My Country To Defend Book Cover

My Country To Defend

A.E. Dimond
Format: Hardcover, Paperback, eBook all available
Paperback Price: $21.95
Published: iUniverse, 2004
All formats include a 19-page photo gallery
ISBN: 0-595-33484-9

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ABOUT "RAGE" COMPANY


   The atmosphere quickened, even in their blind stations, an electricity that bristled their necks. They approached the border and Diego clenched his jaw on that first-time anticipation. They had entered the war zone and there was no turning away as they spit back the last dust on Kuwait. Two long tank berms were on a parallel with five kilometers between them, a free-flowing tributary of sand…
   The first tank crashed the barrier and then another and another in an ascension not unlike their winged counterparts. Standing at the pierced barricade was like standing on a flight deck, the rush of the take off overpowering. One combat engineer cheered and another bowed his head, his eyes squinted on the extreme emotion. It was like an embanking sensation—something massaged the sand as the Bradley that carried Diego folded into an erect line…
   Diego rode backward, but there was nothing backward about that small glimpse as he turned and peered over Walker’s shoulder. It was in the shaft of their arrow, that uprightness between the two berms, that a handful of them nearly wept.
   One combat engineer stood his ground, a lone silhouette against all of the fear and desolation. With the last strength he could afford, he swung the standard of liberty, waving them on with an American flag.

—From My Country to Defend

PFC Diego Rincon played a tip of the spear role with the famed 3rd Infantry Division, lauded as the “Rock of the Marne.” He served in the 2nd Battalion’s 7th Infantry Regiment, part of the first wave of soldiers to infiltrate the border and liberate the Iraqi people. Alpha Company has come to be known as “Rage.” Within Rage Company, Diego’s platoon earned the nickname of the Outlaws, a distinction matched by their extraordinary mettle and achievements during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The Outlaw Platoon was the first to suffer casualties at the hands of a suicide bomber. Though My Country to Defend is the story of Diego Rincon, approximately one-third of the book is dedicated to his comrades, their brotherhood, and their bravery in major combat operations. It was the Outlaw Platoon which discovered critical intelligence that proved downed Gulf War pilot Scott Speicher had, in fact, been a prisoner of war. Several of the Outlaws received medals with valor for their role in the much touted “Thunder Run” into Baghdad. The Outlaw Platoon remained in Iraq for a total of seven months to help establish peace. Several main characters in the book are returning for the second time to Iraq in January, 2005.