Greetings from Afghanistan, Send More Ammo: Dispatches from Taliban Country

This was the first ebook I ever downloaded on my new ____, and unlike anything I would have ever picked on my own in the past. Being worried for and about a close relative heading over to Afghanistan I was just looking for something to understand "why" we are still over there and "why" we just can't end this all now and have our boys home. I stumbled by accident on this book "Greetings from Afghanistan" and downloaded the free sample, I was hook and bought it and very happy I did. I understand a lot better, and actually enjoyed reading about Afghan culture and the daily life of an American soldier. My hope too like one other reviewer posted, that my dear relatives comes back "whole and mostly healthy" as well. *fingers crossed* and prayers are sent his way everyday! Highly Recommend for Everyone! ~Teresa Blommers

Tupper sure knows how to dish it out. Scrambled? There are plenty of military mix ups and realities whipped into bizarre fare to go around. Poached? Lug 70 pounds of gear through 100 degree days; Afghanistan slow cooks your body and mind. Add the salt of sweat stinging your eyes and your cracked lips. Sunnyside-uppers know you can't survive combat duty without a streak of humor, be it wry, sly or outrageous; Tupper gives you more than your fill. For most of us, raw repels. Hey, that's what unsugar-coated, ungarnished war does. Tupper doesn't shy away from the raw truth about his war experience, complete with that nasty aftertaste-- ptsd. With bruising honesty, he serves it all up. Antacid Alert: The book is about a war in Afghanistan, which history shows tends to repeat on you.

Captain Tupper brings wit, insight, and compassion to illustrating the war in Afghanistan...a profoundly engrossing read that is simultaneously important and entertaining.

I had read the original soft cover version of the book that came out in 2009, and this expanded hard cover version has more pictures and added story material that further rates it a "five star" choice. This book is a well written memoir that takes the reader into a very unique place: the life of an American soldier embedded in the Afghan National Army, which turns out is a rare, challenging, and rewarding job to have. The book makes me understand the difficulties faced by soldiers when they come home, dealing with the death of comrades and ptsd issues (the author is very candid about his experiences with ptsd). The book made me laugh, cry, happy, and mad. Afghanistan is such a complex and confusing war, and this candid revealing memoir helped me understand it better.

I was already hooked on Captain Benjamin Tupper's personal story of war, his self-published "Welcome to Afghanistan." "Greetings from Afghanistan, Send More Ammo," a significantly expanded version of his story, snagged me--I read it from cover to cover and liked it even more than the first version. Written during and after Captain Tupper's year long deployment to Afghanistan in 2006-2007, it's the story of his experiences as a member of an Embedded Training Team working with a hundred man unit of the Afghan National Army. A compilation of his blogs, some of which he narrated on National Public Radio's Morning Edition, this expanded version is seasoned with even more photographs capturing some of the people and places he encountered. My disclaimer is that I belong to that unenviable group of people who waited at home for a loved one who had gone off to war. When my son was deployed in Afghanistan as an ETT, training, living, and fighting with Afghan soldiers, I had no understanding of what his days and nights were really like; I was reduced to imagining only the worst. Most news stories were two dimensional, flat, and yet capable of striking fear in a mother's heart. A morning news hour without an Afghanistan report made for a good day. Tupper's book is not a war analyzed, it is a war lived. His blogs fill in the blanks. He captures the faces and heart of the people he fought with and against. My imagination goes on hiatus as he reveals a few American soldiers and the Afghan soldiers charged with seeking and fighting the Taliban. Lives in this inhospitable landscape frequently hung in a balance easily tipped by ramshackle machinery, pride, military policy, goof-ups, and the hidden loyalties of natives torn between competing tribal, family, and cultural allegiances. This lively and deeply personal offering is divided into five sections: War Stories; Laughter Is Our Best Defense; Culture Shock; Farewell Fallen Comrades; and Home. There are moments filled with fear, sweat, levity, and shrapnel, hours colored with compassion, self-deprecation, and blood. Tupper fleshes out the days with humor, tactical maneuvers and blunders, brotherhood where you might least expect to find it, and wrenching loss. Sadly, the ending of his story hasn't been played out yet, certainly not today, not in Afghanistan or in the lives of the people the war brought together. Tupper reflects upon whether such a war can ever be won and characterizes the future for some of the soldiers returning from the war as painfully uncertain and often frightening. There are cruel ironies in country and at home. This book made me laugh out loud and shed tears; I muttered a few cuss words, too. But mostly I wanted to touch the shoulder of each of these very real warriors, American and Afghan, alive and gone, and whisper, "Thank you." "Greetings from Afghanistan" shines a light on our humanity and makes the days my son was away more real. He came home whole and mostly healthy.