Delta Force: The Army's Elite Counterterrorist Unit (Mass Market Paperback)

by Charlie A. Beckwith (Author), Donald Knox (Author) "IT WAS JUNE of 1962..." (more)
Key Phrases: General Meyer, General Vaught, General Rogers (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Absolutely compelling...nations without men like this simply don't survive." -- --The Wall Street Journal

Product Description
The only insider's account ever written on America's most powerful weapon in the war against terrorismDelta Force

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 365 pages
• Publisher: Avon; Reissue edition (May 18, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380809397
• ISBN-13: 978-0380809394
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #55,873 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #17 in	Books > History > Military > Weapons & Warfare > Conventional
  #22 in	Books > History > Military > Life & Institutions
  #29 in	Books > History > Middle East > Iran

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Informative and engaging, July 1, 2003

By	Del C Brown (Honolulu, HI United States) - See all my reviews

This book was very difficult to put down once I started reading it. Beckwith has a way with words that makes it seem like he's sitting next to you telling you a story. While reading the book, I felt like I knew Charlie Beckwith and his way of thinking--that's how much personality he put into this book.

1st Special Forces Operational Detachment--Delta (SFOD-D) is the military's formal name for Delta Force. Delta is perhaps America's foremost elite counterterrorist unit along with the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) and Navy SEAL Team Six. Beckwith created Delta Force after spending a year with the British Special Air Service (SAS) and seeing how the US had a void that a unit like the SAS could fill. Thus, Delta was formed with the SAS in mind.

A word of caution to people who are considering reading this book. The book tells of how Delta Force was formed...from its beginnings as a US version of the British SAS to its failed first mission freeing the hostages in the Iran. If you're looking for something on what Delta Force currently does and how its operators are currently trained or selected, this isn't the book for you. Beckwith tells us how the first Delta operators were trained and selected, but that selection process has probably changed some by now. This book is more a detailed history on the formation of the Delta Force, and not a book on its current engagements and operations (which are most likely classified anyway).

I HIGHLY recommend this book.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "Must Read" for any Infantry or Special Ops vet, March 7, 2002

By	"vfgraphics" (Bay Area, California) - See all my reviews

...

Rather, Delta Force is the plain-spoken memoir of a real-life Special Forces officer's long career advancing his art, if not his army career. Charlie Beckwith was a prophet before his time, and his campaign for the creation of an SAS-style special ops unit in the U.S. Army was stymied at every turn for nearly his entire career. Branded a rogue, even a traitor to the S.F. community, in the end, of course, his ideas won out, and Delta came into being, with Beckwith as it's first commander.

There are Vietnam war stories here, but this is not a book of "there I was. . ." tales. Beckwith also offers the reader a glimpse of Army politics, but this is not a book about vain and self-absorbed senior officers. A few chapters are devoted to Delta's baptism by fire in the Iranian Hostage rescue operation, but it's not really a book about the debacle at Desert One. In Delta Force, the reader will find a memoir of one of the pivotal figures in modern ground warfare. This is the story of one tough, dedicated hombre; what he learned, and how he learned it.

I'm not sure the average reader would get all of Colonel Beckwith's humorous asides and throwaway lines. Some are pretty wry, and would probably require that the reader have a military background to even notice. This edition has a few annoying typographical errors (is proofreading truly a lost art?), and Beckwith's prose occasionally lapses from one tense to another and then back again, which creates a slight feeling of disjointedness. Given those very minor caveats, for a reader with some familiarity and interest in the operational art, this is a must read.

Sua Sponte.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars America's Elite Counter-Terrorist Unit, March 11, 1998

By	TMac "busted_flush" (North Carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Delta Force (Hardcover)

This was a fascinating book covering a fascinating topic. The creation of "Delta Force" is a topic that should interest all military history buffs. Col Beckwith gives a blow by blow account of the obstacles endured in creating Delta. He sometimes drowns you in the day to day bureacratic fight but the reader gets an appreciation for the difficulties he faced. Col Beckwith gives an excellent narrative of the fiasco at "Desert One" in 1980 while attempting to save the American hostages in Iran. It was a difficult time for all Americans and most would not wish to be reminded, but lessons are to be learned. And in order to learn those lessons Col Beckwith takes us back to that night in the desert. Overall a very informative read.