E785 - Paul Darling - Taliban Safari - One Day in the Surkhagan Valley Afghanistan

Episode 785 - Paul Darling - Taliban Safari - One Day in the Surkhagan Valley Afghanistan Paul Darling is a retired Infantry officer who has commanded at every level from platoon to regiment. He is a Project Management Professional as well as a published expert in strategy development, operations and planning. He attended the United States Military Academy and Duke University. Author: Taliban Safari: One Day in the Surkhagan Valley. Darling, who is a graduate of West Point and now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, deployed in 2009. When he called home for his son's fifth birthday after a 16-hour mission, his wife could hear a difference in his voice after all he'd said was, "Hey, you." "To effectively work in that kind of environment, at least in combat, you kind of have to let that dark side out a little bit. I used to call it 'the beast,'" he explains. "Then when you talk to your kids and wife, you've got to put that away real quick." He hadn't put away the dark side fast enough that day. She asked if he'd like to talk about it. He couldn't on the phone that night. But ultimately he did in the book, called "Taliban Safari: One Day in the Surkhagan Valley." Darling says he and the soldiers he was commanding had previously stumbled into an ambush and killed the commander of the Taliban troops. The Pashtun general who worked with Darling said that a new commander would take the place of the one who had just been killed. This new commander would, Darling learned, "have to do a mission to kind of establish his chops. We took a guess where he’d be at, and we went to hunt them down." Darling points out that the American public has increasingly become removed from military experience, as a narrower segment of society volunteers to serve. In his experience, he says, the infantry is not diverse, but largely middle class and white. "The military has lost the connection to the public at large. And I wanted people to know what it's like for a normal guy." https://kansaspress.ku.edu/author/paul-darling/ Support the show ___ https://livingthenextchapter.com/ podcast produced by: https://truemediasolutions.ca/ Coffee Refills are always appreciated, refill Dave's cup here, and thanks! https://buymeacoffee.com/truemediaca