Relentless Strike: The Secret History of Joint Special Operations Command

My second go-around with this book. Read the hardcover as soon as it appeared. Decided to give the audio book a go and I am glad that I did. Well done. From someone in the back row of many of the performances described in this book, it is amazingly accurate. The irony of which I am lost on because virtually all of the information was covered with security and classification protections. It seems the longer and higher up you go in the chain, the less security mattered. This is even more true these last few years so by all means, this book is a good resource for students of this period.

It was exactly what I had hoped for. I am a mild wonk (I read McRaven's "Spec Ops: Case Studies in Special Operations Warfare: Theory and Practice" for fun a couple of years ago) with no direct military experience. So I cannot opine about the appropriateness of information revealed in the book or its accuracy. Having said that it appears to be a well researched history of the development, evoloution and relatively recent activities of a remarkable, skilled, intelligent and committted team of individuals. The one challenge for me was the incredible mass of acronyms to keep track of,, the various coloredd teams and other groups whose names change regularly for secrecy. I read it on a Kindle which makes it difficult to flip to the Glossary then back. With that small caveat I would recommend it to anyone intrested in Special Operations histiry.

Very engaging and detailed account of Joint Special Operations Command ("JSOC") by Sean Naylor. There are many very interesting stories and accounts in this book that you wont find, or weren't supposed to, anywhere else as a civilian. If you're looking for action packed, first-hand accounts (i.e. "first person shooter reading") that you'd find in books like "No Easy Day" or "Level Zero Heroes", you wont find it in abundance here. This a work of military history with a focus on detail, unit designations, dates and tends to focus on officers perspective where possible (however Mr Naylor does frequently and fairly incorporate lower ranking personnel's side of events). Nonetheless, the book has plenty of exciting and eye-brow raising moments, you may just have to have a bit of patience at times.A few observations and things I learned from reading the book are as follows:1. Breadth of Capabilities of Delta: Delta's popularly known as top tier direct action commandos, where everything comes down to pulling triggers and stomping skulls. What's revealed in the book, is that skillset is just one component of the Command. The Unit's Operational Support Troop ("OST") and their E Squadron are for all intents purposes self sufficient intelligence gathering and covert / low-vis aviation units that rivals the CIA. Between the line squadrons (i.e. assaulters and snipers), OST and E Squadron, non is more important than any other. My favorite story from the book was an operation in Iraq where Delta operators disguised themselves as field hands on a suspected high value al queda targets farm where able to capture him and multiple other insurgents without firing a single shot.2. Why SEAL Team 6 Was Chosen for bin Laden Raid: There was quite a bit of debate for a while on why the SEALs where selected for the 2011 bin Laden raid over what many consider was a quintessential Delta operation. The rationale was ultimately very straight forward, since 2002, while Delta was wholly focused on Iraq, any raid into Pakistan tribal areas to kill or capture bin Land had been permanently tasked to the SEALs. The SEALs trained constantly to conduct a HAHO insertion into Pakistan, and had a troop on alert in Afghanistan at all times in the event.3. Pretty Much Every Head of JSOC Sucked Except General McChrystal: According to the complaints levied by JSOC subordinates in the book, JSOC has had leadership challenges that hampered the Command and in some cases potentially gotten non-combatants killed. Specifically, in 2011 four Americans where taken hostage on their yacht off the Northern coast of Somalia. ST6 was scrambled to handle the situation, however, despite the SEAL snipers being in position and having a bead on the captors, Admiral McRaven explicitly forbade any of his shooters / assaulters to take deadly action, vi-si-vis fire on the terrorist under any circumstance. Tragically, all four hostages were killed as the SEALs watched helplessly. Also, JSOC's commander from 2001 - 2003, General Dell Dailey, seemed to be a constant loggerheads with various JSOC units field officers, especially with Delta. There were numerous accounts in the book where Dailey's fundamental disconnect from the ground units, extreme risk aversion and insatiable desire to appease his superiors clashed fiercely with various Delta officers who always were trying to make the most efficient and effective tactical decisions.4. 75th Rangers Role: Over the course of the books timeline, the Rangers evolve from standard light infantry to essentially JSOC's 3rd dedicated special missions unit. The Regiment clearly took advantage of the opportunities the war on terror afforded to them by leveraging their dependability and flexibility supporting Delta / ST6 / JSOC. The culminating moment of their accession as force, came when Admiral McRaven placed a 75th Colonel in charge of all JSOC task forces in Afghanistan in 2009, and probably for the first time ever, over a theater Delta squadron much to the operators chagrin. This wasn't without issues however. The Regiments culture varies greatly from Delta and the SEALs. The Rangers are by in large much younger and less experienced than the other two SMU's at the enlisted level and their respective leadership approach to warfare are also disconnected. The Rangers favor a "kill everything twice" approach where is Delta's SOP is tactical patience and exerting the minimum amount force to efficiently achieve the desired outcome of an operation. The Rangers aggressive nature frequently infuriated their Delta colleagues. This was made evident in 2010 when a Ranger element launched a night raid on a compound based on half-backed intelligence, where the Rangers killed four civilians two of which were pregnant women.5. Mysterious Phone Call to UBL's Sons on Night of the Raid: This was the most jaw dropping, albeit brief, part of the book. The bin Laden raid was approved by Obama on April 29th, and launched two days later on May 1st. According to the authors source, someone tried calling one or both of bin Laden's two sons living at the compound with him as the SEALs where en route. This notable because the call came in the middle of the night and more-so that the CIA had determined that no cell phones were used in any proximity to the hideout much less inside it for any reason as trade craft to avoid detection. You could possibly infer that warning of the raid had somehow been leaked.

Excellent, though you need to know it's more of a history book than one might expect after all the memoirs from servicemen (and women) coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq (having read more than a few of those, it seems he knows his stuff very well). If you look at the 1 star reviews, most of them found it dry and boring. I didn't, but I like history books.Mostly, there is a ton of info of why JSOC came into being after the 1990 Iran rescue failure, its hunt for Balkan war criminals and the ups and downs up to 2001 and gradual expansion ever since.There is a lot about the organization chart of how was leading the JSOC, tons of names. Sometimes you get confused as new officers are mentioned for the first time. Or, and that is frequent, a unit's codename changes. Lots about the equipment they would use and the gradual evolution of their doctrine, especially to go after Zarqawi in Iraq in '06 (they're the ones who called in the airstrike). No, you don't see much sympathy for Zarqawi and the other butchers, but there is grudging recognition that they were pretty good at being evil terrorists, else they'd soon be dead.For the weapon/gear geeks among us, there is plenty of red meat to chew on. From how they weaponized super small helicopters to spy trade craft to embed recon elements as civilians, to landing and insertion tactics.And there are plenty of tactical combat descriptions, if that's what you're after. From the mission to kill Bin Laden to the tragic misfortune where SEAL 6's borrowed Chinook gets shot down a few weeks later.Although the author clearly admires the very smart and dedicated people in JSOC, he does not, on occasion, spare them from criticism. Up to Abu Ghraib, some of the JSOC interrogations might have been, let's say, a bit unpleasant. And he makes it clear that it probably did happen and that it probably wasn't just "a few guys, off the books". Ditto when he mentions in passing how little influence the Special Forces - whose mission runs more into nation-building and bringing the locals on board, have on JSOC. The top brass's doctrine is all sticks, no carrots.(speaking of what carrots can achieve:  Hammerhead Six: How Green Berets Waged an Unconventional War Against the Taliban to Win in Afghanistan's Deadly Pech Valley )His conclusion, which takes place around the time ISIS gets started, is that there are limits to the JSOC model. They can kill, but they are not meant to hold ground. Which is specifically something he mentions in regards to ISIS's quick 2014 capture of all the Iraqi cities JSOC fought so hard to clear insurgents from. He also states, without going into much detail, how the Taliban were for some reason way more resilient in taking JSOC's punches than Al-Quaeda in Iraq. They were getting ground down, but they weren't going away and the troops were frustrated at the lack of lasting effect.He ends with a bit of frustration that successive administrations are using those troops to solve all problems - whether or not they're a good fit. To paraphrase:"JSOC is an awesome hammer. So Presidents now see every problem as a nail".

Io ho ordinato questo libro per il mio figlio e mi viene un libro usato. Non sono stata avvisata che se tratava di un libro usato.Dopo tante giorni aspetandolo mi viene un libro usato. Molto delusa.

One of the finest books on the recent history of US special operations. Extraordinary access to and command of the source materials. Well written.

Sean naylor explains the origin and evolution of JSOC in great detail.

A thick volume on the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), the US military's headquarters organization for managing 'black' Tier 1 special operations forces like Delta Force, SEAL Team 6 along with the Rangers, 160th SOAR and lesser known groups like Task Force Orange.

Sean Naylors 'Relentless Strike' ist die eine höchst spannende, interessante und teils dramatische Lektüre und eine umfassende Zusammenfassung der Geschichte des Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). Gegründet nach der desaströs gescheiterten Geiselbefreiung im Iran (Eagle Claw) im Jahr 1980 reicht die Darstellung eben von dieser Anfangsphase bis zum den aktuellen Kampf gegen den 'Islamischen Staat.'Das Buch ist grundsätzlich chronologisch konzipiert (Anfangsphase bis 9/11, Afghanistan-Invasion, Irak-Krieg und folgende Aufstandsbekämpfung und die Expansion zu einer globalen Agenda), beinhaltet aber je nach den einzelnen Kapiteln und Themenschwerpunkten doch immer wieder kleinere Zeitsprünge, die sich aber bei der Komplexität des Themas nicht vermeiden lassen. Die Darstellung ist jederzeit klar verständlich, schlüssig konzipiert und gut nachvollziehbar geschrieben.Die geschilderten Einsätze reichen unter Anderem von Grenada, Panama und Somalia bis in den Irak, Libyen, Afghanistan, Pakistan und dem Jemen. Thematisiert werden Missionen zur Geiselbefreiung, Terrorismusbekämpfung, Aufstandsbekämpfung oder beispielsweise aber auch zur Verhinderung der Weiterverbreitung von Massenvernichtungswaffen.Das Buch gibt aber neben den zahlreichen Missionen ebenso auch einen fundierten Einblick in die evolutionäre Entwicklung von JSCO (Stichwort: the machine und Stan McCrystal), dessen Organisationsstruktur, Befehlsstruktur und Befehlshaber, unterstellte Einheiten, Fähigkeiten, Technologien, Taktiken, Rivalitäten oder Kurskontroversen. Es werden aber auch Verfehlungen wie Gefangenenmisshandlung vor allem in den ersten Jahren nach 9/11 oder der Tod unschuldiger Zivilisten bei manchen Einsätzen offen angesprochen.Das Buch stützt sich auf zahlreiche Interviews mit noch aktiven und ehemaligen Soldaten, die unter JSOC dienen/dienten, Büchern von ehemaligen Kommando-Soldaten und auch auf offiziellen Verlautbarungen von US-Stellen. Besonders interessant sind natürlich die Berichte und Einschätzungen der beteiligten Soldaten als unmittelbare Zeitzeugen.Es liegt bei diesem Thema in der Natur der Sache, das Vieles der Geheimhaltung unterliegt und deshalb nicht oder nur teilweise oder unvollständig bekannt ist und auch das es zu verschiedenen Missionen widersprüchliche Schilderungen und Berichte gibt. Dies ist aber nicht dem Autor anzukreiden, sondern ist der Aktualität und der Brisanz des Themas geschuldet. Die umfangreiche Rechercheleistung des Autors ist gerade deshalb als sehr überzeugend zu werten, zumal sich viele Informationen auch beispielsweise mit anerkannten Fachblogs wie dem Long War Journal decken. Es gelingt ihm ein sehr umfassendes, belastbares und detailliertes Bild zur Thematik zu zeichnen.Jeder, der sich für Themen wie Spezialeinheiten, Geheimdienste, 'Krieg gegen den Terror' und vor allem auch über das Geschehen hinter den Kulissen bei sehr vielen wichtigen weltpolitischen Kriegen und Konflikten interessiert, sollte unbedingt dieses Buch lesen. Es ist eine mehr als interessante, spannende und informative Lektüre.