From Publishers Weekly
Haney, a founding member of Delta Force who retired a command sergeant major, was a career army man, having served in the elite Rangers; his memoir covers his experiences during the formation and early operations of 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta. In the fall of 1978, Haney was recruited and ordered to report to a secret corner of expansive Fort Bragg, N.C., where he underwent a rigorous selection process familiar from similar memoirs. In the second section of three, Haney describes advanced work with explosives and weapons, studying airplanes to plan hostage rescues, and the "final exam," in which the class was sent to the nation's capital, given precise assignments and had to evade the FBI. (The result a red-faced FBI.) Haney then relates his assignments: he served three times in Beirut guarding the American ambassador, participated in the invasion of Grenada, served in several Central American countries and narrowly escaped death during the abortive rescue attempt of the American hostages in Iran. Will he and a partner successfully eliminate a sniper harassing the Marines in Beirut? Will his unit rescue hostages aboard a hijacked plane without losing any hostages? Readers of other special forces memoirs will find this one distinctive for Haney's attention to interservice rivalries (he has a lot of negative things to say about the CIA) that he believes compromised several missions, as well as for Haney's nuanced, often disgusted descriptions of the human cost of war.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From Booklist
Retired army command sergeant-major Haney paints a vivid portrait of the first decade of the elite U.S. counterterrorist unit, Delta Force, which has never had more than a few hundred men on its roster. An early volunteer for the force, he became one of the handful who survived dauntingly rigorous physical and psychological tests to join its initial cadre of men who then were dedicated to special-operations warfare. Haney does the special-ops soldier full justice as he depicts himself and his... read more

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Book Description
Delta Force. They are the U.S. Army’s most elite top-secret strike force. They dominate the modern battlefield, but you won’t hear about their heroics on CNN. No headlines can reveal their top-secret missions, and no book has ever taken readers inside–until now. Here, a founding member of Delta Force takes us behind the veil of secrecy and into the action-to reveal the never-before-told story of 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-D (Delta Force).

INSIDE DELTA FORCE
THE STORY OF AMERICA’S ELITE
COUNTERTERRORIST UNIT

He is a master of espionage, trained to take on hijackers, terrorists, hostage takers, and enemy armies. He can deploy by parachute or arrive by commercial aircraft. Survive alone in hostile cities. Speak foreign languages fluently. Strike at enemy targets with stunning swiftness and extraordinary teamwork. He is the ultimate modern warrior: the Delta Force Operator.

In this dramatic behind-the-scenes chronicle, Eric Haney, one of the founding members of Delta Force, takes us inside this legendary counterterrorist unit. Here, for the first time, are details of the grueling selection process–designed to break the strongest of men–that singles out the best of the best: the Delta Force Operator.

With heart-stopping immediacy, Haney tells what it’s really like to enter a hostage-held airplane. And from his days in Beirut, Haney tells an unforgettable tale of bodyguards and bombs, of a day-to-day life of madness and beauty, and of how he and a teammate are called on to kill two gunmen targeting U.S. Marines at the Beirut airport. As part of the team sent to rescue American hostages in Tehran, Haney offers a first-person description of that failed mission that is a chilling, compelling account of a bold maneuver undone by chance–and a few fatal mistakes.

From fighting guerrilla warfare in Honduras to rescuing missionaries in Sudan and leading the way onto the island of Grenada, Eric Haney captures the daring and discipline that distinguish the men of Delta Force. Inside Delta Force brings honor to these singular men while it puts us in the middle of action that is sudden, frightening, and nonstop around the world.

 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Spotlight Reviews (What's this?)
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
 Haney is perhaps the best of the best!, March 21, 2004
 Reviewer: A reader from Long Island, New York
Inside delta force was a fascinating look at the world from the perspective of a delta force operator. I am now reading Delta Force by Charles Beckwith, written in 1983. Beckwith, I believe refers to Haney by the pseudonym "Allen" in his book. He says "Allen" never made an operational or training mistake to his knowledge. That is quite a complement from Colonel Beckwith considering the level of training and skill Delta Force required and the company they kept.

Haney does an excellent job of explaining the training rigors and operational preparations needed to succeed as an Elite Delta operator. He also at times shows his frustration at the bureaucratic squabbling and occasional incomprehensible decisions made which left operator lives in the balance.

I could'nt help but feel at the end that Mr. Haney had given his country 100% and perhaps simply felt spent and ready to call it a career. He has my complete admiration for his thorough devotion to duty even when he felt his expertise may have on occasion been misused.

Read his book and get a better understanding of what our best soldiers give and often give up in service of our country.
 

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Insights into America's Secret History, April 8, 2003
 Reviewer: J. Patrick Bedell from Austin, TX USA
"Inside Delta Force" is a well-written book of interest to people who want to know about the military men who achieve national objectives for the US Government, and the ways they do it. Of course, the author has left out or obscured many details of his story - if he hadn't, he might be in jail or dead.

For a student of the "secret" history of the US, two parts of the book stand out:

* Haney claims that prisoners of war were deliberately left in Southeast Asia after the Vietnam War, and that a planned Delta operation to rescue them in Laos was aborted after Bo Gritz's grandstanding in the early 1980's. He attributes this to unnamed politicians and bureaucrats who wanted to avoid embarassment and forget everything (and everyone) about Vietnam.

* Haney says that he believes a "guerrilla leader" that he killed in Honduras was actually working for the US government, and identifies him as a fellow soldier who participated in Delta Force selection with him.

He also makes allusions to the CIA's supposed involvement in drug smuggling in Central America during the 1980's.

It's clear that these experiences and others have affected his perception of the US government, and the book benefits from his skeptical perspective.

Recommended!