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Charlie A. Beckwith
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Delta Force: The Army's Elite Counterterrorist Unit Paperback – May 18, 2000

by Charlie A. Beckwith (Author), Donald Knox (Author), C. A. Mobley (Epilogue)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 1,473 ratings
See all formats and editions
Chronicles the history of America's secret counterterrorist unit, tells how members are recruited and trained, and explains its key role in the Iran hostage rescue mission. Reissue.
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  1. Print length
    365 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    William Morrow Paperbacks
  4. Publication date
    May 18, 2000
  5. Dimensions
    4.19 x 0.96 x 6.75 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0380809397
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0380809394
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Delta Force, considered the equivalent of SEAL Team 6, are far more tight-lipped than the SEALs.” — New York Times

“Delta Force is arguably the most effective fighting unit in the world.” — Washington Post

“Absolutely compelling...nations without men like this simply don’t survive.” — The Wall Street Journal

“The Army’s most elite commando unit.” — Los Angeles Times

“A page turner. ... Hard to put down. ... One of those rare books that military people will annotate and underline and hesitate ever to lend out. ... Beckwith’s candor is extraordinary.” — Armed Forces Journal

About the Author

U.S. Army Colonel Charles A. Beckwith was the founderand first commanding officer of Delta Force. For his service,he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star,Legion of Merit, and Purple Heart. He is interred in the FortSam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ William Morrow Paperbacks; Reissue edition (May 18, 2000)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 365 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0380809397
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0380809394
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.19 x 0.96 x 6.75 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 1,473 ratings

About the author

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Charlie A. Beckwith

Charlie A. Beckwith

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U.S. Army Colonel Charles A. Beckwith was the founder and first commanding officer of Delta Force. For his service, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, Legion of Merit, and Purple Heart. He is interred in the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
1,473 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book easy to read and enjoyable. It provides good insights into the development of Delta Force and its history. The story is fascinating and informative, detailing the trials and tribulations the unit went through. Readers appreciate the well-written, no-nonsense language and the author's experience as a decorated veteran. They describe the characters as strong and relatable.

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Select to learn more
ReadabilityInformation qualityStory qualityWriting qualityCharacter development
100 customers mention "Readability"100 positive0 negative

Customers find the book enjoyable and readable. They appreciate the first-person account and amazing work. The book is described as cheap entertainment.

"A very good book. A great true story about Army life." Read more

"...Force was officially formed where Charlie did some of his best, most amazing work...." Read more

"...Hours, and days and months of repetition. (This super marksmanship probably explains why Delta Force dropped the .45-cal pistol from their inventory..." Read more

"...details were (and are) likely still classified, the first person account is still worth the read...." Read more

51 customers mention "Information quality"46 positive5 negative

Customers find the book provides good insight into the development of Delta Force. They appreciate the fascinating details about the twists and turns Beckwith endured to start up the organization. The book gives readers a fair idea of the work, pain, frustrations, and so forth of the organization. It provides a comprehensive background of the origins of Delta Force and the challenges involved.

"...The book describes in fascinating detail the twists and turns Beckwith endured to start up the still secret Delta Force...." Read more

"...Not only is it interesting from the perspective of learning how Delta Force came into being, but the breadth and depth of the way the operators are..." Read more

"...Beckwith. The book itself is quite interesting and filled with political intrigue and military action...." Read more

"...of his rank and the role he played in this story, you get a high level overview instead of the view from an operator on the ground..." Read more

47 customers mention "Story quality"42 positive5 negative

Customers enjoy the story. They find it fascinating, informative, and an excellent piece of history that shows how the military works on the inside. The book details the trials and tribulations that were went through to create one of our Tier 1 forces. It is a great true story about Army life and an epic tale of a man driven to realize his vision for an SAS-like elite force.

"A very good book. A great true story about Army life." Read more

"...The story is fascinating mostly for its demonstration of the large institutional roadblocks thrown in the way of those leading new initiatives...." Read more

"One of the most interesting stories I've ever read...." Read more

"Wonderful story, well written and loads of history. An amazing tale of how one man literally shaped and changed the Army!" Read more

31 customers mention "Writing quality"25 positive6 negative

Customers appreciate the book's writing quality. They find it well-written and informative, with a no-nonsense style. The writing is also appreciated as it was written by an experienced veteran.

"Wonderful story, well written and loads of history. An amazing tale of how one man literally shaped and changed the Army!" Read more

"...What I enjoyed about this book is it is well written, shows the author has a sense of humor, and most of the entire trip down Memory Lane...." Read more

"This book was well written and really went into detail about all the hurdles that had to be overcome to create our US Army Delta Force. Good read!!" Read more

"...Written in a no-nonsense language, the book is a very entertaining read and also brings to light the hierarchy of the US Armed Forces and the..." Read more

18 customers mention "Character development"18 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the character development in the book. They find the characters strong and dedicated. The book provides an insight into the personalities involved and their proclivity for military service. Readers also mention the dedication of the men and their ability to overcome bureaucracy.

"...Great book, great read, and Colonel Beckwith is a true hero. Thank you, Sir." Read more

"...Beckwith is definitely a strong personality who does not compromise...." Read more

"...It was extremely interesting the blood and sweat Colonel Beckwith had gone through to develop Delta Force to become a force to be reckoned with...." Read more

"A great book written by a true warrior. Once I started reading the book, I had to finish it...." Read more

Great book - Damaged in shipping‼️
3 out of 5 stars
Great book - Damaged in shipping‼️
Bought these 3 copies as gifts for friends of mine who were in SF … one of the covers was bent back - I can’t give this one.These should have been shipped in a vac instead of the paper bags.Disappointed.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Kindle Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars They were all great Americans.
    Reviewed in the United States on October 9, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    A very good book. A great true story about Army life.
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  • ArtForever
    5.0 out of 5 stars So much more to Charlie that hasn't been told...
    Reviewed in the United States on August 20, 2012
    Verified Purchase
    Charlies book is in route as we speak.My husband had the honor of serving under Charlie back in Vietnam so we're waiting with great anticipation to read this.
    It is factual that Charlie had to deal with a lot of red tape political bs to get certain projects( jobs) done.There was a period of time before Delta Force was officially formed where Charlie did some of his best, most amazing work.Some might term it as "Black Ops" as at the time it was a highly secretive mission involving saving the lives of thousands of trafficked children in South East Asia during the Vietnam war.These children aged 3 to teen years were taken away from their families & kidnapped from their villages by traffickers.They were treated worse than any animal in captivity. They were held in underground dirt pits in isolated areas of the jungle,starved and abused in ways sexually by their captors that we as civilized people can't comprehend even in our worst nightmares.
    I've been told that it was a horrific scene & no government was up to dealing with at the time.Charlie, a father himself wanted to do something about it.He took this task on willingly despite the fact that initially he got zero cooperation from the higher ups.He found a way somehow to get this project up & running with a group of 5 specially selected young men pulled from various military branches. They were named "The Angel Girls" and my husband was one of them being the youngest member. To anyone who complains about having to read through Charlies distaste with having to deal with the knuckleheads in government, he wasn't being a whiner nor was he making any of that up.It must have been hugely frustrating to see horrific injustices being perpetrated on innocent victims,the inadvertent casualties of wartime and not be able to help. Despite whatever obstacles he faced the project did come to fruition & justice was served to those who deserved it.The lives of thousands of children in southeast Asia were saved.Most importantly Charlie made sure that each & every child was returned to his her or her village back into the arms of their grateful parents.Some folks want to only talk about what happened with Charlie & what appeared to be an unsuccessful mission under Jimmy Carter but honestly but I'm not going to let Charlie go down like that.Charlie wasn't one to brag about all of the amazing, wonderful things that he was involved in, that wasn't his style.I will tell you this, by all accounts Charlie Beckwith was a true American hero,a good man deserving of respect and honor.
    26 people found this helpful
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  • Tom Holzel
    4.0 out of 5 stars How to sell the Army a new idea
    Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2006
    Verified Purchase
    "Delta Force" should be required reading for every ambitious careerist working for a large organization. Wearing camo fatigues or gray-flannel suit, this fine treatise tells the ambitious what it takes to get things done in a large organization--in this case, the largest organization-the U.S. Army. And what it takes is a very smart, relentlessly driven maverick, just what these organizations abhor. Maverick General Billy Mitchell was court-marshaled for proving to the Navy that one aircraft could take out the fleet's largest ship.

    Col. Charlie Beckwith is that other maverick, famous for his vision, tenacity and executive drive. He recognized, as legions of far higher-ranked "planners" did not, that the U.S. military had a huge hole in its capabilities. That hole was how to deal quickly with terrorist and other small-unit irregular trouble-makers. The tortuous chain of command alone for SEALS and other Special Ops organizations prevents them for responding quickly to emergency situations, such as an aircraft high jacking, where every minute counts. And that same tortuous chain is also replete with know-it-all desk jockeys, anxious, willing and able to add their two cents worth of directives to an operation. By the time permission is received, the plan has become monstrous (with each branch of service jealously demanding a piece of the action), and it is far too late. The plane has either long since taken off or been blown-up and the hostages killed.

    The book describes in fascinating detail the twists and turns Beckwith endured to start up the still secret Delta Force. It lists name, rank and serial number of the Generals who did everything in their power to prevent what they saw only as poaching on their hallowed turf, even as they refused to admit they could not possibly handle the tasks Delta set out to achieve. And what an inventory of skills the Delta boys developed. Primary among them is deadly accuracy with any firearm under any situation. Sound impossible? Not when you consider the time spent training in realistic live-fire situations. Hours, and days and months of repetition. (This super marksmanship probably explains why Delta Force dropped the .45-cal pistol from their inventory and switched to the less-deadly 9mm. Every shooter knows that nothing stops a man in his tracks like the wallop of a .45. But those shells are large and limit a pistol's capacity. With their incredible accuracy, any round passing through the eye socket of a perpetrator will get the job done. So they might as well use the smaller round and have more of them to shoot.

    Some will gripe that this book proves the U.S. Military is an incompetent dinosaur with the reflexes of sloth in winter. But the subtext is that Beckwith did effect change. The military did listen, and the military did act. Delta Force exists now as-along with the British SAS from which it was copied-the finest small-unit antiterrorist force in the world.
    24 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • badr h.
    5.0 out of 5 stars Pretty cool, cool details and "background" history of beckwith's experiences with the british
    Reviewed in Canada on October 16, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    I didnt have time to finish it yet, I am at approximately 20% of the book, but I can already tell you that this is a very much worth it book. If you are on the fence, let me be witness that it is a good book tbh.
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  • Matthias
    5.0 out of 5 stars Vom Anfang der Top-Einheit
    Reviewed in Germany on March 21, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    Über die Anfänge, die komplizierte Planung und den Aufbau eine Spezialeinheit, welche Weltruhm erlangen sollte.
    Sehr fesselnd geschrieben, mit einer Menge interessanter Details.
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  • Burnio
    5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 14, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    A great read. A no-nonsense insight into one of the best Special Forces units in the world. The effort and sacrifices made to create the unit is staggering. Those people that stood in the way should be embarrassed!
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  • S.M.
    4.0 out of 5 stars Le témoignage du fondateur de la Delta Force
    Reviewed in France on April 17, 2011
    Verified Purchase
    La Delta Force (de son vrai nom 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta ou 1st SFOD-D) est une des principales unités américaines dédiées aux missions spéciales ou secrètes. C'est la principale unité anti-terroriste de l'armée américaine. Elle assure en fait une grande variété de missions, y compris parmi les plus clandestines.

    Ce livre raconte la naissance de cette unité spéciale, de la plume même de son fondateur, Charles Beckwith, qui finira sa carrière dans l'armée américaine avec le grade de colonel. Beckwith a d'abord servi dans l'infanterie, avant d'intégrer les troupes aéroportées américaines puis les forces spéciales. Il est conseiller militaire au Sud-Viêtnam dès 1960. Beckwith participe également à un programme d'échange avec le 22 SAS Regiment britannique, dont il prendra le meilleur pour créer la Delta Force. Il participe d'ailleurs avec les SAS à la campagne anti-insurrectionnelle contre les communistes en Malaisie, pendant laquelle il contracte une leptospirose, qui lui est presque fatale. Beckwith rentre ensuite aux Etats-Unis et écrit de nombreux rapports pour promouvoir la création d'une unité sur le modèle des SAS au sein de l'armée américaine, sans succès. Devenu officier opérations du 7th Special Forces Group, il révolutionnaire l'entraînement de l'unité en mettant l'accent sur la formation conventionnelle du Béret Vert et non sur la guerre non-conventionnelle et la formation d'unités militaires au sein de pays amis, comme c'était le cas jusque là. Au Viêtnam, Beckwith commande le groupe des Special Forces baptisé Projet-DELTA, destiné à opérer des reconnaissances en profondeur dans le territoire vietcong, des opérations d'assassinat ou de sabotage, de collecte de renseignements, etc. A nouveau blessé, il prend ensuite part aux Etats-Unis à l'entraînement de l'US Army Ranger School, le transformant à partir de son expérience au Viêtnam. Après l'offensive du Têt, en 1968, Beckwith prend la tête d'un bataillon de la 101st Airborne Division qu'il mène dans de nombreuses opérations de combat. A son retour aux Etats-Unis, il prend la tête d'un programme d'entraînement à Fort Bragg, en Caroline du Nord.

    Beckwith, cependant, n'a toujours pas été entendu par l'armée américaine dans son souhait de création d'une unité d'élite destinée à opérer sur les coups durs de manière très autonome. Il va falloir la nouvelle menace posée par le terrorisme international, dans les années 70, pour que ses arguments soient pris en compte. La Delta Force est créée en novembre 1977 avec une vocation anti-terroriste, d'opérations spéciales et de reconnaissance spécialisée. Sa première mission se termine malheureusement sur un échec tragique : Eagle Claw, l'opération commandée par le président Carter pour libérer les otages américains en Iran le 24 avril 1980, s'achève avant même d'avoir commencée en raison de pertes liées à des accidents d'appareils de transport dans l'opération. C'est après cette débâcle dans le désert iranien que fut formé le 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, destiné à transporter la Delta Force et les autres unités spéciales américaines. Le Joint Special Operations Command, un organisme de coordination et de planification des opérations spéciales, fut aussi créé sur recommandation de Beckwith au moment des investigations du Sénat pour expliquer l'échec de l'opération Eagle Claw.

    Voici un témoignage de première main sur la Delta Force qui se lit comme un roman, étant donné que le colonel Beckwith cherche à vanter les mérites de son unité. La partie consacrée à l'échec de l'opération Eagle Claw est pourtant très intéressante. L'épilogue revient sur les missions et les composantes actuelles de l'unité (en 2000). Une source primaire à compléter par des travaux plus secondaires.
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  • Myriam63660
    3.0 out of 5 stars bon livre
    Reviewed in France on November 10, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    Bon livre, la partie sur les soucis bureaucratiques de la création de la delta force est un peu longue
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