One of Osprey's earliest books in the Elite series covered the US Army Rangers from its inception until about 1987. This one picks up where the other left off. In line with books in the series, there is a section on the history of the Rangers, which I found to be rather splintered as the unit was organized in preparation for WWII then disbanded, then reorganized again for Korea only to be disbanded again and picked back up prior to the US commitment to Vietnam.

During all this time, the mission of the unit changed to meet the requirements of the day. The current unit, has been provided with the lineage going back to Merrill's Marauders who earned their reputation from the fighting in Burma during WWII. Then the purpose of the unit was to be planted behind the lines and cause as much destruction and disruption as possible to draw enemy troops from the front lines.

Today's Rangers are much more like the British SAS in that their primary mission is to capture enemy air fields and destroy enemy equipment. As such, the training requirements have changed to meet the current mission standards. The unit still expects the very best soldiers and the rejection rate for those applying is still quite high. They operate specialized equipment and their tactics are also rather different from the norm. In the most part, today's Rangers are partnered with the 160 SOAR helicopter unit who operate MH-6 and MH-47 helos.

The book covers five major operational theaters. The first is the invasion of Panama in 1989. During this operation, losses were quite light and the opposition was not as heavy as expected, allowing the Rangers to meet their goals in a relatively short period of time. The next was Desert Storm in 1991. Here the unit did not have the sort of role expected as the general in charge, Schwartzkopf, did not feel they had a part to play. However, they did carry out an operation in debilitating Iraqi communications stations in the south western part of the country near Jordan.

Then there was Somalia in 1993. Here the unit performed admirably under very trying conditions, though the overall mission was a failure.

The next two operations are quite recent and were very long lasting. First is the Afghan war from 2001 until the present day. The other was the Iraq war from 2003-2010. In both cases, the Rangers were in the forefront of the fighting, this time using their skills to eliminate insurgents and helping to train local military units to do the same, with varying levels of success.

You'd expect a lot of 'war stories' and you get them. These episodes bring to light how difficult many of these operations really were and how they affected the course of the conflict. A section on the various weapons and equipment used is also included. What struck me the most is how heavily armed and protected today's soldiers really are. A WWII Ranger could only look on in envy at all the goodies available to today's forces. In fact, like many modern soldiers, they tend to look like something out of science fiction from a few decades back, thanks to all the electronic enhancements available to them. However, this equipment is quite useful in allowing the individual to perform their assignment and live through it.

In all, this book makes for an interesting read and provides insight into one of America's premier fighting units. A book that you really will enjoy reading.

June 2016

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