Beyond the Outpost: An Army Cavalry Officer’s War Diary on the Frontlines of Afghanistan, 2003 – 2007

In 2003, Army Cavalry Officer, 2nd Lieutenant Ross Berkoff, led his Scout Platoon from the 10th Mountain Division on more than 10,000 miles of reconnaissance missions over a nine-month period across the dangerous southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand—the birthplace of the Taliban. After his transition to Military Intelligence, Captain Berkoff returned to Afghanistan in 2006, once again assigned to the 10th Mountain Division’s Light Cavalry. This time, the Taliban insurgency had escalated in sophistication, with deadly effectiveness. Beyond the Outpost: An Army Cavalry Officer’s War Diary on the Frontlines of Afghanistan, 2003 – 2007 is the first and only raw daily chronicle from the perspective of a junior officer covering this delicate and hostile early period of the U.S. Army’s 20-year campaign against the Taliban. During the two-year period following September 11th, 2001, Taliban and Al Qaeda strongholds in Afghanistan were largely deserted. Months of intense U.S. Special Forces raids and bombing campaigns were successful at dislodging and disorganizing large swaths of enemy combatants. When the first deployments of U.S. Army Brigade Combat Teams entered Afghanistan, however, enemy tactics and momentum began to shift and intensify. Lieutenant Berkoff’s deployment in 2003 was Operation Enduring Freedom’s first use of Light Cavalry forces on the modern battlefield. His second deployment in 2006 supported the pursuit by U.S. intelligence agencies of Osama Bin Laden in the mountainous border region near Pakistan. Berkoff’s diary—raw and unscripted—carries us along the bumpy ride as Army operations roil in its counter-insurgency mission designed to destroy pockets of extremists and separate them from the beleaguered Afghan people. A large portion of Jake Tapper’s national bestseller The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor is solely dedicated to this 2006-2007 deployment. Beyond the Outpost records the early years of America’s Afghanistan Conflict. Berkoff’s firsthand day-to-day account of the 10th Mountain Division’s campaigning and combat across the sand dunes of Kandahar and over the mountains of the rugged Hindu Kush offers unique clarity and detail of the common soldier’s perspective, the evolution of tactics of the Taliban insurgency, and how the U.S. Army Cavalry fought to defeat it. In the aftermath of the bungled 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, many combat veterans are gripped with profound questions about the meaning and the legacy of their service. Berkoff’s stories of courage, sacrifice, adaptability, resilience, and leadership, enhanced with original maps, illustrations, and previously unpublished photographs, help carry the weight of the collective experiences of our Afghanistan veterans.

About the Author :
Ross Berkoff served on active duty as an Armor and Military Intelligence officer from 2002 to 2009. After his time in the 10th Mountain Division, Ross served in the District of Columbia Army National Guard before transitioning to the private sector in 2007 to begin a second career as an industry leader in the government contracting defense and intelligence communities. Ross’s two combat deployments earned him two Bronze Stars, two Army Commendation Medals, and two Afghanistan Campaign Ribbons. He’s most proud of 3-71 Cavalry’s Meritorious Unit Commendation for waging “highly successful counterinsurgency operations against determined opponents in the most austere and rugged conditions in the world.” Ross and his wife Rebekah reside in Chantilly, Virginia, where they are raising two incredible children, Eliana and Aaron.

Review :
"A must read for those who wish to understand the relatively small number of Americans inside the uniforms who have selflessly and honorably protected our nation in our longest war. Ross Berkoff shares his unfiltered firsthand account from the deserts of Kandahar to the peaks of the Hindu Kush to include the emotional roller coaster of combat."--John W. Nicholson Jr. (General, U.S. Army, Ret.), Four-Star Commander of the Afghanistan War "Beyond the Outpost is a raw, introspective telling of two combat tours in Afghanistan. The book, based entirely on Ross Berkoff's personal journal, provides an illuminating line-of-sight optic into the psyche of a young American Army officer at war. It is not a retrospective 'looking back I remember' kind of story. It is a 'what I see, think, and feel now, in this moment' kind of story. Unfiltered and undiluted by subsequent events and the passage of time, it is the book's sense of immediacy and unblinking honesty that separates it from other military-themed works and makes it such an insightful and worthwhile read."--Duane Evans, former CIA Chief of Station, recipient of the Intelligence Star for Valor, and author of Foxtrot in Kandahar: A Memoir of a CIA Officer in Afghanistan at the Inception of America's Longest War "Beyond the Outpost is an essential and sometimes heartbreaking history of a critical period during our nation's twenty-year war in Afghanistan. Written from the perspective of a U.S. Army Cavalry officer directly involved in the conflict, Ross Berkoff's book honors the courage of the soldiers with whom he served and raises painful questions about the legacy of their profound sacrifice."--Jon Krakauer, author of Into the Wild, Into Thin Air, and Where Men Win Glory "Captain Ross Berkoff, one of the heroes of my book The Outpost about the American effort in Afghanistan, provides us with a gripping firsthand account of what it's like to be an officer in a war. With compelling and candid prose, Berkoff takes us to the front lines as life-or-death decisions are made involving living and breathing characters. You must read this to understand what the war was like for the war fighters."--Jake Tapper, award-winning journalist and author of The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor