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Frank “Gus” Biggio interview about his Afghanistan War military history book “The Wolves of Helmand”
Check out this book here https://amzn.to/322IKAV
Interview Timeline
Frank “Gus” Biggio served in the US Marine Corps in the 1990s and got out to pursue a career in law. But during the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq he felt like he needed to support his country’s efforts and get back in the fight. He rejoined the Corps working in Civil Affairs. He deployed to Afghanistan with the Marines as part of a Civil Affairs Group. He published the story of his time there. We spoke about the book “The Wolves of Helmand”, about combat in Afghanistan, and about veterans affairs.
(THE AUDIO PLAYER IS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST.)
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2:59 – Gus talks about why he wrote about his experiences in Helmand Afghanistan.
7:00 – Gus talks about civil affairs in the Marine Corps and what his unit and work was like.
11:07 – Gus talks about the difficulty of finding the enemy in Afghanistan.
12:44 – Gus talks about balancing the attitudes of locals pro and anti US Marine.
16:05 – Gus talks about the training that Marines got to do the mission in Afghanistan.
19:30 – Gus talks about balancing initiative and flexibility with orders that might not make sense in the field.
22:20 – Gus talks about the interpreters they had with them.
25:06 – Gus talks about working with British forces.
26:29 – Gus talks about working with the Afghan national Security Forces.
29:44 – Gus talks about the destruction of poppy fields.
33:59 – Gus talks about women and children in Afghanistan.
39:11 – Gus talks about the equipment they and they enemy used during patrols.
42:47 – Gus talks about the support the patrols could call on.
44:23 – Gus talks about the IEDs the Taliban used.
48:00 – Gus talks about patrol movement and alertness levels.
48:53 – Gus talks about the four Marines lost on the deployment.
50:44 – Gus addresses the results of the mission.
58:24 – Gus talks about veterans affairs and how the public deals with veterans.
1:01:53 – Gus addresses the subject of service.
1:04:11 – Gus talks about talking to young people who want to join the military.
1:05:42 – Gus can be found at wolvesofhelmand.com and a facebook page “The Wolves of Helmand”
Links of interest
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Wolves-of-Helmand/Frank-Gus-Biggio/9781948677646
https://www.facebook.com/WolvesOfHelmand/
Jane Gilmartin talks about her sci-fi novel The Mirror Man https://wp.me/p7CDU9-51v
James Miller talks about the NASA NEAR mission http://spacewalksmoneytalks.com/p/605
Contact Information
For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me at www.warscholar.org, on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar and on Instagram @crisalvarezwarscholar. Or subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify Please see historyrabbithole.com for a list of my dozen or so blogs and podcasts. You’re sure to find something you like.
Guests: Frank “Gus” Biggio
Host: Cris Alvarez
Tags: Books, audio interviews, author, podcast, Forefront Books, Modern War, United States, Afghanistan,
Check out this book here https://amzn.to/322IKAV
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