Books like First In by Gary Schroen


Gary Schroen, a former CIA field officer, recounts the clandestine operations that began immediately after the September 11 attacks. Drawing on personal experience, he details the intelligence effort that paved the way for the U.S. retaliation against terrorism and the early stages of the Afghan war (2001‑2021). The account offers a rare insider’s view of how covert action helped shape the campaign against the Taliban and contributed to Afghanistan’s recovery.
First publish date: 2005
Genre: History/Military History
Authors: Gary Schroen
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 0.0 (0 community ratings)

First In by Gary Schroen

How are these books recommended?

The books recommended for First In by Gary Schroen are shaped by reader interaction. Votes on how closely books relate, user ratings, and community comments all help refine these recommendations and highlight books readers genuinely find similar in theme, ideas, and overall reading experience.


Have you read any of these books?
Your votes, ratings, and comments help improve recommendations and make it easier for other readers to discover books they’ll enjoy.

Books similar to First In (14 similar books)

Night school by 7751806|Lee Child book cover

📘 Night school
 by Lee Child

Jack Reacher returns to the military fold in a pulse‑pounding thriller that takes him from the U.S. back to a hostile Germany and a desperate Saudi courier. With an FBI agent and CIA analyst at his side, Reacher races against time to stop a Jihadist plot that threatens to devastate the world.

★★★★★★★★★★ 3.6 (5 ratings)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0
Outlaw platoon by 11480999|Sean Parnell book cover

📘 Outlaw platoon

Lieutenant's account of U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division's heroic stand in Afghanistan during the war, 2001-2021.

★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 (3 ratings)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0
The Only Thing Worth Dying For by 4724543|Eric Blehm book cover

📘 The Only Thing Worth Dying For
 by Eric Blehm

On a moonless night just weeks after September 11, 2001, U.S. Special Forces team ODA 574 infiltrates the mountains of southern Afghanistan with a seemingly impossible mission: to foment a tribal revolt and force the Taliban to surrender. Armed solely with the equipment they can carry on their backs, shockingly scant intelligence, and their mastery of guerrilla warfare, Captain Jason Amerine and his men have no choice but to trust their only ally, a little-known Pashtun statesman named Hamid Karzai who has returned from exile and is being hunted by the Taliban as he travels the countryside raising a militia.The Only Thing Worth Dying For chronicles the most important mission in the early days of the Global War on Terror, when the men on the ground knew little about the enemy—and their commanders in Washington knew even less. With unprecedented access to surviving members of ODA 574, key war planners, and Karzai himself, award-winning author Eric Blehm cuts through the noise of politicians and high-level military officials to narrate for the first time a story of uncommon bravery and terrible sacrifice, intimately exposing the realities of unconventional warfare and nation-building in Afghanistan that continue to shape the region today.

★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 (1 rating)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0
Roberts Ridge by 8345649|Malcolm MacPherson book cover

📘 Roberts Ridge

A gripping account of a U.S. SEAL team's harrowing mission to take control of Takur Ghar mountain peak in Afghanistan during the 2002 Operation Anaconda, featuring the story of a red-haired SEAL who was stranded and the brave efforts to rescue him.

★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 (1 rating)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0
Winter soldier, Iraq and Afghanistan by 9500784|Iraq Veterans Against the War. book cover

📘 Winter soldier, Iraq and Afghanistan

Accounts the 2008 Winter Soldier hearings in Washington, D.C., where Iraq Veterans Against the War presented testimony and documents detailing atrocities witnessed in Iraq and Afghanistan, challenging the notion that such acts were isolated incidents.

★★★★★★★★★★ 0.0 (0 ratings)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0
The secret soldier by 4707972|Alex Berenson book cover

📘 The secret soldier

CIA operative John Wells infiltrates Saudi Arabia and Lebanon to thwart a plot that could topple King Abdullah’s monarchy and ignite a wider conflict between America and Islam.

★★★★★★★★★★ 0.0 (0 ratings)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0
The Punishment of Virtue by 6950999|Sarah Chayes book cover

📘 The Punishment of Virtue

A revealing look at the failures of U.S. policy in Afghanistan after the Taliban's defeat, exposing deeper issues with current strategies.

★★★★★★★★★★ 0.0 (0 ratings)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0
The Gray Man by 11192002|Mark Greaney book cover

📘 The Gray Man

Court Gentry, known as The Gray Man, is a legendary assassin who moves from job to job, never leaving a trace. Facing lethal adversaries, he must prove that there is no gray area between killing for a living and killing to survive.

★★★★★★★★★★ 0.0 (0 ratings)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0
Spoken from the Front by 6714007|Andy McNab book cover

📘 Spoken from the Front
 by Andy McNab

Real life voices from the battlefields of AfghanistanSpoken from the Front will tell the stories of what Andy McNab describes as "modern-day heroes fighting modern-day wars". It will recount the courage and hardship of British servicemen and support staff as they have faced the unique difficulties posed by the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan.Andy will introduce and edit the book, but the interwoven stories will be told by those serving on the front line, in their own words. Their action-packed, dramatic, moving and often humorous testimonies will be told through interviews and diaries, and letters and emails written to family, friends and loved ones. Spoken from the Front will be styled loosely on the Imperial War Museum's highly-successful Forgotten Voices series, but will focus on a smaller number of central characters who turn up repeatedly throughout the narrative.

★★★★★★★★★★ 0.0 (0 ratings)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0
The official CIA manual of trickery and deception by 8838975|H. Keith Melton book cover

📘 The official CIA manual of trickery and deception

The CIA's hidden manual of magic and deception: How the agency taught its agents to use sleight of hand for espionage and covert operations during the Cold War.

★★★★★★★★★★ 0.0 (0 ratings)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0
Not a Good Day to Die by 6992237|Sean Naylor book cover

📘 Not a Good Day to Die

In this New York Times bestseller, award-winning combat reporter Sean Naylor reveals how close American forces came to disaster in Afghanistan against Al Qaida-after easily defeating the ragtag Taliban that had sheltered the terrorist organization behind the 9/11 attacks.At dawn on March 2, 2002, over 200 soldiers of the 101st Airborne and 10th Mountain Divisions flew into the mouth of a buzz saw in the Shahikot Valley. Believing the war all but over, U.S. military leaders refused to commit the troops and materiel required to fight the war's biggest battle-a missed opportunity to crush hundreds of Al Qaida's fighters and some of its most senior leaders. Eyewitness Naylor vividly portrays the heroism of the young, untested soldiers unprepared for the ferocious enemy they fought; the mistakes that led to a hellish mountaintop firefight; and how thirteen American commandos embodied "Patton's three principles of war"-audacity, audacity and audacity-by creeping unseen over frozen mountains into the heart of an enemy stronghold to prevent a U.S. military catastrophe.

★★★★★★★★★★ 0.0 (0 ratings)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0
Enemy at the Gates by 8423706|Vince Flynn book cover

📘 Enemy at the Gates


★★★★★★★★★★ 0.0 (0 ratings)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0
American Traitor by 11921603|Brad Taylor book cover

📘 American Traitor


★★★★★★★★★★ 0.0 (0 ratings)
Similar? ✓ Yes 0 ✗ No 0

Some Other Similar Books

The Moscow Rules by Daniel Silva
The Kill List by Tess Gerritsen
The Cobra by Eric Van Lustbader
The Devil's Workshop by Alex Berenson

Have a similar book in mind? Let others know!

Please login to submit books!