The Secret History of Joint Special Operations Command

Too many secrets, too many lies. Comes closest to telling the real story of the Army of Northern Virginia. Take out the parts about the snake eaters of SOCOM and the best tale of the best of the Silent Warriors is almost there. Excellent.

Others have discussed the propriety of releasing some of the information contained in this book.

But I had a different concern: The Top Brass.

Over and over, if the author is correct, special ops goals, procedures, tactics etc were determined almost solely by the guy at the top of the hierarchy, often to satisfy his own egotistical and personal issues, and his desire to "not fail at any cost". Our young people's lives were placed at risk because some general thought it would be a good idea to make a video showing what a badass he was.

I'm not from a military background, but I understand that hierarchy is all-important in military activity. However, at the top level of decision making, consensus should arise from the contributions of everyone who has valid input. Aviation improved its results by getting rid of the "captain of the ship" mentality and moving to "cockpit resource management".

This book, with a few exceptions, did not paint our top generals in a favorable light. That should change.

With still 100 pages to go, I am indeed impressed with the capabilities described, knowing if/when we ever get serious about influencing events, there are many dedicated Americans willing to risk all to gain all. No, I really have no need to know many of the details about our ability to raid and gather, but still remain in awe by the narrative. My great fear is that we are vulnerable too, with adversaries able to mirror our ability to strike targets. So far, we've been lucky, but that will not last forever. So, will the Sleeping Giant stir when the time comes, or roll over and go back to sleep while a select few step up to the challenge?

The oceans we have often assumed will keep our enemies at bay count for almost nothing when challenged by a determined foe. Paranoia doesn't help, but symbolic responses don't count for much either. And size doesn't mean anything, so long as critical forces are kept robust and funded. Others have said this better, but without determination a million rifles won't win much.

Relentless Strike provided an excellent background of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). Of note was the varying and redundant capabilities within JSOC. JSOC is the primer Raid organization within the Department of Defense that can go from hero to zero or zero to hero with one mission. It was interesting to see an organization that viewed itself as exclusive quickly had to become inclusive with other government agencies to meet its mission.

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.

This book gives the reader a great understanding of the rise of JSOC and our special forces in the post 9/11 world. It's not a book that reads like a novel. Instead, it reads more like a history book. Very thorough to the point that I am wondering if some of the enemies of our State will read this book to gain some insight. Nevertheless it was a good read.

According to special forces guys that have been in Iraq and Afganastan, this book is an accurate protrayal of JSOC. It's worth reading to learn how special forces keeps us safe. JSOC are the unsung heros. If the United States administration would use them correctly, there would be much less turmoil in the world.

Once again the mystique of SPECOPS is uncovered. Naylor's book describes in detail the successes and failures of JSOC. It developed to control combat elements on missions but has inflated into this huge unwieldy comman. Instead of slick black operators sneaking into a black ops mission, it is a huge operation with tons of assers, huge commands and quick ops are not normal business. When you go JOINT you have to include the other ervices who have little expierence in ground ops.the Air Farce generals in command are flyers and want tons of planes from the air force and that takes time, runways and serious planning. Air refulimg od 160th helicopters is not a snap of the fingers. And I have never seen a general lately who can operate out of a tent in the desert! They need big staffs, comfort, computers, drones and are not into quick missions! Naylor describes this in the early chapters. Instead of quick reation and movility you have thousands send dozens into a fight! SPECOPS was always a step child of the military not to be trusted. It needed a seperate command to properly use it but like anything they have created a monster! I cannot believe that they could conteol the Afghanistan campaign from an islamd near Egypt! Every command needs boots on the groung in the country for C and C. Ground truth overrides drones and tv screens! But tell that to N AF general who lives in a hotel and gets room service! Great book, demonstrates how a great idea is twisted by the system!

Superbly researched and written.
Shows how mediocre leadership cost hundreds of allied and american lives even in our special operations corps (the elite of the elite) until a farsighted and not risk averse leader took over.

Simple decisions such as using east coast helicopter pilots that had never trained in brown-out conditions rather than west coast marine and army pilots who face brownouts on nearly every flight.

Most of these stories have been told many times before, but in almost every instance this book discloses interesting new details. Particularly interesting are the contemporary perspectives of veterans of these operations, who look back on their exploits at the end of every chapter.

This book should never have been written.....our son is in JSOC and the "great" Hussein O left the cat out of the bag....once out, it can never be put back in.....sad state of affairs with our 44th POTUS.

Assembling bits and pieces of historical data, along with keen source input, Naylor's account of JSOC's history is an outstanding account for any reader of any background on effective leadership, enabling the success or failure of an organization, and the costs involved. Very much worth the read.

Very well written and enjoyable to read, don't believe everything you read though, as with any book on this topic much of it is conjecture filtered through interviews of individuals who may or may not have had global situational awareness on the topic at hand.

Very interesting read about Joint Special Operations Command. Seems as the author disclosed a little too much information though. Some things could have been presented a little more vaguely, without taking away from the story.

Outstanding work based on excellent research. Many will slam this book because it reveals insider knowledge - but keep mind that many of the complainers often reach out to journalists when it benefits them and their careers. A well-written, balanced account that does not regurgitate standard U.S. Special Operations talking points (see Lindia Robinson's books if you want to read U.S. Special Operations Command public affairs guidance). Unfortunately, U.S. special operations forces will not learn from this and will continue to over-classify their actions in an effort to cover-up mistakes instead of learning from them.
Bottom Line - Relentless Strike is the most detailed look into the U.S. special operations community ever written - highly recommended!