A legendary Special Forces commander was quietly forced to leave the
U.S. Army after he admitted to a love affair with a Washington Post war
correspondent, who quit her job to secretly live with him for almost a
year in one of the most dangerous combat outposts in Afghanistan.
U.S. Army Special Operations Command never publicly disclosed that
highly-decorated Green Beret Major Jim Gant was relieved of command at
the end of a harrowing 22 months in combat in March 2012.
His commanders charged in confidential files that he had "indulged in a
self-created fantasy world" of booze, pain pills and sex in a tribal
village deep in Taliban and al Qaeda country with his "wife," journalist
Ann Scott Tyson.
"We did fall in love, I would say over the course of about a week,"
Tyson told ABC News in an interview, recalling that Gant asked her to
marry him within a few days of meeting each other in 2010. She laughed
him off at first, but eventually he won her over.
By the time he was yanked out of Afghanistan two years later because of
his relationship with Tyson, Gant also had won over three Pashtun tribes
with substantial influence throughout Kunar province.
Top commanders
had tasked him with turning the tide of a conflict America was losing,
and in his corner of the war, Gant was winning.
More with video @ ABC
Wow, what a story - now if Gant had been a loser like the rest of them, and he was having an intimate affair with Ahmed, the goatherder, then all would be well. I was about to be very negative about Gant falling for a WaPo reporter, but she resigned, and the rest is history.
ReplyDeleteNow, that was a story worthy of the best.
DeleteThere will be a movie, just hope it is by someone who is more sympathetic and not a hack job.
ReplyDeleteI would assume, and I know that's probably stupid, :) that he would have the final say.
DeleteI hope he at least asks to review the final screenplay - with a story like this, I would want David Mamet to handle it.
ReplyDeleteThis may well become an epic. Back when men were men and.........
DeleteLawrence of Arabia, move over - the saga lives on! I will speak for myself, but I think people are hungry for a story where men are men and no apologies.
ReplyDeleteI have been watching the new Sherlock Holmes series that is set in modern times. Have you seen it? Dr. Watson is an Afghani war vet suffering from PTSD and a leg injury. In the original story, Watson was also an Afghani war vet when the Brits were there way back when (didn't know that). Worth the watch.
Lawrence of Arabia, move over - the saga lives on! I will speak for myself, but I think people are hungry for a story where men are men and no apologies.
DeleteI agree, my dear and didn't know about the new series. Thanks.
S.Holmes is on Netflix, if you have access to that.
ReplyDeleteThanks, but I don't seem to have time for TV anymore. :)
DeleteCalling Colonel Kurtz.........!
ReplyDeleteAre you out there?
Calling Colonel Kurtz.........!
:)
Delete"Top commanders had tasked him with turning the tide of a conflict America was losing, and in his corner of the war, Gant was winning."
DeleteSounds like Kurtz to me.
Reminds me of John Paul Vann and Hackworth also.
Delete