''Outlaw Platoon'' is a 2012 war story

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based on the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autob ...

written by Captain

Sean Parnell Sean Randall Parnell (born November 19, 1962) is an American attorney and politician who was the tenth governor of Alaska from 2009 to 2014.

and author John R. Bruning. The book details Parnell's 2006–2007 experiences as an infantry

platoon leader A platoon leader (NATO) or platoon commander (more common in Commonwealth militaries and the US Marine Corps) is the officer in charge of a platoon. This person is usually a junior officer – a second or first lieutenant or an equivalent rank ...

during the

War in Afghanistan War in Afghanistan, Afghan war, or Afghan civil war may refer to: *Conquest of Afghanistan by Alexander the Great (330 BC – 327 BC), the conquest of Afghanistan by the Macedonian Empire * Muslim conquests of Afghanistan, a series of campaigns in ...

. After receiving his commission through the Army

Reserve Officers' Training Corps The Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC; or ) is a group of college- and university-based officer-training programs for training commissioned officers of the United States Armed Forces. While ROTC graduate officers serve in all branches o ...

program at

Duquesne University Duquesne University of the Holy Spirit ( ; also known as Duquesne University or Duquesne) is a Private university, private Catholic higher education, Catholic research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded by members of ...

, Parnell led 3rd Platoon, B Company, 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment,

3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division The 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division is an infantry brigade combat team of the United States Army based at Fort Johnson, Louisiana. Since its activation in 2004, the brigade has deployed four times to Afghanistan in support of Oper ...

. The company was based near the

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

i border in

Barmal District Barmal District (, ) is a district of Paktika Province, Afghanistan. It shares a border with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, Pakistan. The Angur Ada is the official border checkpoint and border crossing between the people of Paktika and K ...

Paktika Province Paktika (Pashto: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the eastern part of the country. Forming part of the larger Loya Paktia region, Paktika has a population of about 789,000 residents, who are mostly ethnic Pashtuns but sma ...

on an extended 16-month deployment. After the deployment, Parnell was awarded two

Bronze Star Medal The Bronze Star Medal (BSM) is a Awards and decorations of the United States Armed Forces, United States Armed Forces decoration awarded to members of the United States Armed Forces for either heroic achievement, heroic service, meritorious a ...

s and a

Purple Heart The Purple Heart (PH) is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the president to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after 5 April 1917, with the U.S. military. With its forerunner, the Badge of Military Merit, ...

. Parnell left duty as a lieutenant and retired as a captain. Before embarking on Outlaw Platoon. Parnell's coauthor, military historian John R. Bruning, embedded himself with a unit in Afghanistan in 2010 in preparation for writing the book for Parnell. The book was discussed as part of the Commandant's Book Club at the

United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...

in 2013. Parnell discussed writing the book for an episode of '' Pritzker Military Presents'' and for the ''Episode 192 of the Jocko Podcast.''

References

2012 non-fiction books Military memoirs War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) books Non-fiction books about the United States Army William Morrow and Company books {{mil-memoir-stub