{"product_id":"black-hearts","title":"Black Hearts","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"Riveting. . . a testament to a misconceived war, and to the ease with which ordinary men, under certain conditions, can transform into monsters.\"--\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis is the story of a small group of soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division's fabled 502nd Infantry Regiment--a unit known as \"the Black Heart Brigade.\" Deployed in late 2005 to Iraq's so-called Triangle of Death, a veritable meat grinder just south of Baghdad, the Black Hearts found themselves in arguably the country's most dangerous location at its most dangerous time. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eHit by near-daily mortars, gunfire, and roadside bomb attacks, suffering from a particularly heavy death toll, and enduring a chronic breakdown in leadership, members of one Black Heart platoon--1st Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion--descended, over their year-long tour of duty, into a tailspin of poor discipline, substance abuse, and brutality. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFour 1st Platoon soldiers would perpetrate one of the most heinous war crimes U.S. forces have committed during the Iraq War--the rape of a fourteen-year-old Iraqi girl and the cold-blooded execution of her and her family. Three other 1st Platoon soldiers would be overrun at a remote outpost--one killed immediately and two taken from the scene, their mutilated corpses found days later booby-trapped with explosives. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eBlack Hearts\u003c\/i\u003e is an unflinching account of the epic, tragic deployment of 1st Platoon. Drawing on hundreds of hours of in-depth interviews with Black Heart soldiers and first-hand reporting from the Triangle of Death, \u003ci\u003eBlack Hearts\u003c\/i\u003e is a timeless story about men in combat and the fragility of character in the savage crucible of warfare. But it is also a timely warning of new dangers emerging in the way American soldiers are led on the battlefields of the twenty-first century.","brand":"Crown Publishing Group (NY)","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48833757970637,"sku":"9780307450760","price":22.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0557\/1529\/9533\/files\/imageloader_4578bd98-a498-46e0-843d-37dbbff3a87b.jpg?v=1790897570","url":"https:\/\/booksatmidnight.com\/products\/black-hearts","provider":"Books At Midnight","version":"1.0","type":"link"}