Rating: 
Summary: Accurate Insights
Review: "No Room for Error" is a good read and provides hard hitting insights into the politics of U.S. special operations units and a glimpse at the superbly trained Special Tactics forces. These units have demonstrated their expertise in various conflicts despite Air Force organizational negligence and service parochialism on the part of the Army. Carney and Schemmer captured tremendous exploits without resorting to euphemisms used by other Special Operations books. A major unanswered question: Why aren't there more of these AF Special Tactics units? Note that I'm a former Special Tactics member enabling me to affirm the accuracy of the book.
Rating:
Summary: The credit they deserve
Review: Along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, in the Mekong delta, and in the air, the U.S. military's special operations forces played key roles in Vietnam. After being neglected by the regular military bureaucracy for most of the quarter-century that followed, U.S. special ops forces finally got the appreciation and credit they deserved when a few hundred very smart and superbly-trained men engineered the overthrow of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. This book is largely about the period in between Vietnam and the post-9/11campaign, and it fills an important gap in the literature. It focuses particularly on the U.S. Air Force's Special Tactics Units, who are an essential part of the larger special ops picture, and who make many missions possible through their extraordinary skils at getting teams in and out of dangerous territory, often at night and without being detected by the enemy. This book is full of revelations, and is highly recommended to anyone interested in the field.
Rating:
Summary: The credit they deserve
Review: Along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, in the Mekong delta, and in the air, the U.S. military's special operations forces played key roles in Vietnam. After being neglected by the regular military bureaucracy for most of the quarter-century that followed, U.S. special ops forces finally got the appreciation and credit they deserved when a few hundred very smart and superbly-trained men engineered the overthrow of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. This book is largely about the period in between Vietnam and the post-9/11campaign, and it fills an important gap in the literature. It focuses particularly on the U.S. Air Force's Special Tactics Units, who are an essential part of the larger special ops picture, and who make many missions possible through their extraordinary skils at getting teams in and out of dangerous territory, often at night and without being detected by the enemy. This book is full of revelations, and is highly recommended to anyone interested in the field.
Rating: 
Summary: Good book on topic
Review: At first, this book seemed like one of those rah-rah "American soldiers make no mistakes and defeat every enemy" books, as the authors start their book by writing about the original development of special tactics forces.
But it soon developed that these authors offer a close-up and detailed, but relatively objective, perspective on a number of recent US military actions using special tactics units, including the Iranian hostage rescue attempt, Grenada, TWA 847 and the Achille Lauro, Panama/ Noriega, Desert Storm, Somalia, the planned Haiti invasion, and Afghanistan. The authors tell what went right, and what went wrong -- on the tactical, strategic, and political fronts. They don't pull the punches on how interservice rivalries, and poor planning and intelligence, caused a number of problems. A lot of depth is added to events that most of us are familiar with just from newspaper articles.
The authors also offer insight on the type of soldier who joins these units -- not Rambo types, or Tom Clancy "warrior" ethos heroes, but level-headed well-trained soldiers.
Anyone interested in recent history, politics, or military history would enjoy reading this well-written book.
Rating:
Summary: Good book on topic
Review: At first, this book seemed like one of those rah-rah "American soldiers make no mistakes and defeat every enemy" books, as the authors start their book by writing about the original development of special tactics forces.
But it soon developed that these authors offer a close-up and detailed, but relatively objective, perspective on a number of recent US military actions using special tactics units, including the Iranian hostage rescue attempt, Grenada, TWA 847 and the Achille Lauro, Panama/ Noriega, Desert Storm, Somalia, the planned Haiti invasion, and Afghanistan. The authors tell what went right, and what went wrong -- on the tactical, strategic, and political fronts. They don't pull the punches on how interservice rivalries, and poor planning and intelligence, caused a number of problems. A lot of depth is added to events that most of us are familiar with just from newspaper articles.
The authors also offer insight on the type of soldier who joins these units -- not Rambo types, or Tom Clancy "warrior" ethos heroes, but level-headed well-trained soldiers.
Anyone interested in recent history, politics, or military history would enjoy reading this well-written book.
Rating:
Summary: Insightful and Thought Provoking
Review: Col. John T. Carney, USAF (ret.) takes the reader through his professional career and the history of U.S. Air Force special tactics units from the early 1980s through 2002.Special Tactics, which has operated in most every American military action since Operation Eagle Claw (aka Desert One) in 1980, has its foundations in the Pathfinder units of WW2, and are often known as 'combat controllers.' They are often the first in and the last out. In a frank and engaging manner, Carney lays out the history of special tactics and their operations, including Eagle Claw, Grenada, Panama, Achille Lauro, Desert Storm, and Somalia, through Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. Given his firsthand involvement in the majority of these operations, Carney offers a unique perspective and pulls no punches in his assessment of Air Force and U.S. Special Operations. Nothing is glossed-over and the reader gets the sense that Carney bears more self-imposed crosses than he probably should. If you are interested in a unique perspective of U.S. Special Operations and Air Force Special Tactics, this book should not be missed.
Rating: 
Summary: Informative, historically accurate, lacks action
Review: Colonel Carney and Ben Schemmer did an excellent job of describing the realities of U.S. contingencies in the last 40 years. As much as we try, the theory of the "purple suit" military and interoperability, i.e., all services working together, has not been achieved. The saving grace of this unfortunate situation is that our military forces usually demonstrate the flexibility to overcome these shortfalls and prevail. I commanded a rescue squadron which was tasked in an important support role for several of the operations that
Colonel Carney wrote of in this book and several that were not included. The Grenada mission was not the only one where we were unsure as to which command was really in charge. A well written book about a segment of the U.S.Air Force and our military forces which has not received the recognition and appreciation which they deserve. Colonel Carney is one of the Air Force's finest!
Rating:
Summary: No Room For Error
Review: Colonel Carney and Ben Schemmer did an excellent job of describing the realities of U.S. contingencies in the last 40 years. As much as we try, the theory of the "purple suit" military and interoperability, i.e., all services working together, has not been achieved. The saving grace of this unfortunate situation is that our military forces usually demonstrate the flexibility to overcome these shortfalls and prevail. I commanded a rescue squadron which was tasked in an important support role for several of the operations that
Colonel Carney wrote of in this book and several that were not included. The Grenada mission was not the only one where we were unsure as to which command was really in charge. A well written book about a segment of the U.S.Air Force and our military forces which has not received the recognition and appreciation which they deserve. Colonel Carney is one of the Air Force's finest!
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding book on America's silent warriors!!!!
Review: I am a combat control apprentice right now and I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Special Operations or just want to understand them better. It is written in a historical format that presented facts more than a dramatic style. I am very proud to be doing what I am doing after reading this book. It really brings Air Force Special Ops out and presents it for everyone to read. There are still many people in the military including those in the Air Force or don't know what Combat Controllers or PJ's are. Since combat control is such a new unit, news programs often credit other unit forces with tasks that were performed by AFSOC (Air Force Special Operations Command) units.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding book on America's silent warriors!!!!
Review: I am a combat control apprentice right now and I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Special Operations or just want to understand them better. It is written in a historical format that presented facts more than a dramatic style. I am very proud to be doing what I am doing after reading this book. It really brings Air Force Special Ops out and presents it for everyone to read. There are still many people in the military including those in the Air Force or don't know what Combat Controllers or PJ's are. Since combat control is such a new unit, news programs often credit other unit forces with tasks that were performed by AFSOC (Air Force Special Operations Command) units.
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