Special Forces: A Guided Tour of U.S. Army Special Forces
by Tom Clancy, John Gresham (Contributor), William P. Yarborough

Amazon.com
The seventh in a series of books by Tom Clancy offering in-depth "tours" of the U.S. military, Special Forces surveys the soldiers who "are perhaps America's most professional and capable warriors." Who are they? They are the men--and only men, for women are not allowed to become SF soldiers--who are "specially selected, specially trained, specially equipped, and given special missions and support." The Army Special Forces--known to much of the public as Green Berets--are often the first troops on the scene in a crisis. They're also incredibly versatile: "If you're looking for a Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger, don't expect to find them in today's Army Special Forces." That's because specialized missions--involving anything from psychological operations meant to undermine enemy morale to guerilla warfare in remote jungles--require flexibility. "Specialized missions (paradoxically) require a broad range of general capabilities and skills," which means SF soldiers, "while physically fit, tend to be more balanced (like triathletes) than specialized (like marathoners and weightlifters)."

Clancy and his coauthor, John Gresham, describe how SF soldiers are recruited, trained, and assigned. There are plenty of interesting notes about SF culture: They don't especially like being called "Green Berets," for instance, even though most units carry a copy of the John Wayne movie The Green Berets in their traveling video libraries. They are typically in their 30s, divorced and remarried, intelligent, interested in the news, and able to speak more than one language. There are also lots of details on weaponry, chronicles of training missions, and plenty of maps and pictures. The book ends with a fictionalized account of an SF mission in 2005 and 2006.

Special Forces is replete with Clancy's tough-guy prose: "The overall media presentation of the Army Special Forces has generally been one of contrived crap." And the book is essentially a celebration of a premier fighting force, rather than a critical treatment of it. But this is not necessarily a weakness. Special Forces will appeal to anybody interested in the modern military, and it may bring civilians closer than they'll ever come to these important troops. --John J. Miller

Buy this book

America's Special Forces : Weapons, Missions, Training
by David Bohrer

Reviewer: A reader from New Jersey, United States
If you are among the many interested in the Military, specifically Special Operations, then you will definately love this book. This is one of the newest books on Special Operations (1998). It covers, in detail, the roles/missions of the Navy Seals, Army Rangers, Army Green Berets, Air Force PJ's and CCTs and Special Ops aircraft, and last but not least, Marine Force Recon. The book has the BEST pictures. If you looking to make Special Operations a future career plan, then this book will help. Furturemore, I was surprised that such a book even gave information on Air Force CCT's and PJ's, because they are not as known as SEAL's, and I haven't seen that many books that covered them. This proves how much research went into making this book.

Buy this book

Shadow Warriors : Inside the Special Forces
by Tom Clancy, Carl Steiner, Carl Stiner (Contributor)

Book Description
In his first two Commanders books, Tom Clancy teamed with armor and infantry General Fred Franks, Jr., and Air Force General Chuck Horner to provide masterful blends of history, biography, you-are-there narrative, insight into the practice of leadership, and plain old-fashioned storytelling. Shadow Warriors is all of that, and more, for in the words of Lieutenant General Bill Yarborough, "There are itches that only Special Forces can scratch."

The training, resourcefulness, and creativity of the SF soldier make him capable of jobs that few other soldiers could handle, in situations where traditional arms and movement don't apply. Carl Stiner was only the second commander of SOCOM, the U.S. Special Operations Command, responsible for the readiness of all the Special Operations forces of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, including the Green Berets, Navy SEALS, Rangers, Delta Force, Air Force Special Operations, PsyOps, and Civil Affairs.

Together, he and Clancy trace the transformation of the Special Forces from the small core of outsiders of the 1950s through the cauldron of Vietnam and to the rebirth of the SF in the late 1980s and 1990s as the bearer of the largest, most mixed, and most complex set of missions in the U.S. military. From Vietnam and Laos to Panama and El Salvador to Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iraq, these are stories of raids, counterterrorism, hostage rescues, reconaissance, counterinsurgency and psychological operations-and also of building settlements, teaching civilians, cleaning up water supplies, and saving lives. It is a front-row seat to a man, an institution, and a way both of war and peace that together make this an instant classic of military history.

Buy this book

U.S. Army Special Forces (Power Series)
by Fred J. Pushies

Buy this book

Delta Force : The Army's Elite Counterterrorist Unit
by Charlie A. Beckwith, Donald Knox

Book Description
The only insider's account ever written on America's most powerful weapon in the war against terrorism.

Buy this book

He Who Dares : Recollections of Service in the Sas, Sbs and Mi5 (Special Warfare Series)
by David Sutherland

Book Description
It is surprising that with the passing of more than fifty years there are any firsthand accounts left of World War II that are worth the telling, but there is no question David Sutherland's is. His extraordinary experiences with three British special operations agencies rank high as true adventure stories. Much of the action deals with his participation in Special Boat Service operations with Greek resistance fighters in the Aegean Sea, raiding airfields on the German-held islands. Sutherland details his profound and lasting admiration for the Greek resistance fighters, whose support risked not just their lives but those of their families and entire villages. His postwar service with Britain's foreign intelligence service, MI5, covered twenty-five years of the Cold War, the highlights of which are chronicled here. A prime player in wartime special warfare, Sutherland offers a thrilling story that adds significantly to the historical record.

Buy this book

The Sas Fighting Techniques Handbook

Book Description
The SAS Fighting Techniques Handbook brings an insider's eye to the most secretive and demanding military techniques used by the SAS (Special Air Service - England's equivalent of the United States Special Forces). Written by a former special-forces commando, this fully illustrated book reveals the amazing tricks of their trade. Each technique or skill is an essential part of the SAS Playbook to dealing with dangerous situations and has been previously unavailable to the public.

Learn: survival, evasion, resistance, and escape techniques; how to use the sun's shadow to determine time and location; how to board an aircraft at 130 mph; personal camouflage; how to read footprints in the field; reconnaissance techniques for all environments - beach, woods, jungle; essentials for a SAS survival pack; how to find food and adequate shelter in hostile environments; how to enter a submerged submarine; how to avoid being tracked; how to get your bearings without a compass; and much, much more!

Buy this book

Sas : Special Forces in Action
by Stephen Bull

Book Description
The hostage rescue at the Iranian Embassy in London on May 5, 1980 established Britain’s Special Air Service as the world’s premier special forces unit. While that single incident has had a tremendous influence on the world’s SWAT teams and counter-terror units, urban operations is but one of many SAS capabilities. All members of the regiment are trained in airborne and amphibious landings, can operate in virtually any terrain and climate, speak several languages and have a thorough knowledge of the world’s firearms and explosives.

As with all British units, their traditions are important to the SAS. The origins of the unit, thoroughly covered here, go back to the desert raiders of World War II and continue through later operations in Malaya, Aden, the Falklands and the Persian Gulf. All of the weapons, equipment, and active operations of the Special Air Service are described in detail with the aid of numerous color and black-and-white photos, paintings and drawings.

Buy this book

The Sas Encyclopedia
by Steve Crawford

Britain's Special Air Service is the most famous special forces unit in the world. This definitive and unique account of every aspect of this world-famous formation lists the battles and campaigns, weapons and equipment, training, tactics, and every single operation that SAS soldiers have taken part in up to the present day. With the aid of hundreds of color and black-and-white photos, the majority taken by SAS soldiers on campaign, this volume provides a stunning illustrative record of all the SAS's wars. The photos are complemented by a highly researched text that recounts all the Regiment's history in full. December '98 publication date.

Buy this book

Sas Secret War
by Tony Jeapes

Buy this book

The Warrior Elite : The Forging of Seal Class 228

Book Description
NAVY SEALS ARE THE TIP OF THE SPEAR.
They are able to strike without warning, anywhere, anytime. They come from under the sea, out of the air, and across the land. Their predecesesors, the Navy frogmen, cleared the landing beaches during World War II, from Normandy to Okinawa. They led MacArthur’s forces ashore at Inchon. In Vietnam, SEALs were the men with green faces who struck the Vietcong in their sanctuaries. Today they are deployed around the world -- ready, waiting, lethal.

What does it take to become a Navy SEAL? What makes talented, intelligent young men volunteer for physical punishment, cold water, and days without sleep? Why is the price of admission to this unique warrior culture so steep? In The Warrior Elite, former Navy SEAL Dick Couch documents the process that transforms young men into warriors. SEAL training is the longest, toughest, most relentless military training in the free world. It is the distillation of the human spirit, a tradition-bound ordeal that seeks to find men of character and courage, men with a burning desire to win at all costs, men who would rather die than quit.

The book follows the trainees of Class 228 as they struggle through the twenty-seven-week Basic Underwater DemolitionSeal (BUDS) training course at the Navy Special Warfare Training Center in Coronado, California. Only one in five will be left standing at the end of this brutal ordeal, a rite of passage that is but one step in the long road to becoming a SEAL. Few men have the character or stamina that allows them to keep going while others give in to the pain and the cold. The Warrior Elite reveals who these men are, where they come from, and what makes them so special.

Buy this book

The United State Navy SEALs Workout Guide : The Exercises and Fitness Programs Used by the U.S. Navy SEALS and Bud's Training

Book Description
The Navy SEAL workout regime is legendary as the most rigorous in the world. Now, a veteran SEAL instructor shows how anyone can use SEAL exercises to attain peak physical condition.Packed with more than 150 photographs of Navy SEALS performing each of the exercises, The United States Navy SEALs Workout Guide takes the reader step by step through the entire training regimen. Every aspect of the SEAL workout is here: warm-ups and cool-downs, stretching, running, swimming, nutrition, and motivation, exercises tailored for different climates, plus the SEALS' extensive nine-week and twelve-week training programs. Included are anecdotes from SEALS themselves about missions that tested the limits of their physical capacity in combat.A comprehensive fitness plan with proven results, The United States Navy SEALs Workout Guide is the source book on how obtain the world famous SEAL physique.

About the Author
Dennis Chalker, until recently a Command Master Chief for Navy SEALs and BUDIS Training, was a "plank holder," or founding member, of SEAL Team Six. One of the foremost experts on SEAL fitness, he lives in Southern California.

Buy this book