This is an unflinching account of a small group of soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division's fabled 502nd Infantry Regiment--a unit known as "the Black Heart Brigade." Deployed in late 2005 to Iraq's so-called Triangle of Death, the Black Hearts found themselves in the country's most dangerous location at its most dangerous time. Hit by near-daily attacks, suffering a particularly heavy death toll, and enduring a chronic breakdown in leadership, members of one platoon descended, over their year-long tour of duty, into a tailspin of poor discipline, substance abuse, and brutality. Four 1st Platoon soldiers would perpetrate one of the most heinous war crimes of the Iraq War--the rape of a fourteen-year-old Iraqi girl and the cold-blooded execution of her family. Drawing on in-depth interviews with Black Heart soldiers, this is a timeless story about the fragility of character in the savage crucible of warfare.--From publisher description.;Prelude : March 12, 2006 -- "We've got to get south Baghdad under control" -- The Kunk gun -- "This is now the most dangerous place in Iraq" -- Relief in place, transfer of authority -- 1st Platoon at the JS Bridge -- Contact -- Route Sportster and Bradley Bridge -- Communication breakdowns -- The mean squad -- "Soldiers are not stupid" -- Nelson and Casica -- "It is fucking pointless" -- Britt and Lopez -- Leadership shake-up -- Gallagher -- February 1 -- Fenlason arrives -- Back to the TCPs -- The Mayor of Mullah Fayyad -- The Janabis -- Twenty-one days -- "We had turned a corner" -- The Alamo -- Dilemma and discovery -- "Remember that murder of that Iraqi family" -- The fight goes on -- "This was life and death stuff" -- Epilogue : The Triangle of Death today and trials at home.