Special Forces: A Guided Tour of U.S. Army Special Forces [Paperback]

Tom Clancy (Author), John Gresham (Author)

Book Description

Series: Tom Clancy's Military Referenc | Publication Date: February 6, 2001

They are sent to the world's hot spots-on covert missions fraught with danger. They are called on to perform at the peak of their physical and mental capabilities, primed for combat and surveillance, yet ready to pitch in with disaster relief operations. They are the Army's Special Forces Groups. Now follow Tom Clancy as he delves into the training and tools, missions and mindset of these elite operatives.

Special Forces includes:

• The making of Special Forces personnel: recruitment and training
• A rare look at actual Special Forces Group deployment exercises
• Tools of the trade: weapons, communications and sensor equipment, survival gear
• Roles and missions: a mini-novel illustrates a probable scenario of Special Forces intervention
• Exclusive photographs, illustrations and diagrams

Plus: an interview with General Hugh Shelton, USA, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (and the former Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Special Operations Command-USSOCOM)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The seventh in a series of books by Tom Clancy offering in-depth "tours" of the U.S. military, Special Forces surveys the soldiers who "are perhaps America's most professional and capable warriors." Who are they? They are the men--and only men, for women are not allowed to become SF soldiers--who are "specially selected, specially trained, specially equipped, and given special missions and support." The Army Special Forces--known to much of the public as Green Berets--are often the first troops on the scene in a crisis. They're also incredibly versatile: "If you're looking for a Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger, don't expect to find them in today's Army Special Forces." That's because specialized missions--involving anything from psychological operations meant to undermine enemy morale to guerilla warfare in remote jungles--require flexibility. "Specialized missions (paradoxically) require a broad range of general capabilities and skills," which means SF soldiers, "while physically fit, tend to be more balanced (like triathletes) than specialized (like marathoners and weightlifters)."

Clancy and his coauthor, John Gresham, describe how SF soldiers are recruited, trained, and assigned. There are plenty of interesting notes about SF culture: They don't especially like being called "Green Berets," for instance, even though most units carry a copy of the John Wayne movie The Green Berets in their traveling video libraries. They are typically in their 30s, divorced and remarried, intelligent, interested in the news, and able to speak more than one language. There are also lots of details on weaponry, chronicles of training missions, and plenty of maps and pictures. The book ends with a fictionalized account of an SF mission in 2005 and 2006.

Special Forces is replete with Clancy's tough-guy prose: "The overall media presentation of the Army Special Forces has generally been one of contrived crap." And the book is essentially a celebration of a premier fighting force, rather than a critical treatment of it. But this is not necessarily a weakness. Special Forces will appeal to anybody interested in the modern military, and it may bring civilians closer than they'll ever come to these important troops. --John J. Miller

From Publishers Weekly

His now legendary reputation in military circles gives Clancy as complete access to events and sources as any civilian can expect. This is the seventh in Clancy's series investigating key institutions of the contemporary U.S. armed forces (Armored Cav; Fighter Wing; etc.), and the most comprehensive overview of the U.S. Army Special Forces available to general readers. Clancy, writing with regular series collaborator John Gresham, begins with a softball-tossing interview of Gen. Hugh Shelton--books like Clancy's are not written by antagonizing four-star generals--and the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman establishes Special Forces evolution from the "snake eaters" of the Vietnam era to the "quiet professionals" described in the rest of Clancy's mostly first-person narrative. The first person is a big selling point here; discussions of equipment, "extreme" training and what Special Forces detachments actually do in peace, war and the gray areas in between are based on Clancy's own reportage often enough to maintain the "guided tour" conceit. Special Forces are shown training Venezuelan internal security forces, acting as coordinators for fire-support missions in Kuwait, cooperating with conventional U.S. units and, in a near-future scenario, defeating a nuclear-tipped terrorist revolution in Indonesia. Clancy's language slips into jargon often enough to confuse the target audience of interested generalists, and others may be disturbed by the implications of a military instrument able to do the things described here. But despite the drawbacks, Clancy remains a consummate storyteller, and this book is no exception to his oeuvre. (Feb.)Forecast: Pluses: It's a book by Tom Clancy in a series that regularly debuts on paperback bestseller lists. Minuses: It's not really a start-to-finish narrative, but a collection of field notes, albeit highly detailed and often compelling ones. Nitpick: the repeated phrase from title to subtitle reads badly.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 366 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Trade (February 6, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425172686
• ISBN-13: 978-0425172681
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #676,246 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Tom Clancy is America's, and the world's, favorite international thriller author. Starting with THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, all thirteen of his previous books have hit #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. His books, THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, PATRIOT GAMES, CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER and THE SUM OF ALL FEARS have been made into major motion pictures. He lives in Maryland where he is a co-owner of the Baltimore Orioles.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Pretty darned basic and filled with mistakes, November 1, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Special Forces: A Guided Tour of U.S. Army Special Forces (Paperback)

It's a good thing that this book is [inexpensive], as this may mitigate some of the displeasure that you might have when reading it. First off, it has a definite agenda to it. It is very pro Army SF. Hey, nothing wrong with that. However, he slaps the Navy SEALs on at least a couple of occasions amoung others, which is unwarranted. In real life, most members of units like the Navy SEALs, Army SF, USMC Recon, AF PJ's and CT's respect each other and feel little need to denigrate each other. So, strike 1.

Strike 2 is how cursory the information is. Read Walker's "Commandos" for a much better over-view of the SF. This book goes into detail over the components of the MRE or what have you but glosses over things like the missions of the SF. Heck, the average TLC or Discovery Channel documentary has more information about these units than this book. Actually, there's more good information on-line at Socnetcentral.com than here. Very disappointing. For interests sake check how many details don't jibe with what is published in better books or just by asking a SF member. We're not talking altered for OPSEC here, it's just poorly researched.

Strike 3? The paper is barely newsprint and the pictures are grainy [...].

In sum, if you know nothing at all about the US Army's SF, maybe this book is worth a look see if better books like "America's Special Forces : Weapons, Missions, Training" by David Bohrer or
"U.S. Army Special Forces" by Fred Pushies are out of stock. If you are hoping to learn more about them than are in these books, I'd recommend enlisting and practicing your land navigation skills. You sure won't find it here.

27 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars don't bother, February 9, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Special Forces: A Guided Tour of U.S. Army Special Forces (Paperback)

I gave up Clancy's fiction after _Red Storm Rising_, but I've continued to buy his nonfiction books because, well, he's a geek, and he likes to delve into the technical stuff, so the books are good at that. The writing as always been a little too much like a tour guide's writing and on the verge of a little cheesy, but with this one, I've truly had enough.

Tom Clancy's soldier/sailor/airman/marine worship is just getting too much here. He practically grovels at their feet. It's one thing to pay proper respect to the men and women in uniform, it's another to act like one of the Fops, those baroque characters from Saturday Night Live who worshipped Norm McDonald. "Mr. Special Forces soldier, I have come to praise you! Fighting soldier from the sky, I praise thee! Ooh ooh ooh!" (Much hand waving.)

The book is written in schizophrenic style. Clancy allegedly "wrote" it, along with his researcher John Gresham. The tone of the book is always as a guide, and the author, whoever he is, refers to he and the reader as "we". Who is we? We never know when Clancy is writing or Gresham (except in the case of the interview with Gen. Shelton.) Clancy--or whoever--buddies up to the author, and his politics never seem far from the surface.

I haven't quite finished the book yet, but it appears as though Clancy continues his tradition of interviewing and talking only to officers--preferably short colonels and above. (Except for his beloved "gunnys".) This includes General Shelton. Reading his books, one sense the pattern that the people he talks to are probably the ones signing off on his tag-alongs, whether in a M-1, a CV, or a field exercise. It doesn't smell right. Just how much is this costing the taxpayers?

Special Forces is like fast food: it looks nice, it seems to cover all the bases, but in the end it leaves you with indigestion. While the book covers the training, weapons, and typical deployments of SF (esp. ODAs), it really doesn't capture the heart and soul of the people who run the organization the way past books have. Then again, Clancy has never been good at portraying people in Fiction or Nonfiction. The recent history is spotty: Somalia, Haiti, and Panama I've yet to see mentioned. For a better book on SF, try Col. Simpson's _Inside the Green Berets_. It's not as timely, but it does capture the heart of the organization and the characters who staff it. (Is this a joke? Simpson's book is NOT in the bibliography, but Clancy's book _Submarine: A Guided Tour_ is? What gives?)

Finally, I was rather disgusted by the ego-dripping photo of the author on the back page. There he is wearing a bomber jacket, a flight suit, a scarf of the American flag, a Navy cap with scrambled eggs, and aviator's sunglasses. Mr. Clancy, I never served, and despite all your ride-alongs and huddles with those who wear eagles and stars, neither did you. Can anyone say "poser"?

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Weak Showing from the 'Master of the Techno Thriller', March 7, 2003

By 

D. Smith "former National Security Analyst" (Durham, NC, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Special Forces: A Guided Tour of U.S. Army Special Forces (Paperback)

I should have known when I noticed in the store that this book lacked an index, that I should have put it back on the shelf. The omission of an index in what is purportedly an information resource is generally a bad omen, as illustrated by this book.

The book feels rushed and half-hearted. The information included, whether on weapons systems or unit history is spotty, at best, and missing or incorrect at worst. Delta, which admittedly is not officially operational, rates only a single, offhanded mention. There is a definite biased slant towards Army Special Forces at the expense of other branches, and while it would be expected if this were written by an USASOC denizen, it is inappropriate and unprofessionial in this context.

The photos are grainy and rather oddly chosen and the use of black and white printing, presumably to save money, shows a sincere lack of attention when the book shows different SF unit badges as uniformly gray patches.

This book pales when compared to earlier efforts like Marine or Carrier and comes across as a quickly produced reaction to growing interest in U.S. Special Operations.