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Title: Shadow Warriors: Inside the Special Forces (Commanders Series, 3) by Tom Clancy, Carl Steiner, George Dicenzo, Carl Stiner ISBN: 0-7435-0760-6 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio Pub. Date: February, 2002 Format: Audio CD Volumes: 5 List Price(USD): $32.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.07 (55 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Overall A Very Good Read
Comment: Tom Clancy seems to write non-fiction as well as he does fiction. This look into the Special Operations units of the U.S. military is a fascinating read and anyone who enjoys such topics will enjoy this. However, there was one problem. Too much of it is not really about Special Ops. While the stories about Lebanon and the career of General Carl Stiner (Retired) are interesting, especially the Lebanon one, they are in no way stories about our Special Ops forces. Not to say that those stories are not present, because some are and they are what the whole book should be about. Overall, though, most who enjoy the true-life adventures contained in our military history will certainly find this a worthy purchase. I would recommend it wholeheartedly.
Rating: 1
Summary: A waste of time and money...not worth reading
Comment: This book fails to live up to its title - Inside the Special Forces. First, it isn't about SF, its about Special Operations. Second, it isn't Inside anything - its a poorly researched and poorly resourced piece that fails to offer any new material on Special Operations other than some barely believable anecdotes of several retired general officers (come on, Mr. Clancy, we all know Sergeant Majors tell the best stories...).
Before and during my 16 year career with the Army and the Special Forces, I have enjoyed Tom Clancy's novels and respected his deep understanding of modern warfare. Unfortunately, this hardly extends to the supposed subject of this book, Special Forces. It is quite obvious that Mr. Clancy made the most minimal contribution to this book, both in concept and writing. In my opinion, Clancy's name is on the cover to sell copies.
Clancy's co-author, General Carl Stiner, appears to have done a little more work. Unfortunately, while Stiner's record is full of high-profile jobs, including the Commander in Chief of Special Operations Command, he fails to provide more than a few superficial anecdotes to a number of special operations missions that have been told and re-told in far greater detail by other authors.
As an example of Stiner's failure to provide substantive information on Special Forces, the book takes two chapters, nearly 100 pages, to give a totally misleading account of one of the military's most-poorly led and executed invasions, that of Panama in 1989. While there are plenty of details on Stiner's relation to the XVIII Airborne Corps, there is very little information on Special Forces training, planning, or execution. Even the details on conventional units (why they are even mentioned in this book is incomprehensible) are misleading. The 82nd Airborne Division's decision to jump into Tocumen Airport hours after the Rangers had secured it is not criticized or even analyzed. (Could it be that Stiner was one of the supporters for this Hollywood-type maneuver when the 82nd could have landed quickly and safely at Howard or Tocumen and executed their mission by air assault or simply by walking out of their airplanes?).
Stiner completely glosses over the worst operation of Just Cause, the failed Navy SEAL attempt to take over Paitilla Airport, a mission that never should have been approved by higher (failed not because of the brave men who executed the raid but because of the egos above them who approved an absurd concept of operations). Instead, he spends page after page congratulating himself on a perfectly planned and organized operation. Can you imagine how perfect Iraq would have been if the battalion level commanders had been able to do monthly rehearsals and terrain walks throughout Iraq? How could you lose?
Don't buy this book for details on Somalia, Haiti, or any of the other SF operations in the 90s. They wouldn't fit with the 100 pages on Panama.
In my opinion the problem with this book is that it claims to be about Army Special Forces. In fact, the book completely fails to focus on what makes Special Forces great, which is the non-commissioned officer. Instead, Clancy and Stiner spend the entire 500 plus pages talking about how this general did this and that general did that. What really makes SF is the NCOs, not the Generals. If you want to read a good book about Special Forces, read John Plaster's SOG: The Secret Wars of America's Commandos in Vietnam, Greg Walker's At the Eye of the Hurricane (fantastic info on El Salvador, Panama, and the Gulf War), or Orr Kelley's Brave Men, Dark Waters. These books tell you all about Special Ops without any of the bravado that permeates Clancy and Stiner's unfortunate work.
My advise to Clancy: stick to what you do best, fiction. My advice to you: skip this book!
Rating: 2
Summary: A little something
Comment: When I first opened this book I really didn't know what to expect. I've read many other Tom Clancy fiction and non-fiction books and have enjoyed them.
This book felt like a clutter reading it. It didn't seem organized and just seemed a bit half-done. I was fairly disappointed on how it was written but still all the information was useful and left me a bit satisfied.
This book isn't for someone who wants to be introduced to America's Special Forces unit and what they do and their nature, but this book is for people who already have and enjoy a knowing knowledge of America's military.
The contents are very accurate historically of course as most non-fiction books, but this definitely shows a raw side of SF in which msot books don't show; that not all missions have the greatest outcome.
This book can be read with some satisfaction to some, but it is not one that I would come and recommend much about.
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Title: Special Forces: A Guided Tour of U.S. Army Special Forces by Tom Clancy, John Gresham, William P. Yarborough ISBN: 0425172686 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: 06 February, 2001 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Marine: A Guided Tour of a Marine Expeditionary Unit by Tom Clancy ISBN: 0425154548 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: October, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Airborne: A Guided Tour of an Airborne Task Force by Tom Clancy ISBN: 0425157709 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: October, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Inside Delta Force : The Story of America's Elite Counterterrorist Unit by ERIC HANEY ISBN: 0385336039 Publisher: Delacorte Press Pub. Date: 14 May, 2002 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Armored Cav: A Guided Tour of an Armored Cavalry Regiment by Tom Clancy ISBN: 0425158365 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: October, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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