Bristol's Bastards: In Iraq with the 2nd Battalion, 136th Infantry of Minnesota's National Guard

Nicholas P. Maurstad · Darwin Holmstrom

nov 2008 · Quarto Publishing Group USA

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Minnesota’s toughest farm boys take on Iraqi insurgents in one of the most irreverent and outrageous memoirs to come out of the Iraq War.

When they deployed for Iraq, Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 136th Infantry Regiment of the Minnesota National Guard, was mostly composed of farm kids from the Midwest. But make no mistake—these boys could replace a tank track on the side of the road using nothing but a crescent wrench, Zippo lighter, and a two-by-four. Once they arrived, they fought alongside the Marine Corps in Anbar province through the deadliest period of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Bravo Company earned the nickname “Bristol’s Bastards” after USMC Colonel George Bristol, commanding officer of the IMEF Headquarters Group, adopted this band of fierce warriors as one of his own. Specialist Nick Maurstad, a member of Bristol’s Bastards, brings to life the experience of fighting in Iraq: kicking down doors, dodging IEDs, battling insurgents in the small towns surrounding Fallujah, and trying to help one another survive in the deadliest place on earth.

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Nick Maurstad was a member of the Minnesota National Guard's Bravo Company, which by early 2007 was the most senior unit on Camp Fallujah. Bravo Company discovered a torture house and rescued its victims; helped reduce the amount of IEDs and indirect fire attacks by more than seventy percent; and captured twenty-six known terrorists, including seven al Qaeda operatives in one operation. The unit earned high esteem across Camp Fallujah because of the safety and security they brought to the immediate area, a dramatic contrast to the rest of Iraq.Darwin Holmstrom has written, co-written, or contributed to more than thirty books on subjects ranging from motorcycles and muscle cars to Gibson Les Paul guitars, including Indian Motorcycles, GTO: Fifty Years, Let's Ride: Sonny Barger's Guide to Motorcyclying, Top Muscle: The Rarest Cars from America's Fastest Decade, BMW Motorcycles, The Life Harley-Davidson, and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Motorcycles. Darwin is a former senior editor at Motorbooks and former Midwestern editor for Motorcyclist magazine.