Roberts Ridge (2005)

On March 4, 2002, a U.S. Special Forces team, call sign MAKO 30, landed smack in the middle of a Taliban/al-Qaeda stronghold in a mountainous patch of western Afghanistan. As rockets and bullets peppered MAKO 30's helicopter, Navy SEAL Neil Roberts tumbled out. U.S. commanders in situation rooms around the world watched enemy fighters encircle Roberts via video from an unmanned aircraft — but they could do nothing to stop his execution. And then things got worse. Six more American soldiers would die on that mountain during the 17-hour engagement because of poor planning and communication failures. Malcolm MacPherson, a former Marine and Time reporter, tells an important story of U.S. servicemen in this one tragic fight, but his book is no Black Hawk Down. Roberts Ridge lacks the history, multiple perspectives, and context that gave Mark Bowden's blow-by-blow war story historical weight.