No Easy Day

^{A CH-47 helicopter, a.k.a. the “flying school bus.”}

^{The view out the back of a CH-47. The bags contain fast-ropes.}

^{A CH-47 helicopter like the one we used on the Kunar mission.}

^{MH-6 Little Birds like the ones flown by the Night Stalkers during assaults in Iraq.}

^{Walking into the Iraqi desert for exfil after a long night of work.}

Copyright

DUTTON

Published by Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

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Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.); Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England; Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd); Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd); Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi–110 017, India; Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd); Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

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Published by Dutton, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Copyright © 2012 by Mark Owen

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA

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has been applied for.

ISBN 978-0-525-95372-2

eBook ISBN 978-1-101-61130-2

Designed by Spring Hoteling

Photographs are from the author’s collection.

Maps by Travis Rightmeyer

The publisher acknowledges that the name Mark Owen is a pseudonym.

While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers, Internet addresses, and other contact information at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors, or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.