliban, but was more importantly followed by the restoration of the local government and real-time capacity building among the withdrawn and destitute Afghan people.
The Wolves of Helmand is unlike other war memoirs. It takes us less into the action—though there is that too—and more into the quiet places of today’s war zones. Yes, you’ll read of our Marines’ stealth arrival in a single night, our advanced weaponry, and our pop-up industrial village command centers. You’ll read, as well, about the ambushed patrols and the carnage of IEDs. But you will also read of the persistence, humility, ruggedness, loneliness, tedium, diplomacy, and humanity of our Marines’ jobs there, which more than anything else reveals the magnitude of even the smallest victories.
Completed years after the author’s return from his mission, The Wolves of Helmand is most of all a decade-long self-examination of a warrior’s heart, conscience, and memory. Whether intended or not, Biggio’s deep reflections and innate honesty answer every question you’ve ever wanted to ask about life and death in war—and even questions you probably never thought to ask.
What calls a warrior to duty?
What makes, sustains, plagues, and even breaks a warrior?
These are bigger questions than the ones impolite society pokes around when a veteran returns home—Did you kill anyone? Did you have to go? Why would you fight for another country? Why were we even there?
Yet the answers to those queries are here, too, in this thoughtful memoir that will make you think about war, family, love, and loss.
Few other books covering combat can so effortlessly bridge from the grimy daily tactical fight to the strategic with equal impact. Masterful and informative account of the good days and bad, the triumphs and the tragedies, the humor, compassion, and the resilience of those who have worn the cloth of our nation in this longest war. Prepare to be transported to Helmand Province from the very opening pages of this exceptional work.
The Wolves of Helmand is the most accessible memoir of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, written with such clarity that it will transfix the widest audience. Wolves is both a journalistic feat, with superior writing quality and historical perspective, and the personal tale of a civilian who could not shake his love of the Marines or the call to combat.
Frank “Gus” Biggio has written a different and much-needed kind of war story: one that is layered and shows the complexities of what frontline U.S. Marines experienced in southern Afghanistan during a crucial time of troop surges and an entrenched Taliban. Biggio’s firsthand account, unvarnished and heartfelt and honest, deserves wide readership—in military circles but also for general readers who want to better understand America’s longest war, one that is not yet over. This is a book that will stay with you.
In The Wolves of Helmand Gus Biggio recreates Helmand as it was, but also, and more importantly, as both we and our Afghan partners wanted it to be. Between those two visions lies all the “mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love” that Tim O’Brien ascribes to war. Above all, Biggio’s story is a testament to the fact that we can work together to live up to our ideals.
