Ed Darack

Ed Darack
Occupation	Author and Photographer
Language	English
Nationality	American
Alma mater	University of California, Davis[1]
Notable works	Victory Point
Signature
Website
www.darack.com

Ed Darack is an American author and photographer. He is the author of Victory Point: Operations Red Wings and Whalers – The Marine Corps' Battle for Freedom in Afghanistan, about Operation Red Wings and Operation Whalers, two American military operations that took place in 2005 in eastern Afghanistan's Kunar Province. He is the author of three other books in addition to Victory Point, including 6194: Denali Solo and Wind - Water - Sun: A Solo Kayak Journey Along Baja California's Desert Coastline.^[1] Darack is also an author of magazine articles about a range of subjects, a photographer published in media throughout the world, and a cartographer.^[2][3][4]

Books

Victory Point

Victory Point: Operations Red Wings and Whalers – The Marine Corps' Battle for Freedom in Afghanistan is a nonfiction contemporary military history work published in 2009 in hardcover and as an E-book, and then in paperback in 2010 by The Berkley Publishing Group, an imprint of The Penguin Publishing Group.^[5] Victory Point documents Operation Red Wings and Operation Whalers, two American military operations that took place in the summer of 2005 in the Hindu Kush Mountains in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar Province. Darack spent two months on the ground in Afghanistan with U.S. Marines for the book's field research.^[6][7] The book was noted for its detail and was chosen as one of the best books of 2009 by the United States Naval Institute.^{[6][7][8][9][10]} Victory Point was endorsed by Bing West, former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs for the Reagan Administration, a former Delta Force commander and New York Times Best Selling author who uses the pen name Dalton Fury, and others.^[7] Victory Point, in conjunction with Darack's article entitled "Operation Red Wings: What Really Happened?" (Published in print on page 62 of the January, 2011 issue of the Marine Corps Gazette (available here)) has been referenced and cited by a number of media outlets, journalists, and authors regarding the accuracy of various portrayals of Operation Red Wings including by New York Times best-selling author and Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Thomas E. Ricks in Foreign Policy, Jake Tapper on CNN, Slate Magazine, About.com, 60 Minutes, and others.^{[11][12][13][14][15][16][17]}

Wild Winds

Wild Winds: Adventures in the Highest Andes, an adventure travel narrative, chronicles Darack's ascents of and travels throughout the highest peaks of the Andes of South America through narrative, photographs, and maps. Ascents include those of Aconcagua, the highest mountain in South America, Argentina, the Western Hemisphere, and the Southern Hemisphere (and one of the Seven Summits), Ojos del Salado, the world's highest volcano and highest mountain in Chile, Nevado Sajama, the highest mountain in Bolivia, and also Monte Pissis and Llullaillaco. Published by AlpenBooks on November 1, 2001, Wild Winds was cited by the New York Times on the subject of the "Death Zone."^[18][19]

Wind - Water - Sun

Wind - Water - Sun: A Solo Kayak Journey Along Baja California's Desert Coastline, an adventure travel narrative published by Poudre Canyon Press in December 1998, recounts Darack's two-month, 850 mile solo sea kayaking / photography expedition along the Sea of Cortez coastline of the Baja California Peninsula from near the small village of El Golfo de Santa Clara of northern Sonora, Mexico on the Colorado River Delta, to the Cape region of southern Baja California Sur. The book includes text, over 100 of Darack's color photographs of the coastline, and a 16-map full-color atlas of the coastline at a scale of 1:500,000 created by Darack.^[1][4][20]

6194: Denali Solo

6194: Denali Solo, an adventure travel narrative self-published by Darack in March, 1995, covers his two attempts (one unsuccessful and one successful) to solo-climb Mount McKinley (Denali), the highest mountain in North America and one of the Seven Summits. Darack succeeded in climbing McKinley, via the West Buttress route, on June 29, 1991 when he was 20 years old, possibly the youngest to make a solo ascent of the mountain.^[21][22] 6194, endorsed by Galen Rowell, was nominated for the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature in 1995.^[23][24]

Endorsements of books written by other authors

Darack provided an endorsement of the New York Times best seller Fearless: The Undaunted Courage and Ultimate Sacrifice of Navy SEAL Team Six Operator Adam Brown by author Eric Blehm, published in May 2012 by The WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group, an imprint of Random House Publishing, about the life of Navy SEAL Adam Brown.^[25] Darack provided an endorsement for the book No Worse Enemy: The Inside Story of the Chaotic Struggle for Afghanistan by award-winning British journalist Ben Anderson, published in January 2012 by Oneworld Publications.^[26]

Magazine article works

Darack has written articles for a number of different magazines, including Air & Space / Smithsonian,^[27] Weatherwise Magazine^[28] (for which he is a contributing editor),^[29] Alpinist Magazine,^[24] Leatherneck Magazine, The Marine Corps Gazette,^[30] Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute,^[31] Climbing Magazine, Rock & Ice Magazine, Nature Photographer Magazine, Alaska Geographic, Sea Kayaker Magazine, and others.^[32] Topics about which he writes include military, science, weather, travel, geography, mountaineering, adventure, and aviation, among others.^{[3][27][28][30][31]} Darack's articles have been referenced and discussed by a range of media throughout the world, including Stern, The Daily Telegraph, Yahoo News, and others.^[3]

Notable articles

• The Final Flight of Extortion 17: It was the deadliest helicopter crash in the history of U.S. special operations. Why did it happen?, Air & Space / Smithsonian magazine, March, 2015: Darack documents the downing of the CH-47D Chinook helicopter in the Tangi Valley of Afghanistan in August 2011, Extortion 17.^[33]
• A Short March to the Hindu Kush, Alpinist 18, November, 2006: Darack documents mountain warfare training with U.S. Marines and then actual combat in Afghanistan, with Marines.^[34]
• Notes From the Field: Beyond Ambiguous Theory and Wordy Doctrine Stand the Marines Themselves, The Marine Corps Gazette, August, 2011: Darack discusses counterinsurgency theory and actual practice on the ground in Afghanistan's Helmand Province, with United States Marines.^[35]
• The Everyday Warfighters: Indefatigable Mission Fidelity in the Modern Toil of War, Leatherneck Magazine, July, 2011: Darack narrates what life is like for a squad of United States Marines day-to-day during combat patrols and operations in Afghanistan's Helmand Province.^[36]
• The 10 Best Weather Places in the World, Weatherwise Magazine, March / April, 2014: Darack describes a possible way to determine an ideal climate for humans, then lists the ten areas that come closest to this hypothetical place.^[37][38]
• The Worst Weather Places in the World, Weatherwise Magazine, November / December, 2013: Darack lists the ten least hospitable places in the world with respect to weather, for humans.^[39][40]
• TITANIC'S MIRAGE: A New Perspective on One of History's Greatest Mysteries, Weatherwise Magazine, March / April, 2013: Darack explains a new theory describing how atmospheric refraction may have been the critical factor leading to the Titanic disaster.^[41]
• Operation Red Wings: What Really Happened?, The Marine Corps Gazette, January, 2011: Darack discusses variations in claims by different sources and factual reliability regarding key aspects of Operation Red Wings and the importance of accuracy in recounting operations for current and future military operational efficacy.^[12][13][42]
• Calamity on Mt. Hood, Air & Space / Smithsonian, August, 2014: Darack explains the reasons for the crash of an Air Force Reserve Command Sikorsky HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter on Oregon's Mount Hood on May 30, 2002, based on the only interview the commander of the mission has ever given about the specifics of the crash. All information prior to the Darack interview has been, and remains, classified. The crash is one of the most widely broadcast and well-known aviation accidents.^[43]
• The Changing of the Guard: Ten years after 9/11, what life is like for an Air National Guard unit, Air & Space / Smithsonian, September, 2011: Darack chronicles the 120th Fighter Squadron, a Colorado Air National Guard F-16 squadron, one decade after the historic September 11, 2001 attacks. One of the roles contemporary Air National Guard units undertake includes domestic air defense, potentially against future attacks similar to the 9/11 strikes. This was the cover article for the September, 2011 issue, with one of Ed Darack's images, of two F-16s in close formation in a near-vertical pitch angle over the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, made for and used on the cover.^[44][45]
• Osprey at War: Can the MV-22 Pass Muster in Afghanistan?, Air & Space / Smithsonian, May, 2011: Darack embedded, including flight time as a passenger in cockpits, with the first MV-22 Osprey squadron to deploy to combat in Afghanistan, Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 261. He wrote about the experience and relevant aspects of the aircraft in combat there. This was the cover story for the issue, with one of Darack's air-to-air photographs of one of the squadron's Ospreys used for the cover.^[46]
• Build Your Own Drone: Made from scratch, a Kestrel takes flight, Air & Space / Smithsonian, July, 2014: Based on his experiences while embedded with Marines during combat in Afghanistan, Darack set out to engineer, build, and fly a drone with capabilities he saw as currently unmet. The project required him to test for a Federal Communications Commission Technician class Amateur radio license in order to use the aircraft's live video feed capability; he passed, being granted the call sign KD0NFV.^[47]

Photography

Ed Darack is a stock and magazine photographer.^[3] Darack's photographs cover a range of topics, including military, travel, landscape, nature, aerial, aviation, science, weather, adventure travel, and others.^[48][49] Darack's photographs have been published in a range of media types throughout the world. His photography publishing credits include Smithsonian, Air & Space/Smithsonian, Vanity Fair, The New York Times, The Daily Telegraph, Scholastic, Random House, Weather Channel, The BBC, Time, The National Geographic Society, Bank of America, Forbes, and numerous others.^[3] Darack's photographs have appeared on the covers of a number of magazines, organizational publications, and books, including:

• The hardcover version of the book Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman by Jon Krakauer featured Darack's photograph of a silhouette of an Afghan fighter at dawn on its cover.^[50][51] Published by Random House, Where Men Win Glory peaked at number 2 on the New York Times Best Seller List on the week of October 4, 2009.^[52] Darack's image was also used on a number of foreign versions of Where Men Win Glory, including those published in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy.^[53][54][55]
• Darack's image of Cerro Torre was used on the cover of Italian mountaineer, explorer, and author Reinhold Messner's book, Grido Di Pietra, published by the Italian publisher Corbaccio in 2009.^[56][57]
• Darack's image of a silhouette of a United States Marine on patrol in Iraq's Anbar province was used on the cover of the paperback version of United States Army Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez's book Wiser in Battle: A Soldier's Story, published in 2009 by HarperCollins.^[58][59]
• Darack's image, photographed using night vision goggles, of a United States Air Force Special Operations Weather Technician during nighttime airborne training, was used on the cover of the French language version of Italian award-winning and best-selling author Paolo Giordano's second book, Le Corps humain, Published in 2013 by Éditions du Seuil.^[60][61]
• Darack's image of a United States Army soldier at sunrise in Afghanistan was used on the cover of the paperback version of United States Navy SEAL Dennis Chalker's book One Perfect Op: An Insider's Account of the Navy SEAL Special Warfare Teams, published by HarperCollins in 2011. The introduction of the book was written by former SEAL commander Richard Marcinko.^[62][63]
• Darack's image, "K2 and the Cobalt Heights," of Pakistan's K2, the second highest mountain in the world, was featured on the cover of all formats of mountain guide and author Freddie Wilkinson's One Mountain, Thousand Summits: The Untold Story of Tragedy and True Heroism on K2 about the 2008 K2 disaster. One Mountain, Thousand Summits was released in hardcover on July 6, 2010 by the Penguin Publishing Group.^[64][65]
• Darack's image, "Baltoro Peaks and High Clouds Frame the Pyramidal Form of K2," of Pakistan's K2 was featured on the cover of all formats of novelist Cary Groner's Exiles, A Novel. Exiles was released on June 7, 2011 by Random House.^[66][67]
• Darack's image, "Silhouette of a U.S. Marine," was featured on the cover of Rob Schultheis' book Hunting Bin Laden. Hunting Bin Laden was released on June 17, 2008 by Skyhorse Publishing.^[68][69]
• Darack's image, "A Wing, A Winglet, Cirrocumulus Clouds, And Volcanic Landscape As Seen From 30,000 Feet," was featured on the cover of the Brazilian version of Swiss-British writer / philosopher Alain de Botton's 2002 book The Art of Travel, (translated to A arte de viajar), published by Editora Intrínseca in 2012.^[70][71]
• Darack's image, "Old Volkswagen Beetle on Dirt Road," was featured on the cover of the Spanish novelist Andreu Martín's California Barbie, published by Grupo Edebé on August 1, 2012.^[72][73]
• Darack's image, "Car Speeds Down a Road Under the Light of Diurnal Transition," was featured on the cover of the Brazilian version of American National Book Award winning writer Denis Johnson's 2009 novel, Nobody Move, published by Companhia das Letras (as NINGUÉM SE MEXE).^[74][75]
• Darack's image, "A Crescent Topped Mosque Dome in Dubai," was featured on the cover of the September 5, 2007 issue of the German magazine Stern.^[76][77]
• Two of Darack's images, "A CH-47 chinook roars through cold mountain air" and "Driving an M1A1 Abrams Tank" were featured on the cover of the Rand Corporation's 2007 annual report.^[78]
• Darack's image, "View of Lake Qadisiyah in Iraq’s Al Anbar province" was featured on the cover of the Council on Foreign Relations' 2008 annual report.^[79]
• Darack's image of two F-16s in close formation at a near-vertical pitch angle over the Rocky Mountains of Colorado was made for and used on the September, 2011 issue of Air & Space / Smithsonian magazine for Darack's article, "Changing of the Guard."^[44]
• Darack's image, "Snow Covered Mountain Range, Sunset, Elevated View, Canada" featuring King Peak was used as the centerpiece of Canada Post's stamp commemorating the Canadian Rangers. Released on March 3, 2003, the stamp had a print run of 3,000,000.^[3][80][81]

Cartography

Darack is a cartographer who has published over one hundred maps, including a full-color, highly detailed atlas of Baja California's Sea of Cortez coastline, comprising 16 individual 1:500,000 scale maps.^[3][4][20] Other maps of his of note include those of South America and individual Andean peaks including Aconcagua.^[18]

Patents

Darack has been issued a number of United States Patents from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, primarily for aircraft design.^[82]

Television

Darack appeared on the National Geographic / Smithsonian television documentary Titanic: Case Closed, where he explained and discussed mirages and shot photographs of them in the California desert.^[83][84]

References

External links

• Ed Darack Official Website
• Ed Darack on Facebook
• Ed Darack on Twitter
• Ed Darack's Biography at Penguin Publishing
• Ed Darack's articles for Weatherwise Magazine
• Ed Darack's articles for Air & Space / Smithsonian Magazine
• The United States Naval Institute's Ed Darack page, including a list of his articles for them
• The Marine Corps Association & Foundation's Ed Darack page, including a list of his articles for them
• Corbis Images' photographer page for Ed Darack
• Fstoppers article about Darack's cover shoot for the September, 2011 issue of Air & Space / Smithsonian
• List of Patents Issued to Ed Darack