No Room for Error

"When the U.S. Air Force decided to create an elite "special tactics" team in the late 1970s to work in conjunction with special-operations forces fighting terrorists and highjackers and defusing explosive international emergencies, John T. Carney was the man they turned to. Since then Carney and the U.S. Air Force Special Tactics units have circled the world on sensitive clandestine missions. They have operated behind enemy lines, gathering vital intelligence. They have combated terrorists and overthrown dangerous dictators. They have suffered many times the casualty rate of America's conventional forces. But they have gotten the job done - most recently in stunning victories in the war on terrorism in Afghanistan, which Carney calls "America's first special-operations war." Now, for the first time, Colonel Carney lifts the veil of secrecy and reveals what really goes on inside the special-operations forces that are at the forefront of contemporary warfare." "Part memoir, part military history, No Room for Error reveals how Carney, after a decade of military service, was handpicked to organize a small, under-funded, classified ad hoc unit known as Brand X, which even his boss knew very little about. Here Carney recounts the challenging missions: the secret reconnaissance in the desert of north-central Iran during the hostage crisis; the simple rescue operation in Grenada that turned into a prolonged bloody struggle. With Operation Just Cause in Panama, the Special Tactics units scored a major success, as they took down the corrupt regime of General Noriega with lightning speed. Desert Storm was another triumph, with Carney's team carrying out vital search-and-rescue missions as well as helping to hunt down mobile Scud missiles deep inside Iraq."--BOOK JACKET.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.