Product Description

Now the inspiration for the CBS Television drama, "The Unit."

Delta Force. They are the U.S. Army's most elite top-secret strike force. They dominate the modern battlefield, but you won't hear about their heroics on CNN. No headlines can reveal their top-secret missions, and no book has ever taken readers inside—until now. Here, a founding member of Delta Force takes us behind the veil of secrecy and into the action-to reveal the never-before-told story of 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-D (Delta Force).

Inside Delta Forece
The Story of America's Elite Counterterrorist Unit

He is a master of espionage, trained to take on hijackers, terrorists, hostage takers, and enemy armies. He can deploy by parachute or arrive by commercial aircraft. Survive alone in hostile cities. Speak foreign languages fluently. Strike at enemy targets with stunning swiftness and extraordinary teamwork. He is the ultimate modern warrior: the Delta Force Operator.

In this dramatic behind-the-scenes chronicle, Eric Haney, one of the founding members of Delta Force, takes us inside this legendary counterterrorist unit. Here, for the first time, are details of the grueling selection process—designed to break the strongest of men—that singles out the best of the best: the Delta Force Operator.

With heart-stopping immediacy, Haney tells what it's really like to enter a hostage-held airplane. And from his days in Beirut, Haney tells an unforgettable tale of bodyguards and bombs, of a day-to-day life of madness and beauty, and of how he and a teammate are called on to kill two gunmen targeting U.S. Marines at the Beirut airport. As part of the team sent to rescue American hostages in Tehran, Haney offers a first-person description of that failed mission that is a chilling, compelling account of a bold maneuver undone by chance—and a few fatal mistakes.

From fighting guerrilla warfare in Honduras to rescuing missionaries in Sudan and leading the way onto the island of Grenada, Eric Haney captures the daring and discipline that distinguish the men of Delta Force. Inside Delta Force brings honor to these singular men while it puts us in the middle of action that is sudden, frightening, and nonstop around the world.


From the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #118144 in Books
• Published on: 2005-08-30
• Released on: 2005-08-30
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 9.00" h x .80" w x 5.98" l, .85 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Haney, a founding member of Delta Force who retired a command sergeant major, was a career army man, having served in the elite Rangers; his memoir covers his experiences during the formation and early operations of 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta. In the fall of 1978, Haney was recruited and ordered to report to a secret corner of expansive Fort Bragg, N.C., where he underwent a rigorous selection process familiar from similar memoirs. In the second section of three, Haney describes advanced work with explosives and weapons, studying airplanes to plan hostage rescues, and the "final exam," in which the class was sent to the nation's capital, given precise assignments and had to evade the FBI. (The result a red-faced FBI.) Haney then relates his assignments: he served three times in Beirut guarding the American ambassador, participated in the invasion of Grenada, served in several Central American countries and narrowly escaped death during the abortive rescue attempt of the American hostages in Iran. Will he and a partner successfully eliminate a sniper harassing the Marines in Beirut? Will his unit rescue hostages aboard a hijacked plane without losing any hostages? Readers of other special forces memoirs will find this one distinctive for Haney's attention to interservice rivalries (he has a lot of negative things to say about the CIA) that he believes compromised several missions, as well as for Haney's nuanced, often disgusted descriptions of the human cost of war.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Retired army command sergeant-major Haney paints a vivid portrait of the first decade of the elite U.S. counterterrorist unit, Delta Force, which has never had more than a few hundred men on its roster. An early volunteer for the force, he became one of the handful who survived dauntingly rigorous physical and psychological tests to join its initial cadre of men who then were dedicated to special-operations warfare. Haney does the special-ops soldier full justice as he depicts himself and his comrades in training and in action. Notable among the actions he reports is the abortive 1980 Iranian hostage rescue, which left Haney with an acute distaste for the U.S. Navy and more than a few suspicions about the intestinal fortitude and ethics of the U.S. government. He grants, however, that the fiasco led to major reforms within Delta Force and U.S. special warfare service generally. Adding considerably to public knowledge about basic and sophisticated security and antiterrorism issues, his valuable book is also, after 9-11, a compellingly timely one. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"In this rapidly changing and dangerous world, U.S. Special Forces are vital to the security of all Americans. CSM Eric Haney is perhaps the World's foremost expert on military special ops. Read INSIDE DELTA FORCE and learn what we are really up against."
--Bill O'Reilly, Anchor, Fox News Channel

"A book that could not be more timely, written by a warrior who knows what he's talking about.."
--James Webb, author of Fields of Fire and Lost Soldiers

“A rousing chronicle of what it’s really like to be a special-ops guy.”
--Esquire

“Compelling memoir...a book that you won’t want to put down.”
--Playboy

“Perfect for military enthusiasts.”
--Kirkus Reviews


From the Paperback edition.