by Tom Clancy, Carl Stiner, Tony Koltz
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| List Price: | $29.95 |
| Average Rating: |  |
| Lowest New Price: | $4.81 |
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Product 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.
Amazon.com Review
Shadow Warriors is the third of Tom Clancy's commander books, and this time around Clancy teams up with General Carl Stiner, retired, to recount the recent history of U.S. Special Forces. Clancy notes that while Special Forces played important roles in World War II and Vietnam, the U.S. military has always been uncomfortable with "elites" and their unconventional methods and thus tended to view them primarily as a "sideshow." However, in 1980 when 53 Americans became hostages in Tehran, it became painfully clear that the conventional military tactics of the day, aimed at countering the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe, simply could not deal with this new kind of threat. Most of the book revolves around Stiner's military career: its beginning in the late '50s, his tour in Vietnam as a Green Beret, various assignments in the Middle East, and his final stint as commander of SOCOM (U.S. Special Operations Command). Particularly interesting are Stiner's firsthand accounts of the Achille Lauro hostage rescue, the invasion of Panama, and operations in Desert Storm. Clancy fills in and adds context to Stiner's career and to the Special Forces themselves, including short stories of the Jedburgh teams in World War II and the formation of the Green Berets in the early '60s. Though at times disjointed, the result is a fascinating and timely glimpse into the evolution of U.S. Special Forces. --Harry C. Edwards
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Interesting read, but misleading title, 2008-09-24
This book is an odd mix of fascinating stories, boring detail about some irrelevent off-subject matter, and lots of other stuff piled into one. I'm not sure whether to recommend it or not because there were some geniunely exciting stories related here, but also a lot of junk that casual readers would want to skim over. Probably the worst part is that it's title is misleading, this book is not dedicated to special forces. It's more about what Carl Stiner did during his military career.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 Boring!, 2005-12-18
I labored through about half of this book, anticipating that it would begin to relate in some way to its title. The first part about the origin of SF was interesting. But it went downhill once it commenced with the biography of a former Green Beret without any special ops combat experience, and with only a very short time spent in that community. Stiner's command experience in the spec-ops world seems overstated in this book. None of the other numerous historical books I've read on spec-ops - many by the operators themselves - ever mention Stiner. Clancy seems to know what a good story is, but somehow completely missed it on this one.
1 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
This book is a joke!, 2005-09-01
The book is boring. Stiner is a joke. Clancy is a joke. Clancy has no military background so why is it that he writes so much about the military? Get a life Clancy. We don't want to read boring stories about pencil pushers like Stiner.
0 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
 insight of new troop, 2005-06-29
Why this book? You can understand why they are called special forces not only commando.
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Not Tom's best, 2005-02-07
Some of the events mentioned in the book were not detailed enough for the reader to reach to the same conclusions that the author did. Maybe because I know these events and I some what disagree with him. But I can't talk on behalf of the people that are not aware of these events.
I would like to stress that I did not rate 3 stars because I disagree with the author, a lot of other topics I think that he was spot on and could not agree more with him. The reason I gave him 3 because The author lost my attention in the middle of the book and because it is not TOM's best work.
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