Full Battle Rattle: My Story as the Longest-Serving Special Forces A-Team Soldier in American History 1250121159, 9781250121158

Citation preview

MY STORY AS THE LONGEST-SERVING

SPECIAL FORCES A-TEAM SOLDIER IN AMERICAN

HISTORY

CHANGIZ LAHIDJI AND RALPH PEZZULLO

ISBN 978-1-250-12115-8

$26.99/$34.99 CAN.

More than one hundred combat missions, twenty-four years as a Green Beret—

Full Battle Rattle tells the legend of a soldier who served America in every war since Vietnam. aster Sergeant Changiz Lahidji served on Special Forces A-teams longer than anyone in history, completing more than 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 fiftytwo 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 eighty-three 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, in October 1993 when a US Black Hawk helicopter was shot down fifty feet away from him in the incident that inspired Black Hawk Down. \n 2002 he dressed as a farmer and snuck into eastern Afghanistan and located Osama bin Laden for the US government. Along the way, Changiz earned numerous commendations, including the Special Forces Legion of Merit, and many others. Last year he was nominated for induction into the 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.

70, as Beal , Ga os be

er

ol

a

ee

htt Aly, —— :

me

a eM

Hh

MY STORY AS THE LONGEST-SERVING

SPECIAL

FORCES A-TEAM SOLDIER IN AMERICAN HISTORY

CHANGIZ LAHIDJE ao RALPH PEZZULLO

ST. MARTIN'S PRESS

A

NEW YORK

FULL BATTLE RATTLE. Copyright © 2018 by Changiz Lahidji and Ralph Pezzullo. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010. www.stmartins.com

Designed by Omar Chapa Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Lahidji, Changiz, 1950- author. | Pezzullo, Ralph, author.

Title: Full battle rattle : my story as the longest-serving special forces A-Team soldier in American history / Changiz Lahidji and Ralph Pezzullo. Other titles: My story as the longest-serving special forces A-Team soldier in American history Description: First edition. |New York : St. Martin’s Press, [2018] Identifiers: LCCN 20170375431 ISBN 9781250121158 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781250121165 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Lahidji, Changiz, 1950-1 United States. Army. Special Forces—Officers—Biography. | United States. Army. Special Forces— History. | Special operations (Military science)—United States. | Iranian Americans—Biography. | Persian Gulf War, 1991—Personal narratives, American. | Afghan War, 2001—Personal narratives, American

Classification: LCC UA34.864 L35 2018 | DDC 356/.16—dc23 LC record available at https://Iccn.loc.gow/2017037543 Our books may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact your local bookseller or the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, extension 5442, or by email at [email protected]. First Edition: February 2018 10° 9

8-7

‘ORR

kA

Se