Inside Delta Force: The Story of America's Elite Counterterrorist Unit
Author: Eric L Haney
Now the inspiration for the CBS Television drama, "The Unit."
Delta Force. They are the U.S. Army's most elite top-secret strike force. They dominate the modern battlefield, but you won't hear about their heroics on CNN. No headlines can reveal their top-secret missions, and no book has ever taken readers inside—until now. Here, a founding member of Delta Force takes us behind the veil of secrecy and into the action-to reveal the never-before-told story of 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-D (Delta Force).
Inside Delta Forece
The Story of America's Elite Counterterrorist Unit
He is a master of espionage, trained to take on hijackers, terrorists, hostage takers, and enemy armies. He can deploy by parachute or arrive by commercial aircraft. Survive alone in hostile cities. Speak foreign languages fluently. Strike at enemy targets with stunning swiftness and extraordinary teamwork. He is the ultimate modern warrior: the Delta Force Operator.
In this dramatic behind-the-scenes chronicle, Eric Haney, one of the founding members of Delta Force, takes us inside this legendary counterterrorist unit. Here, for the first time, are details of the grueling selection process—designed to break the strongest of men—that singles out the best of the best: the Delta Force Operator.
With heart-stopping immediacy, Haney tells what it's really like to enter a hostage-held airplane. And from his days in Beirut, Haney tells an unforgettable tale of bodyguards and bombs, of a day-to-day life of madness and beauty, and of how he and a teammate are called on to kill two gunmen targeting U.S. Marinesat the Beirut airport. As part of the team sent to rescue American hostages in Tehran, Haney offers a first-person description of that failed mission that is a chilling, compelling account of a bold maneuver undone by chance—and a few fatal mistakes.
From fighting guerrilla warfare in Honduras to rescuing missionaries in Sudan and leading the way onto the island of Grenada, Eric Haney captures the daring and discipline that distinguish the men of Delta Force. Inside Delta Force brings honor to these singular men while it puts us in the middle of action that is sudden, frightening, and nonstop around the world.
Publishers Weekly
Inside Delta Force: The Story of America's Elite Counterterrorist Unit by Eric Haney, a founding member of Delta Force, redirects for young adults the contents of his book published in 2002 for adults with the same title (and the basis of David Mamet's forthcoming CBS television series, The Unit). Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Michele Winship - VOYA
The world lives in the shadow of terrorist threat, and even before September 11 bought the reality of that threat home to America, the United States government's elite counterterrorist unit, Delta Force, has been working behind the scenes to combat terrorist activity, particularly hostage rescue, throughout the world. A retired command sergeant major, Haney writes about his personal experience as a member of the inaugural Delta Force unit. An army ranger, Haney was chosen for the grueling selection process on the remote edges of Fort Bragg for the special unit whose existence and mission remains to this day shrouded in mystery. Through part one of his riveting narrative, Haney recounts every torturous step of "selection," while one by one his fellow recruits drop by the wayside and are quickly sent, under a vow of secrecy, back to their home units. Haney is one of the few men left standing after the final challenge. In part two, Haney details Delta Force Operator training, including Close Quarters Battle training where operators storm a room with hostages and terrorists, selectively removing threats through highly-tuned sniper skill. The story is riveting with scenes so vividly described that this book is difficult to put down. The memoir concludes with the final training exercise that officially creates the first Delta unit. Haney gives his readers an exclusive insider's perspective without revealing government secrets or including gratuitous violence, making this a book for adolescents that may end up on their parents' nightstands. VOYA CODES: 4Q 5P M J S (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; Every YA (who reads) was dying to read it yesterday; Middle School, defined asgrades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2006, Delacorte, 192p., and PLB Ages 11 to 18.
School Library Journal
Gr 8 Up-An adaptation of the author's adult book with the same title (Dell, 2002). The first part of the book gives an overview of Haney's military career and his association with the force and describes the red tape and planning that was required of those who wished to create a new, secret military unit that officially did not exist. It also includes a description of the physical challenges required of those who were chosen to participate in what was a preliminary round of qualification tests. Those who were successful in all the tests were then eligible to participate in the actual selection process. The second half of the text shows the sometimes brutal challenges the successful candidates were required to complete and details some of the actual training sessions. The narration concludes with the unit being sent on a "dry run" scenario in order to practice newly acquired skills. Black-and-white photos and documents are included in a centerfold. The reading level is not extremely high, but the subject is more likely to be of interest to older readers. This is an excellent choice for students with military interests.-Eldon Younce, Harper Elementary School, KS Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
A founding member's memoir of soldiering in the Army's antiterrorism unit. Developed in the late 1970s, the Delta Force is so secretive that it's surprising retired Sergeant Major Haney was permitted to write this account. The narrative's first half describes the qualities required for membership (a combination of Bond-esque savvy and Rambo-esque strength), Haney's "selection," and his training. The selection process demanded physical and mental endurance. Participants had to complete 18-mile and 40-mile marches to qualify for a unit about whose actual activities they had only the vaguest knowledge. Haney, already a happy career soldier, found his niche in this environment. He was comfortable with uncertainty, professional about completing his tasks, and demanding of himself. In training, he learned the skills of an assassin. Delta Force operators practiced storming terrorist-held buildings and shooting terrorists without injuring hostages. Once acquired, these skills took Haney all over the world. The Delta Force planned and attempted a rescue of Iranian hostages that was botched by faulty Navy aircraft. Haney worked on the American Ambassador's security detail in Lebanon just before the embassy there was bombed. He helped rescue missionaries in Sudan, participated in guerilla warfare in Honduras, and stormed the island of Grenada. These exploits, though sensational in their danger, become somewhat rote in the retelling. Whereas the early chapters are driven by the force of Haney's deepening love affair with the Army, later events seem stagnant despite all the derring-do. Once the uncertainty of selection and training are finished, a soldierly professionalism takes over. As Haney putsit, "No posturing, no sloganeering, no high fives, no posing, no bluster, and no bombast. Just a quiet determination to get the job done." That same creed permeates his book: doubts, fears, and emotion are subdued in favor of action. Perfect for military enthusiasts and Hollywood screenwriters
New interesting book: Chile or Customer Relations and Rapport
Masters of Chaos: The Secret History of the Special Forces
Author: Linda Robinson
Special Forces soldiers are daring, seasoned troops from America's heartland, selected in a tough competition and trained in an extraordinary range of skills. They know foreign languages and cultures and unconventional warfare better than any U.S. fighters, and while they prefer to stay out of the limelight, veteran war correspondent Linda Robinson gained access to their closed world. She traveled with them on the frontlines, interviewed them at length on their home bases, and studied their doctrine, methods and history. In Masters of Chaos she tells their story through a select group of senior sergeants and field-grade officers, a band of unforgettable characters like Rawhide, Killer, Michael T, and Alan -- led by the unflappable Lt. Col. Chris Conner and Col. Charlie Cleveland, a brilliant but self-effacing West Pointer who led the largest unconventional war campaign since Vietnam in northern Iraq.
Robinson follows the Special Forces from their first post-Vietnam combat in Panama, El Salvador, Desert Storm, Somalia, and the Balkans to their recent trials and triumphs in Afghanistan and Iraq. She witnessed their secret sleuthing and unsung successes in southern Iraq, and recounts here for the first time the dramatic firefights of the western desert. Her blow-by-blow story of the attack on Ansar al-Islam's international terrorist training camp has never been told before.
The most comprehensive account ever of the modern-day Special Forces in action, Masters of Chaos is filled with riveting, intimate detail in the words of a close-knit band of soldiers who have done it all.
author of Flags of Our Fathers and Flyboys - James Bradley
Linda Robinson has gone beyond the headlines and the hype to bring us into [the Special Forces'] brotherhood.
author of See No Evil and Sleeping with the Devil - Robert Baer
This fascinating, dramatic account of the Special Forces... shows us the face of war in the 21st century.
Publishers Weekly
This impressively readable account chronicles the role of the U.S. Army's Special Forces (aka the Green Berets, a label they do not care for) over the past 15 years. Special Forces operations included Somalia, the first Gulf War, the Balkans, Afghanistan and once again the Gulf. The latter two operations are are allotted half the book, with the ongoing presence in Iraq being the forces' largest operation since Vietnam. Based on interviews with 30-odd operators, the book is a compelling group portrait of some of America's most dedicated warriors. A journalist specializing in national security subjects, particularly unconventional warfare, Robinson mostly shows the men performing their original role: organizing and training local friendlies to liberate their countries or at least achieve American goals. Recent achievements along those lines include organizing Shiite militias in Iraq and leading Kurdish forces to tie down Saddam's army in the north. Robinson also presents in some detail the new role of the Special Forces, one of major strategic significance: calling in aerial fire support on enemy targets in support of either U.S. or indigenous forces in distant lands. Still mostly secret, she finds even after careful investigation, is their work with the FBI after 9/11. Agent, Flip Brophy for Sterling Lord Literistic. (Oct.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Raymond Puffer, Ph.D. - KLIATT
When President John F. Kennedy came into office, he immediately set out to develop the means to export American force, and American-style democracy, to unsettled and beleaguered corners of the world. His first official act in office was to order a jet transport to ferry large numbers of American troops wherever needed; virtually his second action was to overhaul an obscure US Army unit, its nearly moribund Special Forces. Both initiatives were highly successful, but the Green Berets will long outlast the airplane. Virtually adopted by their President, beefed up and togged out in distinctive headgear, the Special Forces became the best known of the world's elite military forces. Their accomplishments soon matched their public glamour. Most such units, like the Navy SEALs and the Army's Delta Force, are modern iterations of the British Commandos of WW II: tough, trained warriors designed for lightning raids against conventional enemy forces. The Green Berets do that too, but their first mission is to blend into an oppressed population and train them to attack and harass their oppressors. This demands a special kind of warrior, fluent in languages and equally at home with cultural anthropology, medicine, psychology, and social planning. Having said all that, the Berets do their share of direct fighting too. Author Linda Robinson, a skilled journalist, embedded herself with the clandestine warriors and followed them from place to place. What results are exciting, at times poignant, and always-intelligent observations of these men, their training, and their battles. Far from producing one of those mindless, hyped-up accounts of battle and death beloved by most chroniclers of war, Robinsontakes the reader into the minds and mindset of several warriors from the 1960s to the present, following the corps from training camp through a succession of the world's hotspots. The only complaint about the book is the title: these professionals are not battlefield brawlers--they are superb operators. KLIATT Codes: SA--Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2004, PublicAffairs, 388p. maps. index., Ages 15 to adult.
No comments:
Post a Comment