553: Becoming Brothers Through Battle, Death, and Honor in Ramadi. With Miguel "Pitbull" Santana.

In August 2006, a sniper’s bullet tore through Ryan Job’s face in a Ramadi building. The chaos that followed — a medevac under fire, a retaliatory assault, and the death of Mark Lee — was not an anomaly. It was a Tuesday. For the soldiers of White Platoon and the SEALs of Task Unit Bruiser, such days were the rhythm of a year-long deployment in the most dangerous city in Iraq. Retired Major Miguel “Pitbull” Santana, then a 35-year-old infantry platoon leader, recounts that rhythm in Unheard Voices: The Fight for Ramadi, a soldier’s memoir built from photographs he took in real time.

The Forge of Talafar and the Crucible of Ramadi

Santana’s deployment began not in Ramadi but in Talafar, a northern city where his platoon from Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 36th Infantry Regiment, learned the brutal basics: how to read the dust, respond to ambushes, and trust the equipment. Talafar was a proving ground. Ramadi was the crucible. In May 2006, the orders changed. The city was considered lost — a sanctuary where insurgents operated with impunity and where previous coalition forces had been shredded. Santana’s platoon was task-organized under Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 37th Infantry Regiment (the Bulldogs), commanded by Captain Mike “Main Gun” Byma, and assigned to Combat Outpost Falcon, a fortress carved from blast-damaged concrete in the heart of the enemy’s turf.