Customer Reviews

America's Special Forces: Seals, Green Berets, Rangers, USAF Special Ops, Marine Force Recon

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you are among the many interested in the Military, specifically Special Operations, then you will definately love this book. This is one of the newest books on Special Operations (1998). It covers, in detail, the roles/missions of the Navy Seals, Army Rangers, Army Green Berets, Air Force PJ's and CCTs and Special Ops aircraft, and last but not least, Marine Force Recon. The book has the BEST pictures. If you looking to make Special Operations a future career plan, then this book will help. Furturemore, I was surprised that such a book even gave information on Air Force CCT's and PJ's, because they are not as known as SEAL's, and I haven't seen that many books that covered them. This proves how much research went into making this book.

Anyone who has perused the Military History/Weaponry section of the local bookstore is aware that Bohrer's photography is a cut above the rest(i.e. Hans Halberstadt). It is one thing to provide a reader with accurate information about military training or weaponry. Bohrer takes it to a new level by placing the reader on the shores of Coronado with aspiring SEALs or hovering above the ocean with the Air Force's Pave Low III helicopter.

Bohrer's dedication to providing a realistic picture of each of the special force's training regimens is evidenced by his artistic ability to convey the tension felt by trainees endeavoring to achieve elite status. Although at first glance it would appear that this book is geared to those with a military background or military interests, the quality photography will capture the eye of anyone who can appreciate the extraordinary talent of a great photographer.

It is very interesting and informative. I recommend this book to anyone and everyone who wishes to learn more about Special Operations or for those interested in a career in Spec Ops. I not only recommend it for those people but for every one in general.

I agree that is an informative book, and I also agree that it has the best photographs of any book on this subject. However, the photos are where I was a bit disappointed. I received the book in the mail and as soon as I saw the cover my heart sank. Having been in the military, the first thing that I noticed was the blank adapters on the weapons of the troops. Now, maybe I was deluding myself, but I was not prepaired for that. After going through the book, it seemed that all of the photos were of various stages of training in the special ops schools. Eventually, this bothered me less because, thinking realistically, how would they get photos of actuall missions and if they did, we would definitely never see them.

Overall, I recommend this book. The content is decent and the picutres are brilliant, I just had to prepare readers as picky as I am.

I am writing a fiction short story about this kind of thing, and I'm also very interested in it. I found this book to be very, very well written and very informative. I've never found so much on AFSOC special ops or Force Recon, even in a book on the Marine Corps. This book has really helped me with my story, and has also been very interesting to read.

Wow! This is simply the greatest book on special operations ever! It has the most photos, the most details, and the most information I have ever seen on a special forces unit. I recieved this book for Christmas and it is one of my favorite books. Despite all these high points, the book falls short on adequetly explaining the gear and weapons each unit uses. Although they do provide tons of information on exactly that, they do not go into detail what exactly they use. For example, in the Army Rangers section, they say the basic weapon is the M-16 and M-60. However, they don't tell what the rest of them are. The book also fails to explain the Delta Force and some other Marine special forces units adequetly. Nevertheless, this is a great book, and anyone interested in special forces should own one.

I've read this book recently and I think that it's a great book detailing the history, training, missions and weapons of America's special forces.

This is a great book for anyone who wants to know about the special forces and what they're all about.

Wow. that is all I have to say about this book An extremly well thought out book. First of all I would like to say how good the pictures are there are over 200 pictures in this book and they were high quality photographs. This book covers all of the important Spec Ops groups (execpt the non-armed ones) The chapter on S.E.A.L.s was very informing. The book goes into great detail on describing The individual traits of each Group. If you are an expert in Spec Ops or just heard about them this book is for you

To Lucky13, the info is straight from a textbook? What textbook on special forces do you know of? This book IS the textbook. As for your claim of several missing units, the only one missing is delta.
Delta is a very secretive unit, no photos of their operators are allowed, and the unit itself is not publicly acknowleged by the DOD. If you want a book about delta, check out "Weapons of Delta Force" by Fred Pushies. It's got about all the info that there is about the unit. It also has photos of the equipment and gear that delta uses(being used in the photos by SF, Rangers, and SEALs).
"America's Special Forces" is by far the best book available on the subject of US Special Operations units. A true classic.

I thought this book provided an adequate summary of combat arms special operations forces. There is no mention of non-combat arms SOF, such as psychological operations and civil affairs forces. The chapter devoted to Air Force Special Ops was dissappointing, as there was very little reference of combat controllers or para-rescue men. (These two occupations are in some respects more imppressive than any of the others portrayed in the book. A friend of mine became a para-rescue jumper, and out of an initial class of over fifty, only eight made the cut. The entire trainig lasted 18 months. This selection rate is more selective, and the training longer, than what is found in the SEAL, Green Beret, or Ranger training and selection programs.) The photos are what make this book. Unfortunately, the Air Force is robbed again since there our no photos of the training conducted at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, which is where Air Force Special Operations introductory trainig is conducted. The biggest flaw in the book is that the Army Ranger chapter contains no photos taken at Fort Benning, Georgia. Benning, the Army's "Home of the Infantry", is the location of the 75th Ranger Regiment's Headquarters, the 3rd Ranger Battalion, and the first phase of the Ranger School. The book's text goes on for some length about the Ranger Indoctrination Program (RIP, also conducted at Benning) and the infamous Ranger school, and yet there is not a single photo taken at Ft. Benning. Instead, the reader is offered photos of dreary Ft. Lewis, Washington, home of the 2nd Ranger Battalion. This makes the book incomplete. Maybe the photographer was in the Seattle area and did not have the means to make it to Georgia. Otherwise, this is an nice summary of the military's (combat) special operations forces.