Rating: 
Summary: Important information on Gulf War - Not a novel
Review: The book provides an important prospective of the
workings of the U. S. Army at war from the prospective of a senior Army General. The book does not try to present an objective analysis but rather Gen. Franks tells his first
hand experience and presents his side of the
"who is right" debates with his bosses. This justification gets old fast. The book is worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Understanding Modern Warfare
Review: The book written by Tom Clancy with Fred Franks showed how we did the hail Mary end run led by Franks armored divisions. The story is full of lessons learned explaining what went right and what went wrong, and implies how we need to improve both technology and organization.Of interest was that our commanders lacked proper radio communications and were not in direct contact with each other. Also GPS devices did not automatically transmit locations of troops to commanders displays, our vehicles lacked IFF devices, and that mobile SCUDs were unable to be found or destroyed once fired. Smart weapons did not have a 100% success rate, their IQ was average, although videos made for good press. The fog of war descended on General Franks, and he lacked information necessary to maintain the pace of the attack demanded by General Schwartzkopf. Friction between the two commanders demonstrated the difference between emphasis on keeping up the pace to acheive suprise, and a need to avoid chaos resulting in "friendly fire" accidents. The book does not dwell on the real heros,our logistics people who acheived massive movement of men and material. Description of unit contact makes one realize the success of the Abrams M1A1 tank and the quality of training given the troops. In retrospect, this book enabled me to understand that even with satellite surveillence and the lack of cover and consealment, we could not find key targets, and could not destroy SCUD warheads. The end of the war was directed by political concerns, rather than military objectives (read A SOLDIER's DUTY), and we toatlly misapprehended the power base of Saddam Huesein. This book was informative and should be read with "EVERY MAN A HERO" by Clancy describing the air campaign of Desert Storm. The combination of these two works will better explain what happened, suggest the future direction of technology on the battlefield, and indicate that a lesser degree of success can be expected lacking the advantages of desert terrain, and an unwilling adversary. Jon Yerow Cincinnati
Rating:
Summary: A good view of the Army in Gulf War, but slow at times.
Review: The first part of the book has interesting details about the Army's transition from the problems of the 1970's to the professional force of the 1990's. Once the focus turns to Desert Shield/Storm, the book moves at a slower pace; almost too slow. Gen Franks spends too much time giving us the minute details of his planning and execution steps. Although it gives the reader a good perspective of what a general's life was like in this type of operation, I often found myself getting lost in the details (and I was there!). This is not a Clancy-type book, as we have normally encountered in the past. Also, Gen Franks too often defends past criticisms from members of his chain-of-command (Gen Schwarzkopf, etc) that may have occurred during and after the operation. An OK book if you're interested in the Gulf War or the Army of the 1990's. Not a thriller.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent study in the requirements of leadership
Review: There are a lot of books out there about leadership, but most of them are useless and stupid. This book, however, is extremely valuable as a tool to teach leadership. The book examines General Franks' life and command, and his theory of leadership. If all leaders operated as he did in the first Gulf War, then there would be far fewer problems. There is a lot of minutia and detail in this book as in all Clancy works and collaborations, but those details just go to show you how good leadership basics allow a person to lead even critical and complicated efforts. Scrap all those vapid management books that the worst managers read, and find out how a man with a proper understanding of leadership works.
Rating:
Summary: Good! But be prepared.
Review: This book by Tom Clancy is great. It gives an in depth view into command, tactical and strategic. Yet it is very hard to read if you do not read it carefully. If you are a person who reads quickly and does not take the time to absorb some of the lingo then you will hate it. If you are into the Military and have the time and patience to absorb the terms in the beggining than this book is a great read.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Desert Storm Book To Date!
Review: This book caught the corner of my eye, I instantly bought it, and then consumed it within a week. As a Persian Gulf veteran (who did not serve under GEN Franks, whose memoirs this book is), I have to say that it is the best book yet on Desert Storm. It is captivating, extremely readible, and, most importantly, exceptionally educational in several subjects, including: the recovery of the US Army following Vietnam, leadership, military art at the operational level, and the histroy of VII Corps in Desert Storm.
Mandatory reading for military historians, anyone who wants to learn about the modern military profession, and prospective leaders
Rating: 
Summary: No thanks to Schwarzkopf
Review: This book describes General Fred Franks' life and especially his experiences during Desert Storm, the war in 1991 in the Persian Gulf to kick Iraq out of Kuwait.
To really like this book you need to be a bit of a military fanatic. Fred Franks repeats so many times how wonderful it is to be a soldier, and how great the "warrior ethos" is, that you realize that for him the military is practically a religion.
The thing in this book that I found the most interesting are the descriptions of the magnitude of military might that was fielded during Desert Storm.
The American Army VII Corps (commanded by Gen. Franks) included 146,000 soldiers, 50,000 vehicles (incl. 1,600 tanks) and 800 helicopters. Not only are these numbers huge, but the logistics involved are mind-boggling: the soldiers need food and water, and the vehicles and aircraft burned an incredible 3.2 million gallons of fuel each day. When fighting the VII Corps expended 2,500 tons of ammunition every day.
And VII Corps was only part of the military forces involved. There was another Army corps, there were Marine units, there was the Air Force and the Navy, and forces from quite a few other countries. An amazing marshalling of military forces, and all under the command of General Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf (more about him later).
I found the book interesting, but it does have a lot of problems. It's way too long, mostly due to repetitiveness. With some editing it could have been cut down by at least 30% with no loss of information.
Another problem is that there are no useful maps. There are a lot of small maps, about 1/3 of a page each, but they simply don't show enough detail. Again and again you find the text referring to some town or road or river and they simply aren't on the maps.
Another major problem is the lack of a glossary with definitions for all the military acronyms and abbreviations that are used.
And then we have General Schwarzkopf, who is NOT thanked in the acknowledgements. Gen. Franks is very careful to thank everyone from his parents to his family to all of his subordinates, and then goes on to thank Colin Powell (then Chairman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff), Dick Cheney (then Sec. of Defense) and President George Bush Sr. But not Gen. Schwarzkopf.
It turns out that Gen. Schwarzkopf wrote an autobiography, "It Doesn't Take a Hero", and in that book he criticized Gen. Franks for the way he commanded VII Corps during Desert Storm.
Gen. Franks uses this book to return the favor. I won't go into extensive details (and Gen. Franks keeps his criticism fairly low-key), but Franks basically claims that Schwarzkopf liked having his butt kissed by his subordinates, was prone to throwing temper tantrums, wasn't competent to understand or command armored (tank) operations and made several tactical errors. In particular, not giving VII Corps more operational room to the north, not using the Air Force to prevent the Iraqi Republican Guards from escaping northwards and declaring "victory" a couple of days prematurely were big mistakes. The result was that Washington decreed a ceasefire and a large portion of the Republican Guards avoided destruction.
I actually found this dispute between Franks and Schwarzkopf to be quite interesting, and it's so very human to want to get back at someone who's done you dirt. So whether Franks or Schwarzkopf is right, the dispute does add flavor to Franks' story.
Rennie Petersen
Rating:
Summary: No thanks to Schwarzkopf
Review: This book describes General Fred Franks' life and especially his experiences during Desert Storm, the war in the Persian Gulf to kick Iraq out of Kuwait. To really like this book you need to be a bit of a military fanatic. Fred Franks repeats so many times how wonderful it is to be a soldier, and how great the "warrior ethos" is, that you realize that for him the military is practically a religion. The thing in this book that I found the most interesting are the descriptions of the magnitude of military might that was fielded during Desert Storm. The VII Corps (commanded by Gen. Franks) included 146,000 soldiers, 50,000 vehicles (incl. 1,600 tanks) and 800 helicopters. Not only are these numbers huge, but the logistics involved are mind-boggling: the soldiers need food and water, and the vehicles and aircraft burned an incredible 3.2 million gallons of fuel each day. When fighting the VII Corps expended 2,500 tons of ammunition every day. And VII Corps was only part of the military forces involved. There was another Army corps, there were Marine units, there was the Air Force and the Navy. An amazing marshalling of military forces, and all under the command of General Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf (more about him later). I found the book interesting, but it does have a lot of problems. It's way too long, mostly due to repetitiveness. With some editing it could have been cut down by at least 30% with no loss of information. Another problem is that there are no useful maps. There are a lot of small maps, about 1/3 of a page each, but they simply don't show enough detail. Again and again you find the text referring to some town or road or river and they simply aren't on the maps. Another major problem is the lack of a glossary with definitions for all the military abbreviations that are used. And then we have General Schwarzkopf, who is not thanked in the acknowledgements. Gen. Franks is very careful to thank everyone from his parents to his family to all of his subordinates, and then goes on to thank Colin Powell, Sec. of Defense Dick Cheney and President Bush. But not Gen. Schwarzkopf. It turns out that Gen. Schwarzkopf wrote an autobiography, "It Doesn't Take a Hero", and in that book he criticized Gen. Franks for the way he commanded VII Corps during Desert Storm. Gen. Franks uses this book to return the favor. I won't go into extensive details (and Gen. Franks keeps his criticism fairly low-key), but Franks basically claims that Schwarzkopf liked having his butt kissed by his subordinates, was prone to throwing temper tantrums, wasn't competent to understand or command armored (tank) operations and made several tactical errors. In particular, not giving VII Corps more operational room to the north, not using the Air Force to prevent the Iraqi Republican Guards from escaping northwards and declaring "victory" a couple of days prematurely were big mistakes. The result was that Washington decreed a ceasefire and a large portion of the Republican Guards avoided destruction. I actually found this dispute between Franks and Schwarzkopf to be quite interesting, and it's so very human to want to get back at someone who's done you dirt. So whether Franks or Schwarzkopf is right, the dispute does add flavor to Franks' story.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding, very insightful.
Review: This book gives a great look into what it takes to lead soldiers in war. As a soldier myself, I feel that it is essential for all officers and entertaining for all.
Rating:
Summary: Evolution
Review: This book is a testament to the decades of hard work the U.S. Army had to undergo in order to improve or evolve from what was considered a state of chaos the Army was in from the outcome of Vietnam. There is only one man to provide the story for this and that is Retired General Frederick Franks. And there is only one man who can write it down in a clever, fact-finding, well written novel and that is Tom Clancy. This combination is what makes this book special. Franks says in his book that he became frustrated when the press would show the laser guided bombs on CNN and would leave out the combat aspect that he is writing about. Franks is leaving a message for all of us, I believe. We Americans sometimes take for granted the freedoms that we are so accustomed to such as the gasoline in your car. The book portrays the skill involved in a military that is sent to fight a war for our society, for our national interests. I highly recommend this book, because sometimes we civilians have to research in order to gain the real insight and truth of the Gulf War and not just from watching CNN. Frederick Franks is a true hero
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