Delta Force: The Army's Elite Counterterrorist Unit

This book was very difficult to put down once I started reading it. Beckwith has a way with words that makes it seem like he's sitting next to you telling you a story. While reading the book, I felt like I knew Charlie Beckwith and his way of thinking--that's how much personality he put into this book.
1st Special Forces Operational Detachment--Delta (SFOD-D) is the military's formal name for Delta Force. Delta is perhaps America's foremost elite counterterrorist unit along with the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) and Navy SEAL Team Six. Beckwith created Delta Force after spending a year with the British Special Air Service (SAS) and seeing how the US had a void that a unit like the SAS could fill. Thus, Delta was formed with the SAS in mind.
A word of caution to people who are considering reading this book. The book tells of how Delta Force was formed...from its beginnings as a US version of the British SAS to its failed first mission freeing the hostages in the Iran. If you're looking for something on what Delta Force currently does and how its operators are currently trained or selected, this isn't the book for you. Beckwith tells us how the first Delta operators were trained and selected, but that selection process has probably changed some by now. This book is more a detailed history on the formation of the Delta Force, and not a book on its current engagements and operations (which are most likely classified anyway).
I HIGHLY recommend this book.

...
Rather, Delta Force is the plain-spoken memoir of a real-life Special Forces officer's long career advancing his art, if not his army career. Charlie Beckwith was a prophet before his time, and his campaign for the creation of an SAS-style special ops unit in the U.S. Army was stymied at every turn for nearly his entire career. Branded a rogue, even a traitor to the S.F. community, in the end, of course, his ideas won out, and Delta came into being, with Beckwith as it's first commander.
There are Vietnam war stories here, but this is not a book of "there I was. . ." tales. Beckwith also offers the reader a glimpse of Army politics, but this is not a book about vain and self-absorbed senior officers. A few chapters are devoted to Delta's baptism by fire in the Iranian Hostage rescue operation, but it's not really a book about the debacle at Desert One. In Delta Force, the reader will find a memoir of one of the pivotal figures in modern ground warfare. This is the story of one tough, dedicated hombre; what he learned, and how he learned it.
I'm not sure the average reader would get all of Colonel Beckwith's humorous asides and throwaway lines. Some are pretty wry, and would probably require that the reader have a military background to even notice. This edition has a few annoying typographical errors (is proofreading truly a lost art?), and Beckwith's prose occasionally lapses from one tense to another and then back again, which creates a slight feeling of disjointedness. Given those very minor caveats, for a reader with some familiarity and interest in the operational art, this is a must read.
Sua Sponte.

Charlie Beckwith founded Delta Force and decided to write a book about it. And that's mainly what the reader gets: the founding details and problems of this highly skilled American counterterrorist unit. If you expect blazing action sequences like the '85 resque attempt of the hijacked cruise liner Achille Lauro or the destruction of SCUD missile sites in the Gulf War by Delta in `91, you'll be dissapointed. All that happened after the publication of the book in 1983. At least a third of it consists of rather boring meetings, talks, and frustration, that Beckwith goes through trying to set up his unit, and that's a pity. Like buying a book about the Chicago Bulls and reading all about it's organization and stadium but no basketball. The last third of the book fortunately is somewhat better. It's about Delta's extensive preparations to resque 53 Americans held hostage in the American Ambassy in Iran in `79. Alas, again not much `bullet ducking action' because, as many people probably remember, the acual resque mission hardly got started, unable even to pass the first chopper refuelling point in the dessert. What went wrong? Beckwith here explains too little. Something with the RH-53D Sea Stallion helicopters went wrong, but afterwards the reader still doesn't know *why* that one chopper crashed into the EC-130 transport plane and what *exactly* went wrong flying through the sand storm to the meeting point `Dessert One'. Some inside pilot information afterwards would have been more than welcome. For a more action-oriented book that involves Delta, I recommend Mark Bowden's "Black Hawk Down" about the '93 Mogadishu (Somalia) firefight in persuit of warlord Aidid.

"Delta Force" should be required reading for every ambitious careerist working for a large organization. Wearing camo fatigues or gray-flannel suit, this fine treatise tells the ambitious what it takes to get things done in a large organization--in this case, the largest organization-the U.S. Army. And what it takes is a very smart, relentlessly driven maverick, just what these organizations abhor. Maverick General Billy Mitchell was court-marshaled for proving to the Navy that one aircraft could take out the fleet's largest ship.

Col. Charlie Beckwith is that other maverick, famous for his vision, tenacity and executive drive. He recognized, as legions of far higher-ranked "planners" did not, that the U.S. military had a huge hole in its capabilities. That hole was how to deal quickly with terrorist and other small-unit irregular trouble-makers. The tortuous chain of command alone for SEALS and other Special Ops organizations prevents them for responding quickly to emergency situations, such as an aircraft high jacking, where every minute counts. And that same tortuous chain is also replete with know-it-all desk jockeys, anxious, willing and able to add their two cents worth of directives to an operation. By the time permission is received, the plan has become monstrous (with each branch of service jealously demanding a piece of the action), and it is far too late. The plane has either long since taken off or been blown-up and the hostages killed.

The book describes in fascinating detail the twists and turns Beckwith endured to start up the still secret Delta Force. It lists name, rank and serial number of the Generals who did everything in their power to prevent what they saw only as poaching on their hallowed turf, even as they refused to admit they could not possibly handle the tasks Delta set out to achieve. And what an inventory of skills the Delta boys developed. Primary among them is deadly accuracy with any firearm under any situation. Sound impossible? Not when you consider the time spent training in realistic live-fire situations. Hours, and days and months of repetition. (This super marksmanship probably explains why Delta Force dropped the .45-cal pistol from their inventory and switched to the less-deadly 9mm. Every shooter knows that nothing stops a man in his tracks like the wallop of a .45. But those shells are large and limit a pistol's capacity. With their incredible accuracy, any round passing through the eye socket of a perpetrator will get the job done. So they might as well use the smaller round and have more of them to shoot.

Some will gripe that this book proves the U.S. Military is an incompetent dinosaur with the reflexes of sloth in winter. But the subtext is that Beckwith did effect change. The military did listen, and the military did act. Delta Force exists now as-along with the British SAS from which it was copied-the finest small-unit antiterrorist force in the world.

Reading the inside two pages of rave reviews, I expected the book to be far more gripping than it was. It started out great but quickly slid into tons and tons of small details about how hard it was to establish this unit. Every paper clip, every memo, every argument - just too much dull info. Perhaps if you like this kind of thing it's a great read. I found it overall a boring book. Finally, when it got to the failed hostage rescue I think he covered it in about 5 pages. I would not recommend it to MY friends.

Charlies book is in route as we speak.My husband had the honor of serving under Charlie back in Vietnam so we're waiting with great anticipation to read this.
It is factual that Charlie had to deal with a lot of red tape political bs to get certain projects( jobs) done.There was a period of time before Delta Force was officially formed where Charlie did some of his best, most amazing work.Some might term it as "Black Ops" as at the time it was a highly secretive mission involving saving the lives of thousands of trafficked children in South East Asia during the Vietnam war.These children aged 3 to teen years were taken away from their families & kidnapped from their villages by traffickers.They were treated worse than any animal in captivity. They were held in underground dirt pits in isolated areas of the jungle,starved and abused in ways sexually by their captors that we as civilized people can't comprehend even in our worst nightmares.
I've been told that it was a horrific scene & no government was up to dealing with at the time.Charlie, a father himself wanted to do something about it.He took this task on willingly despite the fact that initially he got zero cooperation from the higher ups.He found a way somehow to get this project up & running with a group of 5 specially selected young men pulled from various military branches. They were named "The Angel Girls" and my husband was one of them being the youngest member. To anyone who complains about having to read through Charlies distaste with having to deal with the knuckleheads in government, he wasn't being a whiner nor was he making any of that up.It must have been hugely frustrating to see horrific injustices being perpetrated on innocent victims,the inadvertent casualties of wartime and not be able to help. Despite whatever obstacles he faced the project did come to fruition & justice was served to those who deserved it.The lives of thousands of children in southeast Asia were saved.Most importantly Charlie made sure that each & every child was returned to his her or her village back into the arms of their grateful parents.Some folks want to only talk about what happened with Charlie & what appeared to be an unsuccessful mission under Jimmy Carter but honestly but I'm not going to let Charlie go down like that.Charlie wasn't one to brag about all of the amazing, wonderful things that he was involved in, that wasn't his style.I will tell you this, by all accounts Charlie Beckwith was a true American hero,a good man deserving of respect and honor.

I first thought that this book would probably be a bit dull, since it didn't have a lot of combat experiences in it, but is mostly about the formation of Delta. But it's now one of my favorite reads. A real page-turner, it only took me a couple weeks to get through it. I admit that it's enjoyment is probably limited to those with a serious interest in special ops. It has an honest and candid tone that lacks the the egoism of Marzcinko's book about SEAL Six. If your interested in learning more about Delta, I also reccomend reading Eric Haney's book, and Blackhawk Down. All three are very interesting and informative books, that take you inside, are hard to put down, and inspire profound respect for those who serve their country in this capacity.

A great story about the birth of Delta Force from the founder himself. Beckwith takes you from the original idea, based on his experience with the British Special Air Service (SAS), through their first mission (to free the hostages in Iran).

Because of his rank and the role he played in this story, you get a high level overview instead of the view from an operator on the ground (as in Eric Haney's book - Inside Delta Force). One item that was particularly interesting to me was the test (based on the SAS) they ran prior to their first real mission to determine if their operators would actually engage the terrorist. Although it was successful, they later decided to not use this test again and surmised that the British needed to determine if their operators would fire their weapons but the US needed to create rules on when to not fire their weapons. Not sure what that says about the two cultures, but it was interesting none the less.

Beckwith is definitely a strong personality who does not compromise. You learn much about the man and the government bureaucracy he fought for so many years. In the end, he was successful and we are a safer nation because of his efforts

Colonel Charlie Beckwith was the founding commander of Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, also known as Delta Force. Beckwith gives his unique first person perspective on the challenges he found in setting up a quick reaction counterterrorism unit that many other countries already had (and demonstrated in real world activities). Beckwith detailed his experience, from working with the British Special Air Service, to combat with the Special Forces in Vietnam, to establish a unit in the 1970s. He doesn't leave out any of the warts, especially of people who got in his way.

The story is fascinating mostly for its demonstration of the large institutional roadblocks thrown in the way of those leading new initiatives. In this case it was "Big Army" vs. COL Beckwith. Though he had key champions in high places, Beckwith still ran up against established units who thought his effort would be redundant. He ran into people who disliked him personally and therefore oppose him. In the end the requirement for a counterterrorism force became obvious, especially with the way other countries demonstrated their effectiveness, and how no other unit in the US military had been identified to fill the role.

Beckwith ends the story with his telling of Operation EAGLE CLAW, the attempted rescue of American hostages in Tehran in 1980. As is well known the operation ended in failure and the hostages weren't released for nearly another year. Beckwith chalks the failure up to too many hands being involved in the operation, and the surprise sandstorm.

Though Beckwith ends his story rather abruptly with a short chapter of the continued need for Delta Force, and many of the details were (and are) likely still classified, the first person account is still worth the read. And even though Beckwith often appears bitter, the personal details about how the sausage is made is fascinating.

Beckwith's book is an excellent account of his development as a Special Ops soldier, in Vietnam and on exchange with the SAS. He then brings these ideas into Delta Force, goes through all the gov't hassle of getting it established, and then commands SFOD-Delta in Operation Eagle Claw, the Iran hostage resuce mission, 1979-1980. Beckwith's insight into these issues is second to none.
Readers looking for more information on Operation Eagle Claw itself, particularly the Air Force fixed-wing and USMC rotary-wing elements of the mission, should read "The Guts to Try" by James H. Kyle, Col. USAF ret. This equally excellent but much less famous book covers the overall planning of Eagle Claw at a joint-forces administrative level above Beckwith, and covers the joint-forces command of the actual mission, since Kyle was the overall commander at Desert One. The mechanical and personal failures of the helicopters and their crews are also discussed, as well as Kyle's conclusions on why the mission failed. Beckwith's book gives an excellent account of his part of the mission, but does not cover these more global points.