Michelle Black’s husband, Bryan, was a Green Beret and one of four American soldiers killed in an ambush in Niger in October 2017 by ISIS terrorists.

If her husband’s death wasn’t bad enough for her, the nightmare that followed was worse as she couldn’t get a straight answer from his unit, and the various headquarters that the Green Berets fell under, of what had caused that fateful outcome. 

Now, Michelle Black has published a book titled Sacrifice, A Gold Star Widow’s Fight for the Truth. It recounts her husband’s life, the events leading up to the ambush, its aftermath, and the investigation surrounding it. 

With narratives changing frequently, Mrs. Black was horrified to learn that the Army, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), and Special Operations Command Africa (SOCAFRICA), were blaming the Special Forces A-Team for its own demise. In their investigation, they partly blamed the ambush on a culture of risk-taking, a culture that is deliberately cultivated in Special Operations soldiers. They characterized the team as rogues and cowboys, who went off the reservation.