For better or worse, most people acquire the balance of their knowledge about U.S. special operations forces from entertainment media. Over the past two decades, military books, TV shows, and movies have tended to include increasingly more SOF-focused subject matter. And yes, Navy SEALs have been the most-covered SOF unit over the last 25 years.
So, below are five non-fiction books primarily about non-SEAL SOF units that would make for compelling movies or TV shows. They might also teach the public something about units and operations of which they were previously unaware. In an open society – with all the necessary caveats about classification and non-disclosure agreements – that is a good thing.
First Casualty: The Untold Story of the CIA Mission to Avenge 9/11 by Toby Harnden
Harnden’s story of CIA’s Team Alpha – a handful of CIA officers and “detailed” (attached) Special Forces soldiers who entered Afghanistan a few weeks after the 9/11 attacks – is gripping stuff and worth everyone’s time. The team linked up with the Northern Alliance forces of Afghan warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum and directly battled the Taliban, at one point having to deal with a deadly prisoner uprising at the Qala-i-Jangi prison during which the first American responding to the 9/11 attacks lost his life.
Elements of U.S. Special Forces and the British Special Boat Service (SBS) – who themselves had a Navy SEAL attached – became involved, and the whole episode is now one of CIA and SOF legend. It was a hasty yet determined immediate response to the 9/11 attacks and illustrates exquisitely the resolve, derring-do, and heroism of the ground-level personnel who led the initial response.
Alone at Dawn, by Dan Shilling and Lori Chapman Longfritz
A few years back, actor Jake Gyllenhall was attached to an “in development” film project titled Combat Control that was to be based on the book Alone at Dawn. While the current state of that development is unclear, the book should definitely make it to the screen if there is any justice. Co-authored by his sister Lori Chapman Longfritz, Alone at Dawn chronicles the life and death of Air Force Combat Controller, Technical Sergeant Mark “Chappy” Chapman.
Chapman was killed in Afghanistan in 2002 while participating in Operation Anaconda. His heroic fight to the death at the Battle of Takur Ghar, on what would come to be called Roberts Ridge (named after Navy SEAL Neil Roberts, who also died in the battle), earned Chapman a Medal of Honor and a place in U.S. Special Operations lore. The book also goes into the world of Air Force Combat Controllers, a perhaps little-known SOF community for the wider public. Shortly after the events at Roberts Ridge, Chappy had already become a legend amongst American SOF and CIA counterterrorism personnel.
Related: The social hierarchy of US special operations units
Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World’s Greatest Outlaw, by Mark Bowden
It is perhaps a little-known fact (for all kinds of reasons) that U.S. SOF occasionally play an “advisory” role in the United States’ longstanding and sometimes frustrating war on drugs. Author Mark Bowden in Killing Pablo describes how the Army’s Delta Force was involved in the successful manhunt for drug lord Pablo Escobar. While the book might need some updating since its original publication in 2001 – hopefully some more details are now declassified – it is nevertheless a fascinating story about the longstanding U.S. SOF involvement in South America.
Surprise, Kill, Vanish: The Secret History of CIA Paramilitary Armies, Operators, and Assassins, by Annie Jacobsen
Pulitzer Prize finalist Jacobsen brings her considerable intellect and thorough research abilities to bear in this account of the shadowy world of CIA special activities. Colloquially considered to be the grad school-level special operations forces amongst U.S. intelligence and SOF, the Special Activities Division is widely misunderstood and often erroneously endowed with sinister levels of malice, mystique, and maleficence that this book does a good job of, if not debunking, then at least demystifying. It could make for a fascinating multiple-part limited series.
Sua Sponte: The Forging of a Modern American Ranger, by Dick Couch
Finally, it seems that everyone is familiar with the legendary training crucible that is Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training. Another infamous and grueling selection program that deserves a dramatic recounting is U.S. Army Ranger School. Starved, frozen, and exhausted candidates struggle to make it into one of the U.S. military’s most legendary units, and Dick Couch provides a terrific bit of source material to craft a riveting story.
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