ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

To my wife Cheryl, thank you for your steadfastness, your enduring love, and your friendship over the past 15 years, and thank you for your support during my most trying times. None of this would be possible without you, your unending patience with me, and your steadfast love, you are the best 90 percent of who I am. To our children, Justin, Ian, Jessica, Mark, Christie, Jeffrey, Josiah, Samuel, and Eliana. Thank you for your love and support during my time in the Army, and for always being willing to help your mother during my absence. Thank you for letting me be a part of this loveable, crazy family.

To my parents Kevin and Debbie, thank you for raising me right, and instilling in me the values I hold dear. Thank you for the support for every endeavor I chose to do.

To my Ranger buddy and brother Neil, thanks for riding the roller coaster of combat with me.

I would additionally like to thank my friend and Ranger Tim Abell for listening to my stories while chasing white-tailed deer and introducing me to Mir. Both of you are true great friends.

To our agent Alec Shane at Writers House, thanks for all you have done to get us this far, and to the folks at Osprey Publishing, Marcus Cowper, Kate Moore, Gemma Gardner, and the countless others, thank you for making this what it is.

Thank you to Colonel (Ret.) Mike Kershaw, for assisting us in getting this to other Ranger officers, General (Ret.) Stan McCrystal, Command Sergeant Major (Ret.) Jeff Mellinger, and for everyone’s honest opinions of the written text.

Lastly, to Mir Bahmanyar, for taking the countless hours to write this out, believing there was a great story to tell and prodding this along when it seemed to stall. Patience is not always a Ranger virtue, but you have it when it counts.

I dedicate this book to the Rangers of the past, present, and future. It is written to honor our fallen “Airborne Rangers in the Sky” – to pay homage to your valor and dedication to the mission at hand, and the mission of the future.

The decision to write this book was to honor your achievements and to inspire the future generations of U.S. Army Rangers, and to tell just a piece of our story.

It was an honor to have stood among you and count you all as some of the greatest warriors on the planet. To see the transformation of the Ranger Regiment from the days before September 11, 2001 to a stand-alone fighting unit that can rival any Special Ops unit on any given night.

It takes a special kind of American to strap it on night after night, to load onto the backs of helicopters, to take a flight into the unknown, and calmly step into the dark, to face the unknown threat that lays before you.

Rangers Lead the Way!

Nicholas Moore

Run to the Sound of the Guns is a memoir that represents the views of one Ranger who grew up at the 2nd Ranger Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, during the Global War on Terrorism. Nicholas was born in Kansas and spent fourteen years in the Ranger Regiment. He participated in Special Operations from 2002 to 2013 and conducted over 1000 missions, including some very well-known ones. Every effort has been made to describe events from his perspective as accurately as possible. We also did not include “salty” language, because it would not contribute much to the book. Rangers use strong language – often. Although centered around Nicholas, this book is about the Rangers who served and are still serving today, who made and are making American military history. It is dedicated to them.

The odyssey began in 2015 and I want to thank my very good friend Ranger Tim Abell from C/2/75 (1970s), an excellent but underappreciated actor in Hollywood, for having introduced Ranger Nicholas Moore from B/C/HHC/2/75 (2000s) to me. For a short time I too served in B/2/75 (1980s). I guess it proves that the Second Ranger Battalion is the closest-knit band of brothers of the 75th Ranger Regiment – or maybe it does not – but we do know that 2nd Batt is the best of all battalions! Tim, Nicholas and I have different opinions on many issues and we disagree on a lot. But we talk to one another. We have a great country and it is up to us to protect and preserve our institutions and freedoms. “Onward we stagger” is what Darby’s Rangers used to say and so do we…

I want to thank Marcus Cowper, at Osprey Publishing, for commissioning a very important memoir about the most significant transition in the history of the 75th Ranger Regiment. No unit in modern history has transformed itself more rapidly and brilliantly than the Regiment. Thanks are also due to the great people at Bloomsbury and Osprey – Kate Moore, Gemma Gardner and Christian Waters.

A big thank you to Alec Shane, our super-agent at the great literary agency Writers House. Alec is awesome. He is, in the world of literary agents, the equivalent of a Ranger. I don’t hold it against him that he is friends with a Navy SEAL – we can’t all be perfect.

We are grateful to General (Ret.) Stan McChrystal and Command Sergeant Major (Ret.) Jeff Mellinger for their kind words about the book and their introductions to the memoir. RLTW!

A very special thanks to Ranger Colonel (Ret.) Mike Kershaw, whom I first met at B/2/75 when I was a Tabless machine-gun carrying specialist and he a first lieutenant. Mike was the first person to read the manuscript once the Pentagon cleared it after an eight-month-long review. The book is better because of his thoughtful and detailed suggestions. Any and all errors remain Nicholas’s and mine.

Lastly and most importantly, I thank Nicholas for his trust in sharing his personal memories.

Nicholas, I have a feeling you’re not in Kansas anymore!

Rangers Lead the Way!

Mir Bahmanyar