Relentless Strike by Sean Naylor

One of my rare forays into non-fiction. The subtitle for this book tells you all you need to know: “The secret history of Joint Special Operations Command” otherwise known as JSOC.

It’s late summer 1980. A handful of military brass are in conference about a new organization. About a year earlier, Operation Eagle Claw had failed. The attempted rescue of American hostages held in Iran fell apart. Deep inside Iran, the operation was postponed by a day because only five of eight helicopters were air worthy. Upon withdrawing to their staging ground in Oman, a helicopter crashed into a plane loaded with fuel and Delta soldiers. Eight died. The mission was scrubbed. An opportunity was lost. Men died. But in the immediate days later, President Carter wanted a mission ready to go on a moment’s notice if it became apparent that the lives of the hostages were in imminent danger.

The 2^nd shot at a rescue would require coordination of a Naval aircraft carrier group, Air Force transport and fighter support, Army Delta and Rangers, and on-ground surveillance (CIA). A whole bunch of folks not used to talking with each other much less working together. Who answers to whom was at issue. The commander of the Eagle Claw rescue wanted a direct line to the White House, not the normal circuitous route ‘up the chain’ for approval. Targets could disappear while the military stepped all over itself to get the go-no go answer. 

This new organization under discussion in 1980 was be just that. A mostly autonomous military organization designed not along the lines of the traditional military. Rather, this group would be charged with getting in fast, fixing the problem fast, and get out quietly leaving as little of a footprint as possible . . . at the behest of the Joint Chiefs and President. 

The genesis of JSOC.

Being a history book, the birth of JSOC begins a journey through the labyrinth of the military and Pentagon. Commanders and command structure changed regularly. Spec Op units come and go. Weapons begin as a jury-rigged contraption that end up going into production. Information gathering starts out by piggybacking with the CIA before JSOC develops its own network. Electronic surveillance techniques, that began as more of an exercise by some nerd soldiers before accelerating the field of electronic surveillance, cell phone tracking, and designing the protocols and equipment that brought real time surveillance using drones. And from surveillance drones came armed drones.And the military is trying to keep up with the technology at home and with an increasingly sophisticated enemy.

The bulk of the book (and it's a beast. Text, notes, glossary, index comes in at 540 pages) is about how each new commander tweaked JSOC operations to meet their vision. Lots of organizational revisions and the mandatory acronyms the military is known for. Select missions are described to make a point, not for the salacious details. The Bin Laden raid, the subject of books and movies, is told in just a couple pages because finding him and tracking him was JSOC’s mission and that is where Naylor spends considerable effort. Finding him was hard. Killing him was the easy part.

Mission successes and failures alike are revealed. Training locations for JSOC strikes in both the US and the world are discussed about what made each location important. Locations of this developing cadre of elite, secretive soldiers get attention, a couple of which are nearby.

How’d I learn about this book? I teach an online class twice a year. In it, I do a series of group  ‘zoom' calls. I logged in early and one student was there. Just chitchatting, I asked where he lived (Texas), what was his ‘day job’ (retired military), what branch of the service was he in (Army), what was his MOS (military occupational specialty – military-speak for ‘his job’). He said Spec Ops. 

That got my attention. Now Spec Ops can mean command (the micromanagers), logistics (getting people and equipment from point A to point B), operations (the day-to-day stuff of a military unit), or the operators (the hard men who carry out the missions). Probably a dozen others MOS operations to support those gun-carrying operators. I mentioned that I like to read espionage thrillers and those can involve CIA, FBI, LEO, and the military. He said, ‘I worked for JSOC. Heard of it?’ Yeah. Of course. From those espionage books. Said he’s retired but he sometimes ‘gets called back in’ and, that 'you never know, I might be called back in during this class' (he hasn’t yet). Never said what his MOS was in the JSOC spiderweb of connections. He can’t.

He asked if I’d read Relentless Strike. Never heard of it. He said get it. It’s good. A history book that reads almost like a novel. Thoroughly researched and reported. But since its publication, the author (an award winning reporter with special expertise and connections in special operations) has been shunned by the spec ops community. Ex-communicated if you will. I asked why and was told me it was because Naylor did the indefensible. He had pulled the curtain back on an organization that is obsessive about mission security and silence. A neighbor of my daughter is a pilot out of Ft. Bragg (Delta and 86^th Airborne home) and he flies spec op missions. All his flights are secret even from his wife. When he's called, she has no clue where he's going or when he’ll be back. He’s read the book. Yes, the author is persona-non-Grata in the spec op community.

I asked if he (the pilot) is JSOC. He didn’t respond.