by Sean Naylor
First published 2015
Joint Special Operations Command operates as America's most secretive military weapon. Sean Naylor gained exclusive access to reveal how this organization transformed after September 11 from a limited Cold War unit into the premier counterterrorism force. JSOC fuses Delta Force, SEAL Team 6, and the 75th Ranger Regiment with classified aviation and intelligence units. Naylor documents their operations that eliminated Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, captured Saddam Hussein, and rescued Captain Phillips. Through interviews with operators and commanders, he takes readers inside Pentagon war rooms and Iraqi battlefields. The book traces JSOC's evolution from tense meetings at headquarters to combat missions aboard Black Hawks and Delta Force vehicles approaching targets. Naylor shows how an organization built for narrow 1980s missions reinvented itself to become the military's primary tool against global terrorism and continues adapting today.
Genres: military-fiction, action, non-fiction, political-thriller
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: investigative-journalism
Setting: Iraq, Pentagon
Period: Cold War, September 11
560 pages · Hardcover · St. Martin's Press
Content warnings: violence