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^{Talking with troops in Kabul. They never failed to inspire and reenergize me.}

^{With General Stan McChrystal at his headquarters in Kabul. He was a supremely gifted combat commander, outflanked by politics and the media.}

^{Walking the streets of Now Zad, a village in southern Afghanistan reclaimed from the Taliban by U.S. Marines at a very high cost. I wondered to myself if the cost was too high.}

^{A tepee with memorials to a unit’s lost comrades at Forward Operating Base Frontenac in Afghanistan.}

^{Arrival and “dignified transfer” of a fallen soldier at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware. I had directed in April 2009 that such photos could be taken with the family’s permission.}

^{Gowning up to visit seriously wounded troops at Landstuhl Hospital in Germany, the first stop for wounded on the way home. Thanks to the doctors, nurses, and staff there, nearly everyone who went on from Landstuhl would survive.}

^{Secretary Clinton and I at Panmunjom at the Korean demilitarized zone (DMZ). I was tempted to make a very undiplomatic gesture to the North Korean soldier observing us through the window. I refrained, barely.}

^{With two great Marine warriors, General Jim Mattis, on my left, and General John Allen.}

^{Congratulating would-be SEALs on their survival of “Hell Week.” Only about a third of those who enter training for these elite units become SEALs.}

^{Presenting medals and combat insignia in Afghanistan. The soldiers were so damn young and, as I said, my heroes.}

^{Lunch with junior enlisted troops at Combat Outpost Senjaray, near Kandahar. I always learned a lot in these sessions, which were frequent.}

^{Meeting privately at Forward Operating Base Connolly, eastern Afghanistan, with a platoon that had lost six soldiers in an attack by an Afghan soldier.}

^{One unit in Afghanistan, to which I presented five Purple Hearts and multiple other medals.}

^{I am pinning on the Purple Heart medal in Afghanistan, honoring those wounded in battle. It is the medal no one wants to earn but that I was deeply honored to present.}

^{Out for a stroll in eastern Afghanistan with commander of the storied 101st Airborne Division, Major General J. F. Campbell, on my right. I had great respect for him as a soldier and a leader.}

^{Landing at a forward operating base in eastern Afghanistan. Not much grows there except bad guys.}

^{Watching flight operations on board the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln.}

^{A cozy, casual meeting with China’s new leader-to-be, Vice President Xi Jinping. We are on the far right; the others are U.S. ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, fourth from the right, and my staff.}

^{The new world: the former director of the CIA and U.S. secretary of defense gives a press conference atop the Great Wall of China. I am being coached by my press spokesman, Geoff Morrell.}

^{Locked and loaded with vodka, properly armed for a congressional hearing. Kevin Brown, with me, was my security officer and provisioner.}

^{Mike Mullen and I, in a routine meeting with the president in the Oval Office. I never ate a single apple.}

^{Jim “Hoss” Cartwright explains something complicated using a laptop. The light of understanding is not apparent on the faces of his audience—me, Vice President Joe Biden, and President Obama.}

^{The American secretary of defense fires the noon cannon at Peter and Paul Fortress, St. Petersburg, Russia. The cannon blast has been a tradition since the time of Peter the Great. Stalin must have been spinning in his grave.}

^{At the hospital at Camp Leatherneck in southern Afghanistan, where significant increases in medevac capabilities helped the doctors save lives.}

^{With Marine Staff Sergeant Timothy Brown at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Over time, these visits got harder for me, knowing I had sent all the wounded in harm’s way.}

^{General Lloyd Austin, here with me in Baghdad on my last visit there, in 2011, was the last American commander in Iraq.}

^{Mullen and I share the platform one last time at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day 2011. He was a terrific partner.}

^{Resplendent in my traditional Afghan war helmet, a gift from my intrepid staff during my last visit to Kabul.}

^{A last helicopter flight in Afghanistan with Deputy Commander Lieutenant General “Rod” Rodriguez and Lieutenant General John Kelly. Rod was one of my earlier senior military assistants, and John was my last. All five officers who had that job under me were the cream of the crop.}

^{Wherever I went in Iraq and Afghanistan, I found Texas A&M Aggies on the front lines, and they found me. Some I had presented with their diplomas, witnessed their commissioning, and then, as secretary, sent them to war.}

^{On the anniversary of D-Day in June 2011, I spoke to troops in Afghanistan for the last time. They had no idea how hard that was for me.}

^{President Obama presents me with the Medal of Freedom on my last day in office, June 30, 2011. My four and a half years at war were finally over.}

ALSO BY ROBERT M. GATES

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The Ultimate Insider’s Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War

THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK

PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Gates, Robert Michael, [date]

Duty : memoirs of a Secretary at war / by Robert M. Gates.

pages cm

ISBN 978-0-307-95947-8 (hardcover) ISBN 978-0-307-95948-5 (eBook)