Detachment Delta: Punitive Strike [Mass Market Paperback]

Charles W. Sasser (Author)

Book Description

Series: Detachment Delta | Publication Date: June 4, 2002

The enemy has struck with no warning, destroying a U.S. fighting ship and taking Americans hostage. There are lives to be saved and a terrorist threat that must be diffused -- permanently -- so the men of Delta Force are on the move. America's first line of defense in the battle against terrorism, they are trained, armed, and ready to take the fight into the monster's stronghold. And for three heroic brothers born into a legendary warrior dynasty, the elimination of the #1 foe of the civilized world is more than a global imperative -- this war is personal.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Charles W. Sasser is a retired veteran who spent twenty-nine years in the U.S. Army, thirteen of them as a Green Beret. A prolific author of more than forty books, his previous works have been Main Selections of the Military Book Club, recommended reading at West Point, Army War College, and required reading in the Navy.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Avon (June 4, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380820587
• ISBN-13: 978-0380820580
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,173,031 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Linguistic errors create doubts of overall veracity, December 4, 2002

By 

Dennis Gelpe (Jerusalem, Israel) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Detachment Delta: Punitive Strike (Mass Market Paperback)

I didn't pick up this book looking for Tolstoy's "War and Peace." I new it was fluff, but adventure fluff, and that's OK. I do, though, like to believe that when an author writes a book, s/he does some research, were the author not an authority to start. Sasser claims past background in Special Forces. This made me want to believe, to some extent, his descriptions of Special Ops as portrayed in the book. He was off.

What set my reading Geiger counter off, though, was how he messed up his references to languages used by the "bad guys," and the American translators. One example, alone, suffices: The FBI SAIC in Cairo, who's assigned to the task force investigating the attack on the ship, speaks the local language in Egypt (and Yemen), which is Arabic. The female officer, the Delta translator, talks to him in Farsi. Whereon, he replies,"...From the way she talks she could have been born in Baghdad..." A heck of a praising comment, but off. Farsi is the language of Iran, not Iraq, although spoken in parts of Afghanistan, also. It is NOT the language of Yemen. And there was no reason to believe that the agent spoke Farsi.

There were other linguistic gaffs, and each one deterred from enjoyment of the book. I began to wonder whether a super market newspaper was his source of information.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not about Delta or about US SOF - don't waste your money, September 16, 2002

By 

J. Thompson "geek shooter" (Kure Beach, NC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Detachment Delta: Punitive Strike (Mass Market Paperback)

I would not have given this book one star but that was not an option. To say that the writing is mediocre is being much too kind.

I have read the author's book "One Shot, One Kill" and thought that it was quite good. Based on that, I thought that there would be some factual basis for this book and hopeful series. His research into al Qaeda and bin Laden are actually pretty good. Unfortunately, he falls into the trap of vilifying and degrading all Arabs within the book. This makes the "bad guys" so shallow as to be one dimensional at best.

The main character, Major Brandon Kragle, is not typical of officers within Delta or US Special Forces (although he is supposed to be both.) To say that this character is contrived would probably be true but does not go nearly far enough. Just let it stand that Kragle would not have made it through the psych eval for Delta let alone been able to stay in the unit.

Two more points that bring out the poor quality of this book. First, Kragles brother is "put" into Delta as an operator but apparently has not had to go through selection to get there. Sorry, but this just could not and would not happen. Second, the author takes a page our of "The Dirty Dozen" and uses rhymes for the aaault force. If this were not so ludicrous it might be amusing but it places the Delta operators in the absolute worse possible light.

The author may have 13 years in SF but I have to wonder if he was ever a member of an ODA? He certainly shows that he knows little about Delta or AFSOF.

Another reviewer stated that if "Delta Force fellows really are this stupid ...", well they aren't nor are they as incompetent as the author would have you believe in this book.

1.0 out of 5 stars Not impressed., January 25, 2011

By 

josholdham - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Detachment Delta: Punitive Strike (Mass Market Paperback)

First off, I loved Sasser's SEALs books (No Man's Land and Hangman), written under the pseudonym Mike Martell. I found them exceptionally realistic and an accurate depiction of SpecWar operators and clandestine warfare in general. They read much like many non-fiction books on Special Forces operations.
The Detachment Delta series books do not. They have a Hollywood-esque dramatic feel that lends nothing to credibility and had me rolling my eyes all the time. They are also significantly lacking in the realism of the Martell books, when pertaining to small unit tactics and real world mission scenarios. It was quite honestly painful to read. "Delta" is portrayed in the most unrealistic way I could imagine. Frequent technical errors (Navy F16's?, Delta Chaplains?), convoluted plots, weak characters, contrived dialogue and a handful of other crap made this book hard to get through. If you have any prior experience or knowledge of special operations forces, even if you once caught the last 10 minutes of a History channel program about Green Berets while waiting for the next annoying episode of Pawn Stars, you'll find the authenticiy of this book leaves a lot to be desired.
I found the great majority of the main characters nearly impossible to identify with. This is more like a list of SF rejects who never got past the Q Course at the Kennedy Special Warfare School, much less the cream of the Tier 1 crop.
Again, I reccomend the Mike Martell books he wrote!