The Night Stalkers: Top-Secret Missions of the U.S. Army's Special Operations Aviation Regiment

by Michael J. Durant, Steven Hartov, Robert L. Johnson

Overview

From the New York Times bestselling authors of In the Company of Heroes comes a thrilling account of military aviation for history buffs and “for those who love vivid tales of battlefield heroics” (Publishers Weekly). 

In the world of covert warfare, Special Operations pilots are notoriously close-lipped about what they do. They don’t talk about their missions to anyone outside their small community. But now, Michael J. Durant and Steven Hartov shed fascinating light on the mysterious elite commandos known as SOAR (Special Operations Aviation Regiment) and take readers into a shadowy world of combat they have only imagined.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780451222916
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/02/2008
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	185,842
Product dimensions:	6.02(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.79(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Michael J. Durant retired from the army as a Chief Warrant Officer 4. In addition to participating in Operation Restore Hope in Somalia, he saw action in the Persian Gulf, Panama, and Kuwait. His awards include the Distinguished Service Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Bronze Star with Valor Device, the Purple Heart, the Meritorious Service Medal, three Air Medals, the POW/MIA ribbon, and the Army Commendation Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters

Editorial Reviews

Until 1980, Special Forces (Delta, SEALs, Rangers, Green Berets) relied on ad hoc transportation from other units to get to every operation. That led to disaster in 1980, when the failed Iranian hostage rescue left hulks of five helicopters in the Iranian desert. The U.S. Army decided to do it right the next time, resulting in the creation of SOAR, the Special Operations Aviation Regiment, a highly trained, aggressive unit of helicopter pilots and crew. Durant (In the Company of Heroes) and coauthors recount half a dozen SOAR missions from Grenada in 1983 and Panama in 1989 to Afghanistan and Iraq today, all with abundant fireworks and casualties. However, in this account, bravery occurs only on our side, while opponents are gleefully cackling comic-book villains blown to smithereens by America's deadly firepower. Readers who wonder why our magnificent troops are assailing, say, the Panamanian army, which no one would mistake for the Wehrmacht, have picked up the wrong book. It's written for those who love vivid tales of battlefield heroics and seek no more insight from books than they do from video games. (Jan.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly