"Into the Fire: A Firsthand Account of the Most Extraordinary Battle in the Afghan War" by Dakota Meyer and Bing West is a fascinating true story of Dakota Meyer's military life, focusing on the tragedies that occurred at Ganjigal in the fall of 2009. When Team Monti is sent into Ganjigal with a substitute sniper, Dakota promises to find his team if things go awry, but when Taliban insurgents ambush the village, Dakota's commanding officers forbid him from entering Ganjigal until it is too late, leaving him with extreme guilt over his friends' deaths. "Into the Fire" is a heart-rending, tragic account of only one battle in the War on Terror which leaves readers wondering about how many similar mistakes resulted in the deaths of American soldiers.

Raised in a small town in Kentucky, Dakota Meyer joins the Marine Corps and trains as a sniper. Eager to fight, he joins a team of advisers being sent to Afghanistan to train the Afghan warriors, and he becomes very close to the other three men on his team, Team Monti. In the fall of 2009, Team Monti is sent on a routine patrol to Ganjigal with many Askars as back-up, but Meyer is replaced by Gunny Johnson because he irritates his commanding officers. Convincing Rod to be his driver, Dakota promises his team that he will come for them if things go badly.

In Ganjigal, Taliban insurgents attack the Americans and the Askars, trapping Team Monti in a house in the village. Capt. William Swenson and Corp. Dakota Meyer repeatedly attempt to acquire back-up and air support to rescue their soldiers, but they are forbidden from entering Ganjigal. Eventually, they are permitted to send men in to retrieve the wounded and dead, and Meyer manages to save several Askars, though he finds the body of his closest Afghan friend, Ali Dodd. When air support finally joins the foray, Meyer is distraught when he finds the corpses of the other members of Team Monti.

Ridden with guilt, Meyer is sent home to Kentucky before being enrolled in therapy for his post-traumatic stress disorder. Depressed and feeling responsible for his brothers' deaths, Meyer attempts to shoot himself in the head, only to find that his gun was unloaded. Because of their bravery during Ganjigal, Meyer and Swenson are both nominated for Medals of Honor, and though Meyer receives the award, Swenson's paperwork is lost. Meyer protests that accountability for Ganjigal will only be seen when Swenson receives the Medal of Honor he so greatly deserves. Dakota knows that he will carry the guilt of his team's deaths for the rest of his life, and he feels that he was rewarded for his greatest failure as he insists that you either rescue your men or die trying; because he did not die trying, he believes that he did not try hard enough.