Overview

"An experienced Pentagon correspondent for Newsweek reveals the excruciating training and dangerous missions of America's elite fighting forces, including the Navy SEALs and Delta Force, following them into battle in Desert Storm. From Hell Week to hell on earth, they go where no one else dares, kill with precision, and pull off daring attack, rescue, and reconnaissance missions. What kind of man becomes a secret warrior--a Navy SEAL, Delta Force ranger, Army Green Beret, or Air Force special op pilot? For the first time, veteran Newsweek reporter Douglas Waller takes you inside this secret, elite world, from the SEALs' legendary Hell Week, where trainees get four hours of sleep in five days of body-and-mind-breaking drills--to an electronics-jammed Pave Low, the most sophisticated helicopter in the world. Then he follows the Commandos into the action--in never-before-revealed Desert Storm battle scenes, where U.S. Special Forces waged Scud-busting night missions, behind-the-lines firefights, and some of the most unconventional and dangerous missions in the history of war. Praise for The Commandos ""Compelling . . . hair-raising . . . wonderfully detailed.""--Los Angeles Times ""Superior . . . vivid portraits of truly original figures.""--Booklist ""Throughly researched and exquisitely woven into a fast-paced story . . . in vitage thriller fashion.""--The Friday Review of Defense Literature"

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9780440220466

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Reviews

Compelling . . . hair-raising . . . wonderfully detailed. --Los Angeles Times Superior . . . vivid portraits of truly original figures. --Booklist Throughly researched and exquisitely woven into a fast-paced story . . . in vitage thriller fashion. --The Friday Review of Defense Literature

"""Compelling . . . hair-raising . . . wonderfully detailed.""--Los Angeles Times ""Superior . . . vivid portraits of truly original figures.""--Booklist ""Throughly researched and exquisitely woven into a fast-paced story . . . in vitage thriller fashion.""--The Friday Review of Defense Literature"

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. (Kirkus Reviews)

Compelling . . . hair-raising . . . wonderfully detailed. --Los Angeles Times Superior . . . vivid portraits of truly original figures. --Booklist Throughly researched and exquisitely woven into a fast-paced story . . . in vitage thriller fashion. --The Friday Review of Defense Literature

Author Information

Douglas C. Waller is a lecturer, author, and veteran correspondent. Before joining Newsweek in 1988, he worked as a legislative assistant for Senator William Proxmire and Representative Edward J. Markey. From 1994 to 2007, Waller served in Time magazine's Washington bureau as a correspondent. He has authored or coauthored nine books including The Commandos: The Inside Story of America's Secret Soldiers and Wild Bill Donovan: The Spymaster Who Created the OSS and Modern American Espionage. Waller earned a BA in English from Wake Forest University and an MA in urban administration from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with his wife, Judy.

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