25 Years After 9/11: The CIA's First Moments Behind Enemy Lines in Afghanistan

Retired Colonel Justin Sapp recounts his experience as the youngest member of Team Alpha — the first eight Americans inserted into northern Afghanistan after 9/11. The operational detail is strong: departing from the DC area, staging through Uzbekistan, Black Hawk insertion into the mountains, and the early work of clearing the path for what followed. A first-person account from someone who was genuinely there at the sharp end of the CIA–Special Forces fusion that defined the opening of the Afghan war.