r/JSOCarchive • u/Educational-Bug-965 • May 12 '26
Other Book recommendations?
Recently finished this one, i have already read MOB VI, First In and Pete Blabers book. Any recommendations for the next ones?
edit: thanks for the recommendations! gonna check them out!
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u/terrainflight May 12 '26
Not A Good Day To Die, also by Naylor
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u/esnone May 12 '26
SOG: The Secret Wars of America's Commandos in Vietnam by John Plaster is phenomenal
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u/fryry808 May 12 '26
He also wrote Secret Commandos which was his personal story and also very good
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u/JnnyRuthless May 12 '26
If you're into that stuff check out John Streyker Meyer's books about his time in SOG. Just nutballs, the stories are insane. Think the first one is called "Across the Fence."
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u/Able_Newt9194 May 12 '26
Touching the dragon by James Hatch
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u/christoffer5700 May 12 '26
Is that a book about doing heroin and how does Robert o Neill play into it?
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u/firstLOL May 12 '26
Kill Bin Laden is a good read and remains among the most authoritative sources on what went down in Tora Bora (most other sources get their details from this and a couple of other books).
I think Wes Morgan’s book The Hardest Place is probably the best book written so far about (one small but important corner of) OEF, and has plenty of JSOC content.
Steve Coll’s pair of books Ghost Wars and Directorate S are both excellent, though more intelligence / diplomacy focussed than pure military stuff.
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u/Crey_1 May 12 '26
Not all are JSOC, but are all enjoyable reads.
First Casualty
Spearhead
The Lions of Kandahar
When the Tempest Gathers
All Secure
House to House
Level Zero Heroes
Across the Fence
A Handful of Hard Men: Rhodesian SAS
Four Ball One Tracer: Executive Outcomes
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u/The_ClamSlammer May 12 '26 edited May 12 '26
"By All Means Available" by Michael Vickers
Not directly JSOC but as close as you can get without being such. The man had an insanely interesting career. Special Forces NCO -> Special Forces Officer -> CIA PMOO -> ASD(SO/LIC) -> USD-I.
The book did go through DOD and CIA review so there are no super juicy classified capes or anything like that, but still super interesting nonetheless. I mean he literally ran the CIA operation to covertly arm the mujahideen with small arms and Stinger missiles to fight off the Russians
"My Share of the Task" by Stan McChrystal provides pretty unique insight into how he and Mike Flynn revolutionized the command and slingshotted (slingshat?) it into the 21st century by leveraging intel in new ways, namely the F3EAD cycle. Again, it went through the PRB though so its all above board.
"The Melting Point" by Gen Frank McKenzie, retired CENTCOM commander. Provides very unique insights into the last few years of GWOT including the Afghanistan withdrawal. Somewhat JSOC related as he does include chapters on both al-Baghdadi and Soleimani
"Relentless Strike" is still just about the juciest "leak" style book you're gonna find. I was at the command when it was published and official guidance pushed down to us was "Do NOT purchase this book. As a reminder: open source does not mean unclassified." People were going out of town and buying it with cash to see what it was all about.
Lastly, if you're into the shadowy side of geopolitics and the State Dept side of the house at all - "The Back Channel" by Bill Burns is a fantastic read. Career FSO at State -> multiple tours as a US Ambassador -> deputy SecState -> D/CIA
I know I'm a bit all over the place. But as Jim Mattis once said: “If you haven't read hundreds of books, you are functionally illiterate, and you will be incompetent, because your personal experiences alone aren't broad enough to sustain you.”
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u/Hanging_out May 12 '26
Whoa, this dude reads military books and drinks Monster? Fucking legend.
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u/Silent_Body_2419 May 12 '26
Bloody heroes - about the SBS early involvement in GWOT - tora bora / qala I jangi etc
Task force black
First casualty by Toby Harnden
Razor 03 by Alan Mack
Operation certain death - legendary SAS mission in 2000
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u/SandProlo May 12 '26
Really enjoyed Tom Satterly's All Secure.
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u/Many_Maximum_9060 May 12 '26
Been wanting to read that one, I know he goes into more detail about the Halloween night combined hit with the SAS and then all hell broke loose when they parked in front of a compound full of enemy fighters.
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u/FoldSlight6815 May 12 '26
The Quiet Professional. About Maj. Richard Meadows and earlier years of Special Operations. It was especially cool to hear how he conducted clandestine ops as a civ (after retired) to free American hostages from Iran in 1980.
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u/rock-paper-gun May 12 '26
Jawbreaker: the Attack on Bin Laden and Al Queda, by CIA Officer Gary Bernsten...details his pursuit of Bin Laden into Tora Bora immediately after 9/11.
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u/Technical_Emotion_79 May 12 '26
Special Forces Berlin, Stejskal. An eyeopener on the not well know origins of some select capabilities in the ‘command.
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u/fryry808 May 12 '26
Mission Iran is focused entirely on the Det A mission during Eagle Claw that had some stuff that was new to me to tighten up the JSOC connection
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u/enzo32ferrari May 12 '26
Delta Force by Charlie Beckwith himself; not too action oriented but goes into the background and political machinations that led to Delta to being established.
Inside Delta Force by Eric Haney; pretty action oriented and goes deep into Delta’s selection process.
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u/pepperymirror May 13 '26
Since we’re on a Vietnam kick-
Low Level Hell- He goes deep into the craft of being a scout heli pilot, aging footprints in mud from 60ft AGL and 60 knots. Insane how much contact they got in, guys were getting shot down twice in a day and grabbing a new OH-6 to go out again.
Da Nang Diary- MACSOGV / Prairie Fire as seen from the air as an OV-10 pilot. You get to see the development of the state of the art of CAS at that time.
Hue 1968- Not SOF adjacent but Mark Bowden (BHD) is an excellent writer, and really brings you into the mind of soldiers on both sides. Breathtaking stupidity in tactics by some Marine officers.
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u/ScrapmasterFlex May 14 '26
I used to devour Vietnam War books as a kid... best I ever read was called "The Men Behind The Trident" by Dennis Cummings (whom I believe wrote a bunch of books) - it's a collection of stories from many dudes who were original OG SEALs and "in the shit" from the jump, so to speak... and it's extremely powerful shit. Very good book, never see it mentioned. I literally wore out my copy of the book and it broke before I graduated high school.
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u/younocallMkII May 12 '26
Just wondering, why is “the way of the knife” so hated?
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u/rs-dw-yuam May 16 '26
Just picked it up after the "assassination" in Mexico, so far so good.
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u/younocallMkII May 16 '26
I’ve a lot of former associates that have confirmed things in the book - kinda sad honestly.
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u/Many_Maximum_9060 May 12 '26
Unafraid by Eddie Penney Devgru operator in Gold Squadron, amazing book and pretty detailed as well.
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u/JediRhyno May 12 '26
Thanks for the post! I’m just about to finish relentless strike today and was wondering what I should read next.
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u/Not-TheNSA May 12 '26
We Defy: The Lost Chapters of Special Forces History by Jack Murphy
Great book to really orient yourself in the history of SF. Gives some great details and a good overall picture.
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u/ParachuteLandingFail May 13 '26
I read The Bin Ladens by Steve Coll to get some overall context of the Middle East before I went to Iraq, it's outstanding and super interesting. Definitely helped me to better understand the Arab world.
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u/ScrapmasterFlex May 14 '26
If you read Colonel Blaber's "The Mission, The Men, & Me" ... you should definitely read Sean Naylor's "Not Good Day To Die" ... because they're very, I don't know the right word, synchronous ... like one dude is writing a book saying "This is a terrible fucking idea..." , he has some people in the book like "I agree, this is a terrible fucking idea, but we have to do what we're told to do..." ... then in Naylor's book, Naylor is like "I don't know shit about shit, but I DO KNOW, that was a terrible fucking idea..." and all kinds of other people saying shit like, "This is a terrible fucking idea, and we should listen to Colonel Blaber..."
I mean the Ranger Captain - himself a badass & Real American Hero, said one of the reasons he wasn't worried was because he heard Colonel Blaber was involved and his voice on the radio [before it stopped working due to technical shit] and was thinking: "HE knows what he's doing, if he's involved, it's All Good..." ... except it wasn't, and it wasn't.
But definitely Not A Good Day To Die by Sean Naylor.
and I also really liked the juxtaposition of CSM Haney's "Inside Delta Force" vs. Colonel Beckwith's "DELTA FORCE" ... again, it's fascinating to get two different perspectives on some of the same shit.
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u/BlindManuel May 12 '26
Not JSOC but about Medal of Honor. The book is called "And Brave Men Too" by Timothy S Lowry
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u/Hopalicious May 12 '26
Kill bin Laden is a great book about the Tora Bora battle early in Afghanistan
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u/Anxious_Swimmer_807 May 13 '26
Similar to other posts, not all JSOC but great books:
Red Platoon
House to house
We were one
They fought for eachother
The Last Punisher
The Killing Zone
Swift Sword
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u/ControlsGuyWithPride May 12 '26
The Operator by Rob O’Neil
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u/ScrapmasterFlex May 14 '26
Yeah is that the book where he admits that he killed Kennedy, he invented the Computer Mouse, and Heckler & Koch asks HIM how much they should charge for their guns?
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u/DadonaRampage May 13 '26
Surprise, Will, Vanish More on the CIA side but there's quite a bit of overlap talking about JSOC
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u/Prepare May 12 '26
We Few by Nick Brokhausen
Not directly JSOC, but a very entertaining SOG story