COMMANDOS The Making of America's Secret Soldiers, from Training to Desert Storm

Offering inside details of the U.S. special operations forces, a Newsweek journalist gives a behind-the-scenes look at the most secret and elite of clandestine warriors, including Green Berets, Navy SEALs, and Delta Force. 35,000 first printing. $30,000 ad/promo.

Despite General Schwarzkopf's reluctance to employ them, more than 7000 U.S. special-operations personnel took part in Desert Storm. Waller, a Newsweek reporter, describes an Air Force special-ops helicopter raid that knocked out early-warning radar in Iraq, a Navy SEAL mission on Kuwait's coastline that pinned down two Iraqi divisions, a deep-penetration mission into Iraq by Green Beret teams and the destruction of Scud missiles by Delta Force commandos. There is also a chapter on the contribution of the Army's 4th Psychological Operations Group, which dropped tons of propaganda leaflets that purportedly prompted the surrender of thousands of Iraqi soldiers. Waller argues convincingly that Schwarzkopf, the theater commander, bypassed many opportunities to deploy special-ops forces effectively during the Gulf War, and ascribes his reluctance in large part to the U.S. high command's traditional distrust of "elite" troops. Based on interviews with some 200 members of the special-operations community and his observation of its training methods, Waller has written a revealing, involving appraisal of the nation's most highly trained and specialized soldiers. Photos. First serial to Newsweek; Military Book Club main selection.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From a Newsweek correspondent who's seen them in action on a number of fronts: an absorbing and informative briefing on the American military's elite but covert forces Drawing mainly on personal observations and interviews with over 200 of the roughly 46,000 soldiers, sailors, and airmen who comprise the US Special Operations Command, Waller focuses on four outfits--the Army's Delta Force and Green Berets, the Navy's SEALs, and the so-called cowboys who fly the Pave Low helicopters that, among other missions impossible, put commando units where they have to be by day or night. While he went along on the rigorous, realistic field exercises many such cadres employ to separate the men from the boys, the fortysomething author was obliged to tap retired veterans and the precious few manuals that are publicly available for insights on how Delta Force screens and trains its counterterrorist and hostage-rescue squads. Even so, Waller offers vivid accounts of what America's shadow warriors (the disciplined latter-day equivalents of WW II's apocryphal dirty dozens) are prepared to do and what they have done in the post-cold war era. Cases in point range from the 1989 breakout of a US businessman from a Panama City prison through a host of reconnaissance forays, airborne raids, and diversionary feints behind Iraqi lines during Desert Storm. Covered as well are the turf battles unconventional troops must fight with the Pentagon's establishment, which regards them as an alien element in the nation's arsenal. An evenhanded appreciation of special forces and their varied roles in a Global Village that, despite the USSR's collapse, falls well short of being a peaceable kingdom. (First serial to Newsweek; Main Selection of the Military Book Club) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

An experienced Pentagon correspondent has produced this superior, up-to-date history of U.S. special operations units. Waller emphasizes special forces and the SEALs, providing exceptionally valuable and complete accounts of their training. He goes on to describe, in comparable detail and with both balance and insight, their rather spotty record in Panama and their much better coordinated and more effective efforts in the Persian Gulf. Interspersed with these narrative portions are vivid portraits of the truly original figures who make up such a large part of any special operations team and accounts of these figures' ongoing difficulties with interservice coordination and hostility from more conventional (usually more senior) military leaders. Roland Green

Waller ( Congress and the Nuclear Freeze , LJ 6/1/87) attacks his new subject with impunity. The OSS played a heroic role during World War II. The Green Berets have been vilified as the Vietnam War's loose cannons. What of todays's commando types? Did they measure up during Desert Storm? In a dynamite prologue, Waller drops the reader along with eight Green Berets behind Iraqi lines gathering intelligence: the eight stand off a reinforced Iraqi infantry company until extracted by helicopters. A chapter each is invested in illustrating the stringent training and selection procedures Green Berets, SEALS, Delta Force, and Pave Low pilots undergo. The book's second half deals with Desert Storm. Waller argues that the Special Forces remain too politically sensitive for their deployment to be left in the military's hands; their role, as ever, must confine them to the shadows. Highly recommended for modern military collections.
- Richard Paul Snyder, Cty. of Los Angeles P.L., Lakewood
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.