Overview

This is the gripping true story of 4 intense years in the life of a US Army Special Forces soldier, who joins the UN, and then goes on to assignments in some of the world's most dangerous countries--finding himself on sometimes-terrifying missions that include murderous child-soldiers; blood diamonds; a double hostage-taking; the rape of innocents; an invasion by brutal guerrillas; an emergency aerial evacuation; a desperate mission to recover hundreds of prisoners; tribal gunfights and unusual kidnappings; refugee camp violence; a deadly jihadist suicide bombing attack; and institutional corruption.

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9781733398046

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Reviews

"""Robert Adolph is the real deal, a Special Forces officer, United Nations security expert, and scholar in the most dangerous countries of the world. His life mattered in a way that those of the famous often don't."" --Robert Kaplan, New York Times multiple best-selling author ""No rose-colored glasses here. Bob Adolph lays bare his unique experiences in pursuit of idealistic humanitarian purposes while in some of the toughest places on the planet. Sometimes his most dangerous opponents were in the very organization of which he was a part. To paraphrase from the book, Lonesome Dove, 'he survived because he dealt with things as he found them...not as he wished they would be.'"" --Peter J. Schoomaker, General, US Army (retired), former Chief of Staff of the US Army ""Lieutenant Colonel Bob Adolph's unforgettable and brutally frank history provides graphic meaning to the unattributed quote, ""You are either at the table or on the menu."" --William Garrison, Major General, US Army (retired), former Commanding General of the Joint Special Operations Command and the US Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School ""A superb, painfully honest and moving account of a life lived amid the great and lesser crises of our time, this book captures not only stunning violence and grim tragedies on multiple continents, but also does a great service by demonstrating what happens when on-the-ground urgency collides with aid bureaucracies. Bob Adolph's first-hand account of UN operations is alternately inspiring, enlightening, and infuriating (the latter when a failed hierarchy grasps about for a scapegoat in Iraq). A former special-operations soldier and globally recognized security expert, the author has given us the best-by-far nuts-and-bolts account of organizations seeking to do good, only to end up mired in a bloodbath. In short, a vital book by a very good man."" --Ralph Peters, New York Times best-selling author of Beyond Terror and Endless War ""On the afternoon of August 19, 2003, a suicide bomber destroyed the UN Headquarters in Baghdad killing twenty-two and wounding over one hundred fifty staff members and visitors. Not only was the office in ruins, but also the UN effort to demonstrate to the world that it could be an effective player in post-war Iraq. The searing events of that day, and the institutional failure of the organization to exercise its duty of care to protect its employees, are ably told by Bob Adolph, who was the UN Security Chief in Baghdad when the attack took place."" --Richard Manlove, former UN Principal Security Advisor for Iraq ""Bob is a warrior, who truly spent his life protecting those who needed his strong arm. A great read, and a book worthy of a spot on every bookshelf."" --Steven P. Bucci, Colonel, US Army, Special Forces (retired) (PhD), former Military Assistant to the Secretary of Defense and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense ""This is a superb book written by a man that intimately knows his subject--because he lived it."" --Gerald Ganz, former Head of Training and Director of Field Support, UN Department of Safety and Security ""His memoir often reads like a cracking good adventure novel. But this is no work of fiction--it is, instead, history."" --Ben Lawton, Associate Professor, College of Liberal Arts, Purdue University and co-editor of the book Revisioning Terrorism: A Humanistic Approach"

Robert Adolph is the real deal, a Special Forces officer, United Nations security expert, and scholar in the most dangerous countries of the world. His life mattered in a way that those of the famous often don't. --Robert Kaplan, New York Times multiple best-selling author No rose-colored glasses here. Bob Adolph lays bare his unique experiences in pursuit of idealistic humanitarian purposes while in some of the toughest places on the planet. Sometimes his most dangerous opponents were in the very organization of which he was a part. To paraphrase from the book, Lonesome Dove, 'he survived because he dealt with things as he found them...not as he wished they would be.' --Peter J. Schoomaker, General, US Army (retired), former Chief of Staff of the US Army Lieutenant Colonel Bob Adolph's unforgettable and brutally frank history provides graphic meaning to the unattributed quote, You are either at the table or on the menu. --William Garrison, Major General, US Army (retired), former Commanding General of the Joint Special Operations Command and the US Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School A superb, painfully honest and moving account of a life lived amid the great and lesser crises of our time, this book captures not only stunning violence and grim tragedies on multiple continents, but also does a great service by demonstrating what happens when on-the-ground urgency collides with aid bureaucracies. Bob Adolph's first-hand account of UN operations is alternately inspiring, enlightening, and infuriating (the latter when a failed hierarchy grasps about for a scapegoat in Iraq). A former special-operations soldier and globally recognized security expert, the author has given us the best-by-far nuts-and-bolts account of organizations seeking to do good, only to end up mired in a bloodbath. In short, a vital book by a very good man. --Ralph Peters, New York Times best-selling author of Beyond Terror and Endless War On the afternoon of August 19, 2003, a suicide bomber destroyed the UN Headquarters in Baghdad killing twenty-two and wounding over one hundred fifty staff members and visitors. Not only was the office in ruins, but also the UN effort to demonstrate to the world that it could be an effective player in post-war Iraq. The searing events of that day, and the institutional failure of the organization to exercise its duty of care to protect its employees, are ably told by Bob Adolph, who was the UN Security Chief in Baghdad when the attack took place. --Richard Manlove, former UN Principal Security Advisor for Iraq Bob is a warrior, who truly spent his life protecting those who needed his strong arm. A great read, and a book worthy of a spot on every bookshelf. --Steven P. Bucci, Colonel, US Army, Special Forces (retired) (PhD), former Military Assistant to the Secretary of Defense and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense This is a superb book written by a man that intimately knows his subject--because he lived it. --Gerald Ganz, former Head of Training and Director of Field Support, UN Department of Safety and Security His memoir often reads like a cracking good adventure novel. But this is no work of fiction--it is, instead, history. --Ben Lawton, Associate Professor, College of Liberal Arts, Purdue University and co-editor of the book Revisioning Terrorism: A Humanistic Approach

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