Rating: 
Summary: Very well written
Review: This book is a very fine example of what non-fiction should be. It is very informative and in depth, and has stories thrown in there to keep things interesting. It is also very accurate about the role of SF soldiers. Those people who expect an action packed non-fiction book, especially one about a secret world of the SF, need to have a whole lot of sense knocked into them. Anyone would know that a secret organization such as SF will not just go around and tell anyone anything and everything about they're operations. Overall, this is anything and everything a good non-fiction book should be and I highly reccomend this book to anyone who is interested in the SF world.
Rating: 
Summary: Have the SOGs ever been successful???
Review: This is sopposed to be an inside account of the Special Forces. Instead it seems to be a water logged account of a series of totally useless failures of the Special forces. Now I dont know if this is what Clancy intended but its what the result was. The Special forces in fact were very effective in Vietnam and in other secret operation throughout the world but we dont seem to hear about much success in this novel.Instead we are treated to long build ups to failed or aborted operations. Take the Achille Loro inceident. The ship was hijacked. THen it wondered around the mediteranean, from egypt to lebanon and back again. AND THE SOG COULDNT FIND IT!!!! GIVE ME A BREAK! Its a big ship, its not that big an ocean, your telling me the sum total of americas security aparatus couldnt find it. That one sentence in the book just made me want to throw it away. Here are the SOGs sitting on the beach in Italy ot cyprus 'contemplating a take down'. Thats the end, if your guys cant get their craop together enought o go find a boat that size and board it then we might as well disband the SOGs. The book goes on to detail more failures in Greneda and in another incident where an american navy man is killed aboard a hijacked airplane. In this incednet what did the Special ops do? Nothing. They flew back and forth across the mediteranean and then wen thome after allowing the hostages to be taken into the labrynth of beirut. And Clancy spend a chapter on this, detailing all the sopposed importance of Special Ops. What was the help of having these anti-terror groups if we do NOTHING but watch. THis is a totally useless book. It doesnt do anything justice and voers operations that were all either aborted or failures. Like the operation it spoends pages talking about to free the embassy in kuwait, and then all of a sudden ABORTED. So why not tell us about something successful? I think the reality is that the co-author Mr. Stiner was a totally indecisive individual who mostly was not able to carry out orders because he didnt have a plan in mind and when he finally came up with a plan washington cancelled it. I think Mr. Clancy should have profiled a more interesting officer who actually took part in a successful operation. In fact Sepcial forces have been succesful recently in iraq and Afghanistan, but they were totally useless in the 80s, the period the book focuses on. And why doesnt Clancy talk about our work in Nicaragua and Afghanistan in the 80s, where our men did train guerillas? An awful book, that makes one question our anti-terror ability.
Rating: 
Summary: Illuminating look at quiet professionals
Review: To most Americans, the Special Forces are an enigmatic group that never gets any significant press, and thus, their attention. That's part of the reason that they have been so successful, and why this book does a lot to reveal what the world of the Special Forces is like. Tom Clancy crafted a very readbale book on the inception and inevitable growing pains of the U.S. Special Forces. He does this mostly by relating the career of Army Special Forces General Carl Steiner, and illustrating the text with well-written accounts of highlights in the evolution of today's special combat forces. From missions involving terrorism, in combat during the Cold War and its present employments worldwide, the special forces have faced enemies abroad and at home, as the book notes opposition from "traditional" commanders opposed to sharing resources and losing some of the best soldiers. Overall, the book jumps from example to background, to example, and it does not detract from the story whatsoever. Since Clancy has started his examination of military leadership, he has written surprisingly well, given his fictional focus before. Readers will easily come out of this book impressed with the operators he describes, and better understanding of the special challenges faced by the men and women of the Special Forces.
Rating:
Summary: A little something
Review: When I first opened this book I really didn't know what to expect. I've read many other Tom Clancy fiction and non-fiction books and have enjoyed them.
This book felt like a clutter reading it. It didn't seem organized and just seemed a bit half-done. I was fairly disappointed on how it was written but still all the information was useful and left me a bit satisfied.
This book isn't for someone who wants to be introduced to America's Special Forces unit and what they do and their nature, but this book is for people who already have and enjoy a knowing knowledge of America's military.
The contents are very accurate historically of course as most non-fiction books, but this definitely shows a raw side of SF in which msot books don't show; that not all missions have the greatest outcome.
This book can be read with some satisfaction to some, but it is not one that I would come and recommend much about.
Rating: 
Summary: Kind of disappointed with this Clancy non-fictuon novel.
Review: When I first picked up this book, I thought it was going to be a great inside of the Special Forces, but I was wrong. I love Clancy as a fiction writer, but non-fiction is not really something Tom Clancy cannot do to well. Sure the book starts out good, but it slows down with the history of the Special Forces (I am a HUGE history buff, so I didnt mind Clancy explaining the history.) and it kind of crashes and burn.
The book could of been much more better if Clancy would of brought some more action into this book, but he fail to do so, and so I was very disappointed, I did finish the novel, and it just made me realize that Clancy better stick to fiction than non-fiction. Sorry Clancy, this was not my cup of tea.
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