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Title: The Perfect Soldier: Special Operations, Commandos, and the Future of Us Warfare by James F. Dunnigan ISBN: 0-8065-2415-4 Publisher: Citadel Trade Pub. Date: June, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3 (3 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Not Definitive, but a good survey with reservations
Comment: Dunnigan's book is certainly timely. Special Operations Forces (SOF) from all US services (USCG included), and allies have been making headlines in Afghanistan and Iraq for almost two years. The "Quiet Professionals", contrary to US Media propaganda, generally eschew ANY sort of public attention. For the reader with an interest, and little background, in Special Operations then, finding surveys/histories is problematic. After giving a history of special operations forces and their derivation, the author shows how some of the selection methods are applied to many first-world nation's volunteer forces; thus making them also "perfect soldiers" into the 21st Century. His best work is the short history of warfare, where "warrior cultures" are bested by military professionals (US military bureaucrats spouting about "warrior ethos" take note). His descriptions of operations in Vietnam, the Gulf I/II and Afghanistan are quite good as well. The "reservations" I refer to above have to do with some of his linkage and conclusions. While it's probably fair to link the fieldcraft of neolithic hunting parties with that of SOF (John Keegan's belief is that the arduous selection and training is designed to reinstill those skills that our ancestors grew up practicing.), it's going too far to consider them "commando/SOF" units in any sense. WW1 Stosstruppen were simply line-infantry given some retraining in tactics and new weapons, no special selection or skills in operating behind enemy lines was given or expected. Also, the author gets some details wrong, details that could've easily been corrected had the manuscript been reviewed by someone with SOF experience-but this is minor.
Overall,some good information, but some stretching of history to fit his thesis, keeps me from recommending this book completely.
Rating: 5
Summary: JFD again delivers "approachable" military history & info
Comment: No work on a subject this involved can possibly be all things to all people. That is not James F. Dunnigan's goal with this book...or any other book he has ever written. The excellence of this book is its capacity for exhibiting military data in contexts that the average reader can understand. Nearly all of Dunnigan's writing is pursued with this goal. To demand that one must have "lived" a military background in order to write about it accurately and compellingly can be argued in another forum. This book delivers what it sets forth to achieve, doing so in a way that readers who do not have exhaustive military backgrounds will both appreciate and comprehend.
Rating: 1
Summary: who are you ,John Rambo ?
Comment: The perfect soldier is special operations, Special Forces, Ranger, Seal,Recondo, Airborne,pathfinder, etc, but all in ONE !
The main part of this is each person mut be trained in all these areas to include things like Flying aircraft,driving all vehicle, horseback, you name He is trained with every weapon known to man ! An can speak every language and look and act like the natives to include pray ! my question is HAS HE LIVE THIS LIFE ??? I have and more. I need to know before I will answer, I knew a Master Sergeant Dunnigan, SOG, 5th Special Forces Group, Kontum, Vietnam
ARF, US Army Retired
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