Shadow Warriors: Inside the Special Forces

Commanders

by Tom Clancy, Carl Stiner, Tony Koltz

Tom Clancy and retired General Carl Stiner, U.S. Special Forces Command's second commander, trace the transformation of the Special Forces from the small core of outsiders of the 1950s, through the cauldron of Vietnam, to the rebirth of the Special Forces in the late 1980s and 1990s, and on into the new century as the bearer of the largest, most mixed, and most complex set of missions in the U.S. military.

Genres: Nonfiction, Military Fiction, History, Military History, War, Biography, Action

548 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Thomas Leo Clancy Jr. was an American novelist and military-political thriller pioneer. Raised in a middle-class Irish-American family, he developed an early fascination with military history. Despite initially studying physics at Loyola College, he switched to English literature, graduating in 1969 with a modest GPA. His aspirations of serving in the military were dashed due to severe myopia, leading him instead to a career in the insurance business.
While working at a small insurance agency, Clancy spent his spare time writing what would become The Hunt for Red October (1984). Published by the Naval Institute Press for an advance of $5,000, the book received an unexpected boost when President Ronald Reagan praised it as “the best yarn.” This propelled Clancy to national fame, selling millions of copies and establishing his reputation for technical accuracy in military and intelligence matters. His meticulous research and storytelling ability granted him access to high-ranking U.S. military officials, further enriching his novels.
Clancy’s works often featured heroic protagonists such as Jack Ryan and John Clark, emphasizing themes of patriotism, military expertise, and political intrigue. Throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, he became one of the best-selling authors in America, with titles like Red Storm Rising (1986), Patriot Games (1987), Clear and Present Danger (1989), and The Sum of All Fears (1991) dominating bestseller lists. Several of these were adapted into commercially successful films.
In addition to novels, Clancy co-authored nonfiction works on military topics and lent his name to numerous book series and video game franchises, including Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon, and Splinter Cell. His influence extended beyond literature, as he became a part-owner of the Baltimore Orioles baseball team and was involved in various business ventures, including a failed attempt to purchase the Minnesota Vikings.
Politically, Clancy was a staunch conservative, often weaving his views into his books and publicly criticizing left-leaning policies. He gained further attention after the September 11 attacks, discussing intelligence failures and counterterrorism strategies on news platforms.
Clancy’s financial success was immense. By the late 1990s, his publishing deals were worth tens of millions of dollars. He lived on an expansive Maryland estate featuring a World War II Sherman tank and later purchased a luxury penthouse in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.
He was married twice, first to Wanda Thomas King, with whom he had four children, and later to journalist Alexandra Marie Llewellyn, with whom he had one daughter.
Tom Clancy passed away on October 1, 2013, at the age of 66 due to heart failure. His legacy endures through his novels, their adaptations, and the continuation of the Jack Ryan series by other writers.

Reviews

[Jerome Otte · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly interesting but unfocused,superficial, and poorly researched. This book apparently has three authors, that should give you fair warning.
Supposedly a history of US special operations forces, this book is pretty much a dry biography of Carl Stiner, and not very substantive. It is also splattered with huge maps, bulleted lists and what appear to be massive interview excerpts.
Some portions are poorly researched;he calls CAS "combat air support" while the correct term is "close air support." He refers to an outfit known as "Army Special Aviation." He probably meant the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. He refers to an "Enhanced Navigation System" while the proper term is Inertial Navigation System. He refers to "Army and Navy Blackhawks" while only the Army has them. He refers to the armed versions of Black Hawks as "defensive armed penetrators" while the actual term is "direct action penetrators."
"Cooperation between SOF and Air Force units was very high..." he writes. What? Don't you mean "well coordinated" or, you know, something more properly English?
While there are plenty of details on Stiner's relation to the XVIII Airborne Corps, there is very little information on Special Forces training, planning, or execution. Even the details on conventional units (why they are even mentioned in this book is incomprehensible) are misleading. The 82nd Airborne Division's decision to jump into Tocumen Airport hours after the Rangers had secured it is not criticized or even analyzed. (Could it be that Stiner was one of the supporters for this Hollywood-type maneuver when the 82nd could have landed quickly and safely at Howard or Tocumen and executed their mission by air assault or simply by walking out of their airplanes?).
There is no information on El Salvador, the Balkans, or Somalia.
Tom Clancy at his commercial worst...

SOCOM's 20th anniversary history is available here.

[SteVen Hendricks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book Review – Shadow Warriors, Inside the Special Forces – Tom Clancy
Tom Clancy’s “Shadow Warriors” is a factual account of the U.S. Special Forces, co-written with General Carl Steiner (Ret.), a commander who held responsibility for all U.S. Special Operations forces across all service lines. Readers get special insight into a largely secretive community whose members do not talk about their work. This book talks about – many years later – about the teams of dedicated, highly specialized Special Forces soldiers in all the military branches that are trained to a higher standard than regular military forces and that are often sent in to do the impossible - and regularly - achieve their critical assignment goals. The book covers tales of the Achille Lauro hijacking, the takedown of Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, the efforts to find Mohamed Farrah Aidid (Black Hawk Down) in Somalia and other less known special operations assignments that we the public never heard about. This was a great read with great insights from Steiner and Clancy. It was extremely intriguing and provided the thought processes of our military leaders during some of the country’s foremost terrorist conflicts. The stories were real, the situations scary and the capabilities of U.S. Special Forces were expertly conveyed. Clancy and Steiner delivered a thorough account of the U.S. Special Forces and I’m glad that I read this book.

[Jake Barney · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ever asked a soldier what the average top brass knows about what's actually going on in the military?
This book proves them correct.
This isn't an inside look at the special forces but rather an inside look at the career of Carl Stiner. The beginning is great and explains the need for and the beginning of special forces in the USA. After that it's just top level overviews of things Stiner was just involved with. And a lot of it drags on.
The guy is amazing for how well he helped transform the SF but the telling of it is extremely bland. Very little in the way of how SF does its job and a whole lot in the way of this is what top brass sees and thinks is important. Some interesting historical info about Panama and that's where I gave up. I'll probably finish the last quarter of the book eventually but I'm bored into submission for now.

[Corbin Routier · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a poorly written book of anecdotes. Names and titles are numerous on every page, but little context is provided. A grandiose picture is presented and minimizes the experience of building unconventional warfare capabilities. The narrative lacks depth. Instead of describing actions and consequences (this, therefore that) the author heavily generalizes. Phrases like "The Syrians had had designs on Lebanon as far back as recorded history.." display the writing style. Chapter 14 was the only part with a developed narrative that described one of the abilities of special operations.

[Jaise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very entertaining and well-informed read. Though I had anticipated more information about the inner workings of the special forces themselves, this gave a nice overview of how the Special Forces came to be. It also outlined much of the higher level workings of some operations and how things come together in order to pull off a successful mission.

I especially liked the firsthand account narrations; which give a window into the emotions, thoughts, and actions of those really on the ground. It also outlines that the special forces were more than just 'assassins' and more all about how they can maintain peace and help citizens help themselves. It's all about those in need having skin in the game rather than the US just coming in and 'forcing' them to make X, Y, or Z changes.

I wish more was done to give detail about the lower level details, but I also understand that this was just one book. It was already pretty dense and there was much information to pass onto the reader. All in all, was a good glimpse into the origination of our current Special Forces.

[Jim Barrett · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a solid read but not quite what I expected it to be. A lot, but but not all, is about US Army Special Forces. A significant portion also covers other parts of General Stiner’s military career as he moved in and out of Special Forces. Somewhat surprisingly, the sections covering Special Forces training and history are more compelling than the actual action sections. The reason for this is the action reports get so bogged down in detail that they just lose steam. The other drag is when the authors go into the weeds on planning the operations. Be prepared for lots of acronyms as well. But despite these criticisms, I did learn a lot and have more appreciation for the wide variety of roles Special Forces play.

[Matthew Sullivan]

It’s hard for me to give a star rating on non-fiction. However, this is more of a historical view and explanation of special forces vs. description of missions, but I think that’s the point. Special Forces has an interesting history and scope of missions, it’s not just flying through windows like in the movies.

They finished this book right after 9/11 so there are likely some more timely books out there, but I wouldn’t be surprised if what the book outlines still holds up.

[Steve Prince · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tom Clancy's rare venture into the realm of nonfiction is the informative, if not compelling story of the inception, early development, and continued evolution of the American Special Operations forces, as told with assistance from the late General Carl Stiner, USA. This book is required reading for anyone with an interest in the history and development of special warfare.

[Matthew Gaines · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite a good book, one of the best storytellers and someone who has been instrumental in creating special forces into what it is today. The book was written from an interesting perspective as it was pre 2001. Would love to see an “updated” copy and will definitely be reading the rest of Clancy’s armed forces histories.

[Merlene Neville · Rating 4 out of 5]

This took me forever to read as I would read other books along the way, but l learned a great deal. Everyone should read this book.

[Anne Patkau · Rating 3 out of 5]

Action is exciting. Namedropping and pushing faults on others are disappointing.

[Brad · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this overall history of Special Ops. I’m sure many advances have been made since it was written in 2002, but this retired AF officer still learned a lot.

[itchy · Rating 3 out of 5]

eponymous sentence:
p402: These are shadow warriors.

Took me a while to finally finish--the ocr errors are too much of a distraction to keep track of.

[H J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. Very informative I like history

[Audrey Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting and insightful tales

[Steve Nybroten · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book on the origin and evolution of our special forces from WW2 thru Iraq invasion. The training , their role in the armed forces. Not a Tom Clancey traditional book!

[Red Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tom Clancy's foray into non-fiction is a pretty good history of SF. Notes that Bill Yarborough not only designed the airborne wings, but he also brought a variety of experts into the Special Warfare Center.

[Bookworm Amir · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too detailed later.

It really runs more like General Carl Stiner's personal autobiography in more ways that once.

Yes eh talks about the military but most of the time there are no special forces talk (such as when talking about Lebanon - I was expecting him to give a more deeper account of what happened on that day when the Marines got bombed), but no, it was just a story about him and some politics of Lebanon.

The beginning of the book was alright, it talked about the history of the Special Forces (in the US only, though, never mind just a paragraph about the German Commandos or the SAS) and how they were trained. It also did show how the military still had the conventional thinking and thought special forces were a bunch of privatized, rag tag armies.

Really was expecting more from this though.

[Tom Schulte · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book ends basically on the eve of the The War in Afghanistan, so it may seem out of date. However, as a work of history it is interesting and enlightening. Clancy and insider Steiner take us through the history of U.S. special forces from inforomal, one-off Jedburgh teams of WW II to increasing formalization reaching an acme in the Vietnam War with Rangers and Green Berets. Marginalized and continued to be seen as adjuncts to regular infnatry, etc., these units lose ffectiveness, prepararation, force integation until Desert One disastrously shows in the wastes of Iran that we need better Special Forces capability. After that, an SF commandis set up leading to counter-terrorism measures (the takedown if not take-in of the Achille Lauro hijakes is notably told) into the ever-increasing friction with Iraq.

[Katie Cross · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was all right, but very unfocused.

Supposedly it was about the Special Forces, but it should probably be re-titled as a loose biography on Carl Stiner. His time in the SF teams/groups was limited once he promoted out, and from there, it's more of a detailed, historical narrative on several major battles since then.

Overall, I was not impressed. This book in no way achieved the objective it claimed over Special Forces. Maybe if the aim was altered to something more like an overall SOF focus, instead of SF, then that would make more sense. The fact that they had three main contributors to the book is kind of a preface to this kind of disorganized approach. Bringing in other viewpoints except Stiners would help it focus on SF. The officers viewpoint got tiring.

The first of the book was good though, and I still found the historical details interesting, although dry at times.

[Robert Enzenauer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book tells the story of US Army Special Forces through the voice of the author, GEN (retired) Carl Stiner, who traces the formation of the Special Forces from the decades of the 1950s through his initiation into SF in 1964 and follows his remarkable career over more than 3 decades, including the Achille Lauro hostage rescue, the invasion of Panama, and operations Deseret Shield and Desert Storm, culminating as the second commander of SOCOM, the US Special Operations Command, from 1990 to 1993. This book is a very readable history of army Special Forces that follows the career of one of it's most illustrious "shadow warriors", a true quiet professional, and Tennessee native from LaFollette, Tennessee.

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clancy's non-fiction account of the origins and development of the US Special Forces up to 9/11. General Carl Stiner, USA, Retired, past Commander of USSOCOM, collaborates with Clancy to give a first hand account of the creation, development and evolution of Special Forces, including the non-combat aspects about which is known little by the general public.
Interestingly, Clancy traces the assimilation of 'civic affairs' into Special Operations as a creation of Mao Se Tung, whose soldiers approached the peasants with respect, enabling them to absorb the peasant's innate code of asymmetrical warfare.
All things considered, Shadow Warriors will provide a lifetime (or two) of background on SPECOM development, believe me. I think it was at least a three week read.

[J.D. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Supposedly a book about the Special Forces, this is really more a military biography of General Carl Stiner. Stiner's spent a lot of time commanding SF, but also a lot of time in the "regular" Army, and there are long stretches of the book that concern his non-SF experiences, particularly in Vietnam, Lebanon and Panama. Still, he's led an interesting career, and there are some good insights into how military command and operations function and the things commanders have to think about, both in and out of the SF spheres. Worth reading.

[Blain · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of those cases where I wish I could give half a star for 2 1/2 but that not being the case it gets two. As a historical record this book is fine as a historical narrative it leaves much to be desired. In a well justified effort to pay homage to the people who lay much on the line for the protection of the USA Clancy mentions those people he can when he can, but shows no editing skills, mentioning almost anyone and everyone who may even enter the room for a moment, leaving the reader drowning in over detail. More proof of my distrust of the "New York Times Bestseller" list
"

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shadow Warriors is the best Tom Clancy book I've read yet. It provides amazing input into how the Special Forces we have today came to be the way they are. It also has a lot of personal information on the inside of the Special Forces- provided by Carl Stiner. It starts with the very first Special operation in World War II and tells stories up through history like Panama, Lebanon, and the Gulf War. You won't get a this well written book about Special Forces anywhere else.

[Johnny · Rating 4 out of 5]

This non fiction account of the birth and growth of the "black ops" folks is an eyeopener for anyone.

While we have all heard of the Green berets, we often don't understand the full scope of their work, which is less bullets and more about beans.

What was most interesting was the creation of "talking points" during the Gulf War. Sound familiar Fox News fans?

[Jarred · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tom Clancy's Shadow Warriors: Inside The Special Forces is a really good action book, for all yall Tom clancy fans out there. The is about 53 Americans that were being held captive, and a special team of agents (know as the shadow warriors) go to a different country to find the hostages, and make sure that the enemy does not use this special type of oil that could be used to destory America.

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book was very honest, in that the generals and other officers in it admitted their mistakes. However, I found myself a bit bored reading it... aside from some of the training and combat sequences, there was a lot of emphasis on planning and politics that could have probably been better shown rather than told.

[David Ward · Rating 2 out of 5]

Shadow Warriors: Inside the Special Forces by Tom Clancy with General Carl Stiner (G.P.Putnam’s Sons 1998)(356.16). (Carl Stiner is from Knoxville)! Tom Clancy traces the arc of the Special Forces from a small band of outsiders in Vietnam to the incredible fast-striking special assignment seeking force it has become. My rating: 4.5/10, finished 1999.

[Quaid Matthews]

I thought it was very interesting book, but it was a slow read most of the time. I always enjoy reading a good Tom Clancy book to learn about war, he just gets it when it comes to describing war zones. His details are also very graphic. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about the special forces of our country and what they do.