The Guerrilla Factory: The Making of Special Forces Officers, the Green Berets - Hardcover

Schwalm, Tony

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1451623607 ISBN 13: 9781451623604

Publisher: Free Press, 2012

Synopsis

For the first time, an insider takes readers deep into the grueling training that every Army officer must endure to become one of America’s elite Green Berets.

THE NAVY HAS THE SEALS, and the Army has the Green Berets. They are masters of asymmetrical warfare, trained to immerse themselves in hostile territory, sleeping near their enemies and building relationships with people who may want to kill them. Retired lieutenant colonel Tony Schwalm knows this group well, because he is one of them and he trained them. In The Guerrilla Factory, he provides an unbelievably gripping inside look into the grueling training that every Army officer must endure to become one of America’s elite Green Berets.

The Special Forces Qualification Course, also known as the Q Course, is infamous in U.S. Army lore. It transforms conventional soldiers, through blood, sweat, and tears, into unconventional guerrillas. As a young soldier, Schwalm earned his own Green Beret there. Later, he was the commander of Special Forces officer training at Fort Bragg, evaluating and redesigning the crucible in which leaders face brutal tests of physical strength, stamina, and wits. The Guerrilla Factory is the engaging and compelling story of Schwalm’s experience there as a student (from selection to graduation) and his time as the commander of training at Fort Bragg. It is a story of young soldiers striving to become the elite of the elite—of their trials, physical and emotional, and of their triumphs and losses.

In this dramatic account of the challenges faced by these young soldiers, Schwalm describes how men are forced to demonstrate ingenuity under intensely adverse conditions as they are pushed to the point of hallucination, walk until their feet are bloody, and fight off packs of angry dogs with nothing but a rubber rifle. Soldiers today face an entirely different kind of warfare and must be schooled to deal with unusual circumstances. They must have intricate knowledge of how to gather information in a dangerous, unstable atmosphere, and they need to be able to adapt quickly to differences in their surroundings. Schwalm’s book takes readers deep into this world, showing exactly how soldiers acquire the necessary skills.

Revealing details never before shared outside military circles, Schwalm provides a rare and rousing look inside the courageous hearts and souls of soldiers who put their lives on the line for duty, honor, and our country.

About this title

About the Author

Tony Schwalm is a retired lieutenant colonel with the US Army Special Forces (aka the Green Berets). A veteran of multiple combat deployments around the world, he is currently assigned to the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force—Afghanistan as a Department of the Army Civilian leading a group of social scientists supporting special operation forces in that war-torn country.

Reviews

When America needed a significant military response, especially after 9/11, Schwalm says the first line of security against terror was the warriors of counterinsurgency warfare, the U.S. Army Special Forces, i.e., the Green Berets. The author, a retired lieutenant colonel with the Green Berets who terms these Special Forces soldiers  supermen without equal in the world, details their rigorous training to be killing machines,  beginning with his own difficult passage through the qualification,, or Q, course, at Ft. Bragg, N.C.. Schwalm details the harsh, even brutal contests of physical endurance, will, and tactical resourcefulness of the grunts, driving some soldiers to quit or feign injury to get out of the training. Schwalm himself served as commander of Special Forces officer training, acknowledging the importance of battle-tested guerrilla troops ready for multiple combat deployments throughout the world, including Iraq and Afghanistan. Forged by experience and headline events from flashpoints around the world, Schwalm's insider perspective on the training for unconventional warfare gives his book a fresh, authentic voice. Agent: James Hornfischer. (Nov.)

Edition details

• Publisher: Free Press
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1451623607
• ISBN 13: 9781451623604
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304