![]() ![]() Franzak's personal narrative captures the day-by-day details of his deployment, from family good-byes on departure day to the squadron's return home. I prayed when I heard the muted cries of men who at last understood their fate. ![]() I was safe and comfortable in my sheltered cocoon 20,000 feet over the Hindu Kush. ![]() And in what appeared to be a forgotten war half a world away from home, Franzak and his colleagues struggled to stay motivated and do their job providing air cover to soldiers patrolling the inhospitable terrain. But what should have been a standard six-month deployment soon turned to a yearlong ordeal as the Iraq conflict intensified. ![]() The squadron was the first to base Harriers in Bagram in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Michael "Zak" Franzak was an AV-8B Marine Corps Harrier pilot who served as executive officer of VMA-513, "The Flying Nightmares," while deployed in Afghanistan from 2002 to 2003. Winner of the 2012 Colby Award and the first Afghanistan memoir ever to be written by a Marine Harrier pilot, A Nightmare's Prayer portrays the realities of war in the twenty-first century, taking a unique and powerful perspective on combat in Afghanistan as told by a former enlisted man turned officer. ![]()
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