Customer Reviews

Canada's Secret Commandos: The unauthorized story of Joint Task Force Two

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

 

 

This is an excellent read on Joint Task Force 2, Canada's version of Delta Force and the SAS. Lots of details on the history and missions of the team (Bosnia, Haiti, Nepal, Kosovo, Central Africa, Rwanda), info on weapons, aircraft etc. There is also a wide range of photos showing JTF2 guys doing their thing. I appreciated the extensive list of sources at the back of the book where the author lists that his information comes from. Most, if not all, are from official Canadian Forces documents and interviews (JTF2's unit history,etc) so it boasts the credibility and accuracy of the book. The one drawback, I found was that some of the photos are grainy, being taken from the official JTF2 training video but I can easily overlook that when compared with all the information that is presented.

Pugliese pulls together a pretty good read on a unit that is so new, there is almost nothing known about it. Canada's top special operations unit appears to be more active than the country knows, and the author appears to have some unique insight to their missions. If you are interested in Special Forces, Delta, SEALs, SAS, GSG-9, GIGN and the like, this book will offer you an interesting perspective on Canada's counter-terrorism unit.

The amount of information the author gathered about jtf2 is very impressive, especially considering 99 percent of the canadian public has never hered of that unit. I learned a fare amount about jtf2 when I served in the Royal Canadian Regiment, but not nearly to the extent of this book, at the same time I'm sure there's a few things that this book did not uncover. I would recommend this book to all canadian citizins and anyone with an interest in special forces units.

Trying to find information on an Elite group such as this is exhausting to say the least. With this group of individuals being a relatively classified, closely guarded bunch by their government, you will find yourself reading and researching many other forms of literature that may touch upon the JTF2 and their predecessors. This is where the real struggle of fact finding begins. Many things are conflicting like the age of this elite group, training facilities and the pre-existence of the group. The author does a wonderful job giving the reader leads for researching.

Good Luck
** This IS an exceptional group as pointed out by another reader, Dave from Falls Church.

The author is a journalist with the Ottawa Citizen paper and has been writing about military affairs and the Canadian Armed Forces since 1982. The book's published by Espirit De Corps book, who also publish an independent military magazine for and about the Canadian Armed Forces. The book itself is pretty lightweight, especially when compared to books on other countries special forces units - 230 odd pages with widely spaced type, 55 odd b&w photos, of which perhaps 25% are of JTF2, the rest are a mixed bag of equipment, senior Canadian military officers and other countries personnel. Many of the JTF2 photos are of JTF2 operatives in bodyguard roles. Poor quality photo reproduction too. Also, as it was published in 2002, it's now more than a little dated.

Joint Task Force 2 is Canada's equivalent unit to the British SAS or the USA's Delta. As special forces units go, it's a relative late-comer, partially due to the usual Canadian waffling on all things related to military expenditure and decision making. NOT a strongpoint of Canadian politicians. Alas. And, incidentally, one of the problems illustrated in the book, where appropriate equipment seems to have been hard to come by in the past - and which still seems to be the case. Although that was 6 years ago and priorities have changed somewhat since then.

Moving on, the book itself covers JTF2's start-up and the drivers behind the decision to create such a unit (the only surprise here being as how it took the politicians so long to make such a obvious decision...., although on reflection on Canadian politicians, perhaps not such a surprise...) as well as giving an overview of it's counter-terrorist predecessor, an RCMP unit.

Also covers early training, Canadian Forces/JTF2 involvement in the Mohawk Reservation problems in the early 1990's, early counter-terrorist exercises within Canada, JTF2 assignments in Bosnia, the Congo, Rwanda and Haiti as well as a couple of other places. Content goes on to cover (as of 2002) selection, training, equipment (and problems with equipment and funding) and some discussion on JTF2's role in bodyguarding. There's also some coverage of the "problems" experienced with the Airborne Regiment (which led to it's disbanding by the Govt) as well as with some criminal activity associated with soldiers who were loosely associated with JTF2.

I give the book 3 stars overall, primarily for it's subject. If it wasn't the only book on JTF2, I'd give it one star for being very lightweight. Even areas (such as a summary of major terrorist organizations and of other countries special forces), where extensive information is available, are covered at a relatively trivial level. All in all, a pretty poor job, made desirable only by the lack of any other coverage on this unit. I wouldn't recommend buying unless you really want to know more about JTF2 specifically. On the other hand, there has never been much information available on JTF2 so at some level it's hard to say whether the failings are the authors, or simply the lack of available information. Give the lightweight coverage on things such as weapons, terrorist organizations and other countries special forces, I'm led to the conclusion that the shortcomings are with the author.

Ottawa Citizen writer David Pugliese presents us with as much information that he could glean in his years writing and researching about "Canada's SAS". I would not agree with that comparison as JTF2 are far too young a unit to have the experience and expertise that the SAS or any of the world's other elite units have. However, given Canada's recent involvement in the war on terrorism in Afghanistan I believe firmly that Pugliese will HAVE to update his book as the stories coming from Southwest Asia about this unit are extremely impressive.

So, in a nutshell, the book reads extremely quickly. Pugliese makes a point of comparing the worlds other elite units and it will only be a matter of time before JTF2 is spoken in the same breath as these units.

Contains a good history of joint task for two, just wish for more recent stories of their actions. although, up to date reporting for a special forces unit probably contradicts their mission statement. hard to do things in secret, when you write a book about your missions.

but the author certainly treads where no other author has gone before and certainly gets the "essence" of the unit down. I thought he did a great job as well of illustrating how a country as free and democratic as Canada leans towards elements of ultrasecrecy for several of its governmental organizations including JTF2 where other governments openly discuss and brag about their Special Forces. Perhaps this book is best used to exemplify what is a failing of our military system in not using a force like JTF2 and other Canadian military units to increase recruitment.

Picked up this book as reading material on a long flight to the Bahamas and it kept me thoroughly entertained. The book gives a facinating look into the inner workings of the Canadian military.
A must read even if you are not a military person.

Highly recommended.

Joe Clinski

Wow, facinating book. A real eyeopener. A must read even if you're not a military buff. Well researched and easy to read.