Reddit Reddit reviews Spec Ops: Case Studies in Special Operations Warfare: Theory and Practice

We found 7 Reddit comments about Spec Ops: Case Studies in Special Operations Warfare: Theory and Practice. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

History
Books
American History
United States History
Spec Ops: Case Studies in Special Operations Warfare: Theory and Practice
Check price on Amazon

7 Reddit comments about Spec Ops: Case Studies in Special Operations Warfare: Theory and Practice:

u/WillyPete · 37 pointsr/Military

> Sounds like another Mad Dog,

The man is an insanely good as a leader.
This book of his is based on his Master's thesis, and is fantastic.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Spec-Ops-Studies-Operations-Practice/dp/0891416005

The kind of things he does, is things like personally going and apologising to victims of a botched US raid.
https://abcnews.go.com/WN/Afghanistan/special-forces-apologize-afghan-civilian-deaths-sheep/story?id=10320603
>Presenting sheep is such a powerful form of requesting forgiveness that the father is now obligated not to take revenge, even though he has told reporters he wanted to become a suicide bomber.

I reckon his knife hand is just as lethal as Mad Dog's, you just won't see it coming.

u/tacsquid · 6 pointsr/Military

You should read his thesis paper. Basically he's fucking crazy smart, charismatic, and highly experienced. Small wonder he's been in charge of JSOC and SOCOM.

free thesis: http://edocs.nps.edu/npspubs/scholarly/theses/1993/Jun/93Jun_McRaven.pdf (24 megs)

http://www.amazon.com/Spec-Ops-Studies-Operations-Practice/dp/0891416005

u/Rock0rSomething · 3 pointsr/Military

Before you touch any history, read the book that's the intellectual foundation for understanding special operations.. Adm McRaven, current SOCOM commander, wrote it as a Commander. The title seems hokey by current standards, but this is a very serious academic look into the subject.

BTW, the current competitive numbers for an NROTC mid to get a slot at BUD/S are 7:00/120/120/25/8:00. No shit.

u/oostevo · 3 pointsr/wikipedia

There's an excellent treatment of this raid and several like it in the book "Spec Ops: Case Studies in Special Operations Warfare: Theory and Practice."[1]

The author of the book has a pretty interesting resume, too: "McRaven is credited for organizing and executing Operation Neptune's Spear, the special ops raid that led to the death of Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011."[2]

[1] www.amazon.com/Spec-Ops-Studies-Operations-Practice/dp/0891416005/
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_McRaven#Operation_Neptune.27s_Spear:_Death_of_Osama_bin_Laden

u/hawaiianssmell · 2 pointsr/politics

For those that are interested, Admiral McRaven literally wrote the book on this kind of raid.

u/Oni_K · 2 pointsr/Documentaries

It was to deny the dock for specifically the Tirpitz. Other ships could be serviced anywhere else. But Hitler had already ensured Tirpitz couldn't be used in the Atlantic by sending it North. From there, he couldn't get to the Atlantic without entering RAF bomber range, and the RAF had the ship under 24/7 surveillance waiting for just that opportunity.

https://www.amazon.ca/Spec-Ops-Studies-Operations-Practice/dp/0891416005

If you want to tell me you know more about this than Admiral McRaven, who interviewed people who were on both sides of all the raids he studied, you're going to have a hard time convincing me.

u/13FiSTer · 1 pointr/Military

This is a pretty good book to have your troops read. It delves into logistics all the way back to 1500's and come up to WWII, covering Napoleon, Rommel, and even Patton.

My best friend read this book and recommended it. He works for DLA in logistics.

There are a number of other topics you could dive into. McRaven's essays from 1996 pretty much laid the groundwork for modern SO tactics, it'd be great for you to read through it, pose the situations to your men (change the aggressors and defenders/location/other details of course, so it seems like a new thing) and have them think critically and see what answers they come up with. Then have them read the book and see how the Commander of JSOC wanted to do it.

I think spending some time on history and perspective would be interesting too. Most people, be it military or civilian, American or otherwise, are pretty biased and limited in their World view, Americans moreso (in my opinion, but I'm nobody special). Having them discuss situations from opposite viewpoints can help broaden their understanding of other cultures and help them better understand how politics, tactics, and warfare changes from nation to nation.

A couple examples:

  1. While the U.S. hates terrorists, from the British viewpoint in the 1700's, we were the terrorists, the OG and most gangsta Revolutionaries the Worlds ever seen (suck it Mao). Right and wrong are subjective and unclear.

  2. I've met more then my share of Chinese nationals. While it's known pretty well that the Korean war was a proxy with China, most people don't know why. Kim had helped Mao's revolution, so Mao felt pressured to help Korea by providing advisers and weapons platforms. Chinese troops joined the fighting when the US started winning because Mao honestly feared that the US would end up at China's border - or worse, invade China. Thus, in China the Korean war is known as the American war of aggression against China. Really shows that just because we are doing the right thing doesn't mean it looks like we're doing the right thing.

  3. A good number of the insurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan were foreigners who were tricked under the guise of religion, enticed by the promise of money, or enticed by the idea of fighting a "jihad", and under one of those three pretenses participated in destabilization efforts against coalition forces in OIF and OEF. The idea of good and bad kinda blurs at this point in my opinion: can you really picture a teenager whose being brainwashed by his surrounding culture, peers, and authority figures as a truly evil entity? Is a kid who isn't fully understanding the ramifications of what he's doing really the epitome of evil? Is the life of a desperate farmer who is perhaps threatened by an Insurgent organization to join them worth any less then anybody else?

    I don't know if you think those are good or bad, but they're just a few things I thought of off the top of my head. Not saying I agree or disagree with any of the points I've stated, but they are arguments I've heard or read in the past, and they are pretty multifaceted.