The Man in the Arena: From Fighting Isis to Fighting for My Freedom

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 #1 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." --Andrea Gallagher

Author: Eddie Gallagher, Andrea Gallagher
Publisher: Ballast Books
Published: 06/29/2021
Pages: 452
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.50lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.70w x 2.00d
ISBN: 9781733428002

About the Author
Gallagher, Eddie: - Navy SEAL (Ret.) Chief Eddie Gallagher spent 20 years in the military, deploying nine times to Africa, Afghanistan and Iraq, earning a litany of awards, including two Bronze Stars with Valor. In 2018 he was wrongfully accused of war crimes by underlings trying to ruin his career. He was eventually acquitted of murder, but only after exposing the mutiny and corrupt investigation that nearly sent him to prison for life. President Trump intervened to ensure Eddie was able to participate in his defense, retain his rank, and keep his Navy SEAL Trident. Eddie has since co-founded The Pipe Hitter Foundation to assist other warfighters and law enforcement officers fighting a system designed to persecute them.Gallagher, Andrea: - Andrea Gallagher rose to national prominence after her husband, Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher, was imprisoned for war crimes he did not commit. She fought tirelessly behind the scenes to have her husband released from pretrial confinement in order to participate in his defense, successfully lobbying President Trump to move him out of the brig. After Chief Gallagher was found not guilty of murder by a jury of his peers, President Trump reinstated his rank and ensured a vindictive navy admiral did not remove his Trident, the insignia identifying him as a Navy SEAL. Today, Andrea is the president of The Pipe Hitter Foundation, a non-profit founded by her and Eddie to provide support for other service members and law enforcement officers stuck in a corrupt legal system.Symonds, Andy: - Andy Symonds is an award-winning journalist, the author of My Father's Son, Enemy in the Wire, as well as a contributor on hundreds of other books. Mr. Symonds is the founder and president of Ballast Books and lives in the Washington, DC area with his wife, two daughters and dog.