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The Man in the Arena cover art

The Man in the Arena

By: Eddie Gallagher, Andrea Gallagher
Narrated by: Eddie Gallagher, Andrea Gallagher
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Summary

On September 11, 2018, Navy SEAL Chief Edward Gallagher - a highly-decorated combat veteran with nine deployments to war zones in Africa, Afghanistan, and Iraq - was arrested for war crimes at the TBI medical clinic where he was receiving treatment. His incarceration was the culmination of a year-long whisper campaign started by a group of disgruntled members of his SEAL platoon after a successful deployment fighting ISIS in Mosul, Iraq. At the end of that deployment, Chief Gallagher was named the number-one chief at SEAL Team 7, put in for a Silver Star for valor on the battlefield, and listed for promotion to Senior Chief. The junior members whom Chief Gallagher had called out for cowardice and ineptitude in combat decided they couldn't let any of those things stand and escalated minor complaints into false accusations of stabbing a captured ISIS fighter and shooting noncombatants that gained international attention. 

Despite a corrupt investigation and a deceitful prosecutor who would be removed from the case for spying on defense attorneys, Chief Gallagher was found innocent on all major charges, and freed from prison. But only after his family was put through hell, and President Trump intervened to allow Chief Gallagher a fair trial in a military justice system designed to break and persecute our country's warfighters. 

While heavily covered in the media, the full story of how a war hero was railroaded and nearly sent to prison for life for crimes he didn't commit has never been told. Chief Gallagher did not testify at his trial and has spoken in little detail about how this travesty came about. Until now. A shocking, raw, tell-all expose that pulls no punches, and identifies each and every bad actor in this surreal story. Book includes QR codes that link to videos of the accusers’ NCIS interviews, trial audio, and text message threads highlighting the plot to take Chief Gallagher down.

"People always tell me, if our life was a movie, no one would believe it." (AG)

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2021 Andy Symonds (P)2021 Ballast Books

What listeners say about The Man in the Arena

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Shocking true story

This was an excellent book, I got through it very quickly as it was hard to put down. The treatment of Eddie was disgusting, this was a nightmare for him and his family. I highly recommend this book.

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Really enjoyed this book

From across the pond UK. I’ve never served but read and listen to all war books and I think the UK and American are lucky to have people as dedicated to protecting us like this man. I’m sure he will be the first to admit he’s done a few things wrong over the years but who the fuck hasn’t. 20 years service and it’s disgusting how this was handled. Enjoy your retirement

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What a book, uncovers the lies and deception.

Absolutely loved the book, it's great Eddie got to tell the truth. Rather than the version that the woke, left and liberal media tried to convey. The NCIS, his superiors in NSW and the minority of his platoon should hold their heads in shame.

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Salute you Eddie

Well done eddie and team, shame on the top brass, trump played a good role, I have seen the documentary this clears a lot off things up and shame on the seals who even breathed a word to ncis

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Real life

A very sincere story, told by the people involved in Eddies release themselves. By Eddie himself and his family, including his kids, his brother, his wife and his lawyers.
An uncomfortable story about how a few loud enough people can have a catastrophic impact on a macro-level, and how the expression "evil prevails when good people do nothing" is yet again ever so true. A good reflection of how western society has evolved into "mob-justice" and defamatiion and accountability as a phenomenon is seemingly an "endangered species".
After hearing the audiobook, I bought the hardcover book as well.
Highly recommended.

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detailed account of a shameful prosecution

Really worth the listen and
you can forgive the errors in edits where they've missed removing repeats etc as it's spoken by the actual people involved, they aren't voice actors after all.

it's evident that Eddie went from being a target of revenge to a political football . bruised egos still wanted him punished right till their last. His wife and brother truly went to war for him as he'd gone to war for them.

The legal team he had at the end were absolutely stellar.

This lays out everything the biased media reports where failing to cover.



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A Brits reaction

As a Brit I heard about this Gentalman via a podcast.
I have to say it is truly shocking what happened
It's very well done with the people involved reading thier parts.
really makes you feel the emotion.
I m halfway through as I write this review and won't stop till the end.
It seems like his higher ups and the people accusing him were but cowards hiding amongst hero's.

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Great story from the horse’s mouth, but some poor editing.

This is a fantastic story from a very brave and successful man. It’s great that the story is self-narrated. However, the overall production is littered with poor editing where sentences are repeated or minor narration mistakes have been left in the final edit.
It doesn’t take away from the story per-say, but is very irritating and could have easily been rectified.

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Excellent story of about a truly shocking event

I had seen interviews with Eddie Gallagher and at first thought the book would be a cliched American story. I did not expect to see factual evidence of how this tier1 special forces leader was overtly hunted by his own government. I saw footage before his trial on global media edited to support a tale that didn’t happen. The whole shocking story is told by those involved. His wife, kids, lawyer. It gives access to the “evidence”. If you’re American you should read this. Same if you’re a psychologist. SF operators gossiping, dealing with the challenge of their job by behaving in a passive aggressive way directing it toward their boss. A justice system intermingled with politics. And today …. The country is still putting overseas conflict above their own people.

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