Customer Reviews

Special Forces: A Guided Tour of U.S. Army Special Forces

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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"?

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.

Special Forces could be a great book, however Clancy's style of writing is not suited to non-fiction as much as it is to fiction. He tends to let his points of view\arguments come forward in an poor way (an example being his use of the word stupid a number of times) and is sometimes overawed by what he sees. Moreover, he does go a litle overboard with the acronyms, which can interfere with the presentation nof information and clutters the flow of reading. The book's strongpoint lies in the information it does posess after the reader strips away all the p.o.v's, acronyms and bracketed text. The photographs are good, however the point of showing unit emblems and some other photos are lost as they are printed in greyscale. While this is the last in his series of "tours," lets hope that maybe a revision could be in the works that would make it easier to read.

This book was clearly not written by Tom Clancy. It was very difficult to read and follow after the first 150 pages. The book had so many abbreviations it was confusing. This would have been a better read if it were condensed to about 100 pages. It was informative, but it was too detailed. It reads more like a traing manual. The mini novel at the end was very entertaining.

This is another of the series of books (e.g. the Op Center series) in which Clancy adds his name to something largely written by somebody else. Whatever his faults as a stylist (and I like his work when its actually his), Clancy knows how to write in an interesting way. This has not rubbed off on his co-conspiritors. No insult to Mr. Gresham (the actual author of most of the book) who is apparently just doing as he was told, but this book adds nothing to the already considerable number of titles on special operations. Its treatment of the topic is often superficial and the writing is no better than pedestrian. If you know absoloutely nothing about US Special Forces this book might be an OK place to start but otherwise I'd look for another of the many treatments of the subject.

The thing I kept thinking when I read this book was -- why does Tom Clancy put his name on this? It was very obvious through the whole thing that his research assistant did all the travel, research, and probably wrote everything, too. Is Tom Clancy just a brand now, and not really an author? I wish they would explain that better.

And as other reviewers have mentioned, it seemed awfully "patched together" with no flow between the force descriptions, travelogues, and the mini novel in the back.

The book has a lot of info about the Army Special Forces ("Green Berets") and what their specific role is in realm of special forces. I definitely understand a lot more about how SF teams work, think, and act.

It was NOT one of those books I "couldn't put down" I found myself wanting to finish it and just get the info. After reading it, I understand a lot better about how the special forces operate.

The mini-novel at the back was kind of weak. It was just a quick fictionalized example of all the info in the rest of the book. That felt pretty thrown together, too.

Having just completed SF selection, I sat down with this book to find out more about my future training and assignments. It was the second time I made the mistake of buying a book because it said "Tom Clancy" on the cover, only to find it poorly written and not completely accurate. After the first few chapters, I started to skim through the rest, picking out the interesting parts. I was glad to see that the author had apparently included a visit to a team in Bosnia, since I plan to work in that part of the world. Imagine my surprise to read that the visit was cancelled. Why did he even mention Bosnia if he had nothing to say about it? Why didn't he make a plan to go again? Or interview people who had done SF business there in the past? If you're looking for a quality book written by Tom Clancy, this isn't it. As far as I can tell, Clancy's contribution starts with the front cover and ends with the introduction. The book has some useful information, but there are a lot of better books (more informative, better researched, and better written) out there.

This book seems more like a concantenation of other books. With the exception of the interview and the organization outline, the book's contents are summaries of other books on SF. If one wants in depth coverage they should get Simmons', Waller's, and/or the Power Series' books on SF. Another problem with this book is that it is often more of a list rather than discussion or narration. Many of one paragraph summaries exists and are highly insufficient. Lastly, it talks way too much about SF's parent organizations such as SOCOM and Army SOC rather than SF itself, with the added over-praising already metioned by other reviewers. You won't gain much knowledge of SF through this book.

An in-depth, accurate and immensely readable work. Possibly the best in the series. Particularly insightful and valuable reading for anyone interested in the special ops community, although it focuses almost entirely on Army Special Forces. My only problem with the book is that it repeats a great deal of information (especially regarding the roles and missions) and the "mini-novel" wasn't very good. Otherwise outstanding. If you interested, also check out "The Company They Keep" and "In Search of the Warrior Spirit"