Tales of Raw Courage
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The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment is one of the US Special Operations Command primary aviation elements. This book is not a complete history of the regiment. Official secrecy prevents such an account from being written. Instead, Durant/Hartov/Johnson have constructed a set of vignettes based on the recollections of several of the unit's members, both about the period before the unit's formation and once it commenced operations. All of the tales seem to be hand picked for either the foresight shown by those who created the unit or the raw heroism displayed by its members in Grenada, the Persian Gulf, Panama, Somalia, and the Gulf Wars. Each account is very readable and you will come away impressed by the courage of the pilots who fly helicopters far beyond the limits of anyone else. However, the downside is that each account assumes a certain knowledge of US Special Operations history and certain elements of the 160th's organization and training are mentioned but not elaborated. A small criticism as a former USAF historian is that the book seems to ignore or discount the equally high skill of Air Force special operations helicopter pilots (or US Navy ones for that matter).
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