Customer Reviews

Roughneck Nine-One: The Extraordinary Story of a Special Forces A-Team at War [With Headphones]

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I spent six years in SF before being forced to get out after breaking my neck on a jump. It left a bad taste in my mouth, and to this day, I wish I were still in. I could have read this book and tore it apart and critiqued every move and decision the teams made, but I didn't. Mainly because I wasn't there and I wasn't going to stoop to the level of Monday morning quarterbacking something I wasn't part of. So I read the book and evaluated it for the content of the story. What I found was an intriguing book, with a great story and what clearly were great acts of valor by the men of the three ODAs.

They may have made mistakes and if the Gods hadn't been looking down on them they may not have survived, but the dynamics of the story and the descriptions of combat were simply riveting. I think the book did a great job of capturing team life and the personalities of Special Forces soldiers to a tee.

We in the military, whether we admit it or not, all have big egos and tend to critique everything, particularly things done by our fellow service members. However, if you set your ego aside, what you'll read is not only enjoyable, but gratifying to know our guys are out there doing great things, no matter how small or inconsequential others may portray them.

This is not your typical Special Forces story. The story is not a covert operation of any kind. The SF groups engage the enemy on an open battlefield. Sgt. Frank Antenori states this in the beginning of the book. He shares this story because it is a great accomplishment by a greatly outnumbered unit.

The intro into the book explains the great need our country has for Special Forces. I enjoyed this because he gives reasons why the U.S should have more elite soldiers to carry out missions.

The first part of the book explains the make-up of his team. He gives the details of each member as if they were family. This makes the team come to life in my opinion. He explains how each member came to be on his team and how they will help the make-up of the team.

The next part of the book goes extensively into the details of the their training. Sgt. Anteroni explains the preparations a SF team makes before they launch a mission. This is an excellent overview of the time that the unit puts in before they are ever deployed. They will train for months before they ever get a mission, and this is what the Roughnecks did. It is funny because Sgt. Anetroni and his team are gung-ho and ready to do some killing, yet they have to ait for a long time before they get a mission.

The last part explains the battle that has made Roughneck Nine-One a legend in the Special Forces comunity. I will not ruin the details of the story because it is so unbelievable they were able to accomplish their objective. I will say that they were outnumbered Five to One including tanks against them. The battle is definately worth the wait because it feels as if the reader is trained well enough to be there. The author makes the reader feel as if they were there fighting the battle with them. There are also some funny dialogues that go on during the mission.

This is an excellent book that goes right along with all the courage and bravery that one has heard about the U.S SPecial Forces. The author's tone is never egotistical as one would expect. Their is a certain arrogance that the author displays, but who would not be arrogant if you were one of the most elite soldiers in our country. To say the least I believe it comes with the territory. This book is a fast read, and the reader will be glad that they spent the time to read it.

There are lots of books out there on the US Army Special Forces and the war on terrorism, but nobody gets you into the action like Frank Antenori, former team sergeant of ODA-391 - ROUGHNECK NINE-ONE. Frank gives you a rare unvarnished look into how a group of diverse individuals comes together and is molded into America's most elite fighting force. He describes how his team meticulously prepared for war, but got caught up in petty SF group politics and turf battles before they fired their first shot. He gives it to you straight - the good, the bad, and the ugly. When ROUGHNECK NINE-ONE finally entered the frey against a vastly superior Iraqi force they gave an accounting of themselves that did themselves and our country proud. In the words of Barry Sadler, "These are men, America's best!" This is an ABSOLUTE MUST READ for anyone remotely interested in America's elite forces and the war on terrorism.

This is one of the better books on the war that I've come across and the only one that REALLY takes the reader inside a special forces team.
The battle at Debecka Pass is already famous and if you want to read about a bunch of brave guys that were outmanned and outgunned but fought until the bitter end, then this is the book for you. Amazing, amazing stuff--and very well written.

Having been out of the Army longer than Sgt. Antenori has been alive I read this book to see how today's army compares with when I was in. All in all, I was reminded of the old French expression that 'the more it changes the more it stays the same.'

Many movies and the like imply that a Special Forces A-Team is a small group of guys that get sent out to do some special fighting. In truth, the A-Team is a small group of guys that are charged with setting up and directing a force recruited from the indigenous people. And in this book that is exactly what they did, they recruited a fighting force from the Kurds. Then then took this force into a battle against an Iraqi army unit.

The Iraqis had tanks and armored personnel carriers and far more men. Our guys had air support, although it was pretty minimal. We won, you have to live to be able to write the books.

Were mistakes made - absolutely. Did some of the systems and procedures fail - absolutely. And were the reporters who were along with the unit help - you gotta be kidding.

There are a log of arguments about the war. But thank god that we still have men like these around.

Roughneck 91 presents a realistic perspective on the training, frustrations, skills, and heroics of a Special Forces Operational Detachment as they prepare for, and deploy into combat in Iraq. The candor of its presentation includes the good, the bad, and the ugly of training, battlefield perceptions and decisions. It is destined to irritate some and will certainly intrigue others. It elicits a range of reactions both negative and positive, but above all, it is a very engrossing story. As events unfold personalities of excessive caution are pitted against personalities of excessive aggression and how these polar opposites reconcile (or fail to reconcile) their battlefield decisions is the heart of the book. While this is an age old military dilemma, to see it played out in Iraq by our country's most elite forces, is an eye opener. It is tempting to second guess the thinking and actions of every major character but I wasn't there, and I won't do that. I winced, and struggled with many of the events but thoroughly enjoyed the book. Antenori and Halberstadt have put together a fascinating read!

Rarely do I come across a book that I read within just one or two sittings. With the exception of a trip to Starbucks for my triple espresso so I could stay up late and finish the story, Roughneck Nine-One never hit the coffee table. As a reader with no military experience, I found this book a special treat for a few great reasons. Unlike most military books, the story was written so even a layman can understand. Hans Halberstadt and Frank Antenori carefully describe the political complexities of a Special Forces unit and how a combat SF team (Roughneck Nine-One) has to cleverly sneak around military red tape to gain the necessary personnel, equipment, and character that it will take for them to survive a horrific firefight on a major crossroad in Debecka, Iraq. I thought Roughneck Nine-One was a great read and didn't understand the few negative reviews it got.

As somebody who has been a US Army Special Forces "strap-hanger" since 1962, I can tell you this little community is full of strong opinions, explosive politics, enduring friendships and equally enduring resentments. Frank Antenori's story is about one little A-team and one deployment, but it manages to cover those gloabal issues, too, in the great tradition of the Green Berets. This book was only released on Tuesday (30 May 2006) but within hours two very hostile reviews from mystery reviewers were posted attacking ROUGHNECK NINE ONE. Nearly all the book is a cheerful success story about the guys on Frank's team, but some of the book describes leadership failures by a very few individuals. One of these individuals, a commander, was considered a coward by his subordinates and Frank tells what happened as he saw it. Even before the book came out, Frank took a lot of fire from this officer and others about the story -- not that it wasn't true, but that it was a story that should stay private and within "the community." Frank asked for an offical review of the manuscript from USASOC; he got it and a completely clean bill of health -- not one security change requested, not one correction to the facts of the story. This is a story about one small band of heroes from three A-teams, about one really remarkable battle, about one awful "friendly fire" incident, about one team sergeant, and about US Army Green Berets on the modern battlefield. The story is told by Antenori but written by Hans Halberstadt (certainly MY favorite non-fiction military writer!), a guy who has been explaining how the special operations forces (SEALs, Green Berets, Rangers, Recon Marines, and the rest) do their business for the past twenty years. ROUGHNECK NINE ONE is a war story that is full of lessons-learned, valor, discipline, brotherhood, and what to do when confronted by a television reporter in the middle of a fight. It would make a good movie, and it really is a good book.

I just finished reading the book and have to say, I found it to be one of the better books on the Iraq war I have read so far. While it seems Sgt. Antenori is not a professional author, his story does come across as one from a ground soldier's perspective. It's not laced with flowery descriptions similar to those you would find in a book written by a reporter like a Mark Bowden or a Sean Naylor. Nor does it contain political correctness like you would find in a book written by a senior military officer.

Sgt. Antenori was an enlisted man and his perspective of the events that led up to the Battle of Debecka clearly shows that. The description of the battle includes both a positive and negative evaluation of his team's battlefield performance. He even criticized mistakes that he made relative to the "warning shot" as well as a few other "miscalculations" when trying to predict what his commanders wanted him to do.

Anyone that has spent a day in the military understands the concept of internal unit rivalry. For the men in Special Forces, internal rivalry must be amplified hundreds of times over, simply because of all the type-A personalities, extensive amounts of experience and huge egos they bring to the table. I could easily see why there were the turf battles and disagreements Antenori describes, but it was also refreshing to see the professionalism they displayed by putting those differences aside when it came time for them to fight the enemy.

The description of the battle plan being drawn out on the hood of their Humvee's, with both the 10th Special Forces and 3rd Special Forces teams putting their differences and disagreements aside to accomplish the mission, was an excellent example.

I recommend this book to both those in the military and military enthusiasts. It contains gritty descriptions of combat and a dynamic group of characters that make this story stand out from any one I have read so far. My hat's off to Roughneck Nine-One and the men of the other two A-Teams, Nine-Two and Four-Four for a job well done. Also a special thank you goes out to the two Military Intelligence soldiers that volunteered to join those teams, going well above what was expected for their military occupational specialty (MOS). Good job.

Steve Turley
U.S. Army Retired

Despite some minor writing flaws (which actually round out the Roughneck theme) this is a great book! I was surprised by the few negative reviews. I think many reviewers miss the point. Decisive combat not is not about luck, it's about having the courage to do a quick risk/reward evaluation and put your training to use. The Army is full of officers like Major X, who hamper our capabilities by being anally safe. I commend MSG Antenori for having the courage to train hard, stand up to Major X, and write about. If you're looking for a perfectly constructed novel try The Grapes of Wrath. If you want a book about America's best soldiers kicking [...] in spite of politically correct and tactically unsound officers, you have got to read Roughneck Nine-One.