Operation Pineapple Express The incredible story of a group of Americans who undertook one last mission and honored a promise in Afghanistan

Mann, a retired army lieutenant colonel and Afghan War vet, makes the chaos and trauma of the 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan palpable in this gripping account of Task Force Pineapple. Mann founded the task force in August 2021, initially to rescue one man he served with, a former member of the Afghan Army Special Forces, but it soon expanded to include "a loose confederation of American, Afghan, and allied men and women to rescue as many of their Afghan partners as they could after the fall of Kabul." Modeled after the Underground Railroad, the task force saved more than a thousand Afghans before a suicide bombing at the Hamid Karzai International Airport disrupted its operations. Beyond delivering a real-life action thriller, the author provides yet another negative postmortem on the U.S. government's handling of the crisis. Mann notes that the country that "had liberated Nazi concentration camps, pulled off the Berlin Airlift, and delivered aid to disaster-struck countries across the globe" left thousands of its allies behind who continue to be at risk of violence. This is a valuable addition to the growing literature on the ending of America's longest war. Agent: Howard Yoon, Ross Yoon Agency. (Aug.)

A lively account of heroism after the tumultuous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. Americans celebrated when the Soviet military evacuated Afghanistan in 1989, leaving the government and its supporters to the cruel mercies of the victorious Taliban. Few cheered when America did the same last year, as U.S. leaders failed to keep their promises that they would not abandon their allies. Among those caught up in the chaos of the final months were interpreters, civil servants, and elite members of Afghan Special Forces, who worked closely with their American counterparts. Mann, a retired Green Beret with more than 20 years of international combat experience, builds his story around Nezamuddin Nezami, an Afghan commando who found himself trapped in the increasing chaos. Frightened for his family's fate once the Taliban regained control of the country, he applied for a Special Immigrant Visa to the U.S., which never came. He appealed frantically to former comrades, including the author, all safely in America, often retired, and none highly placed. Stirred to action, they assembled an ad hoc collection of Afghan vets, CIA officers, USAID advisers, and congressional aides dubbed the Pineapple Express, and the group planned tactics, bypassed red tape to talk directly to overwhelmed officials under siege at the Kabul airport, and succeeded in extracting Nezami and his family. By this time, aware of appeals from other trapped Afghans, they managed to guide hundreds to safety before a terrorist bomb at the airport abruptly ended their work, leaving thousands behind. Mann delivers gripping accounts of a few successful rescues and admiring portraits of his Pineapple Express colleagues, but he is also careful to point out that America dishonored itself. In hastily abandoning Afghanistan, neither Presidents Trump nor Biden displayed more than token sympathy for the Afghan people. Particularly helpful for general readers are the timeline, cast of characters, and acronyms list. A worthy account of a valiant operation. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

ProloguePROLOGUE KABUL--AUGUST 19, 2021 Nezam stacked a few bricks and squirted lighter fluid on some wood chips. He clicked open a Zippo and lit the pile. Flames jumped up in a small fire. Morning light was just beginning to spread over the neighborhood; the power had been off all night. At one point, he had sat in his uncle's car in the dark, his powered-down iPhone plugged into the charger. The sporadic choppa of Kalashnikov rifles had subsided. The silence was eerie. His phone was still off as he huddled by the fire. One at a time, he fed sheets of paper into the flames. With all the cooking fires in the neighborhood, the smoke wouldn't draw attention. The papers were colorfully adorned with commando crests, Afghan and American flags, skulls pierced with daggers, scorpions, helicopters, rifles. They praised Nezam in English or Dari. They were signed by commanders--no last names. SF Dave . Captain Rob . There was the Defense Language Institute English course. Commando Kandak Certificates of Achievement. Letters of recommendation from a 75th Ranger Regiment battalion commander. It was Nezam's life that was going up in flames. It was everything the Afghan National Army recruiter in Takhar had told him he was too small to be. It was everything that made him stand tall against his corrupt uncle back home. It was what the fat mess hall sergeant had tried to lock him away from becoming. In a way, however, maybe they'd been right. They were just looking at it the wrong way. It wasn't Nezam who couldn't do it--it was Afghanistan. The papers burned. But they were only symbols. He was still an elite special operator. Besides, he had copies. He'd uploaded the documents to a cloud account belonging to several of his U.S. friends, just in case. But then Nezam pulled out his graduation certificate from the Q Course at Fort Bragg. And the orders authorizing him to wear the blue and gold "long tab" emblazoned with SPECIAL FORCES. I can't do it , he thought. He folded up this and a few other original American documents, tucked them deep in his shirt, and poured water over the embers. Black smoke wafted skyward. Looking up, he noticed an old mujahideen staring at him from beyond a row of hedges twenty-five feet away. One of the neighborhood guys he played chess with. Did he see me burning papers? Does he know who I am? Nezam smiled and placed his right hand over his heart, the common greeting among Afghans, waiting for a reaction. The mujahideen slowly lifted his palm to his own chest, a silent salaam, and shuffled out of sight. The old warrior had given his blessing. A few moments later, Nezam powered on his phone. A flood of messages popped up, ones that had been sent hours earlier. One caught his eye. MULLAH MIKE Brother, it's time to go. Excerpted from Operation Pineapple Express: The Incredible Story of a Group of Americans Who Undertook One Last Mission and Honored a Promise in Afghanistan by Scott Mann All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.