OT - Book (Non Fiction) Review/Recommendations Thread

[LT. Ox]

Yes I was talking about the Ryan book and thank you for adding " A bridge too far". I have not read his " the Last Battle" and I will even with your review.

[Adm.Lee]

"Now the inspiration for the CBS Television drama, 'The Unit.'"

Haney is one of the near-original members of 1st SFOD-Delta, so he's talking about the long selection period, training from the ground up on hostage-rescue missions, and missions quietly done in Central America and Middle East, as well as Grenada.

I had forgotten/never known that Delta had been studying/training for a mission into Laos in the early '80s, to go after the missing American POWs from the Vietnam War.

Listening to this on CDs as I drive, I've been leaning into wanting to run/play something like T2k/Merc again. Well, more than usual.

[Adm.Lee]

Not directly T2k-related, I suppose. This is about the manufacturing and (especially) the selling of a pistol line that became really popular, really quickly. How quickly? They aren't in the 1st or 2nd edition, yet they became the issue weapon for the Austrian Army in 1983, not long before the game appeared.

By the early '90s, they were popping up in American police departments and in rap songs (but apparently not that many were bought/used by American criminals). Smith & Wesson and Colt lost a lot of market share, apparently, Glock snuck up on them, too.

I'm not finished reading yet, but there's a lot on some excellent salesmanship here. I skimmed ahead enough to know there's some financial skullduggery later on.

Only pictures are on the cover (close-up of the trigger area) and one of the founder/designer. I think it could have used some of the personalities involved, but that's just me.

I think one of these will pop up on an NPC as a "prestige" weapon soon.

[Raellus]

The Glock 17A is in the v1.0 Small Arms Guide (c. 1988).

[Adm.Lee]

Hm. I looked in the ToC, didn't see it. {Re-Look} Oh, there it is. Alphabetically after the H&K entries. I do that a lot, missing things that really should be obvious. I tell myself that's why God didn't let me have that career in the Army or CIA that I dreamed of; I'd miss that one little thing that would screw up a fight.