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The 300: The Inside Story of the Missile Defenders Guarding America Against Nuclear Attack
For the first time ever, a groundbreaking account of the individuals who operate America’s super-advanced missile defense system.
Since the dawn of the rocket age, nations have been powerless to defend themselves against incoming attacks. For decades, not even the mighty fortress of the NORAD and U.S. Northern Command, buried deep under a granite shield inside Cheyenne Mountain, could stop enemy missiles from raining down on American cities.
In September 2004, that changed. For the first time, a space-aged unit of missile defense wizards, the 100th Missile Defense Brigade, was established as an operating unit at Fort Greely in Alaska and Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado Springs. Armed with advanced interceptor weapons, this unique outfit took on the most difficult feat in the long history of weapons engineering: to destroy an inflight ballistic missile.
Under the leadership of missile crew directors like Richard Michalski, a lieutenant colonel with the Colorado National Guard, the small brigade—just 300 soldiers—is tasked with defending 300 million Americans. They stand watch in desolate missile fields in the farthest reaches of Alaska. In Colorado, their engineering brain trust struggles to perfect the highly advanced and often unreliable missile technology of the Missile Defense Agency.
With unprecedented access, years of research, and dozens of exclusive interviews, author Dan Wasserbly has peeled back the layers of secrecy. For the first time, The 300 tells the true story of this secretive yet essential unit of homeland defenders.
Since the dawn of the rocket age, nations have been powerless to defend themselves against incoming attacks. For decades, not even the mighty fortress of the NORAD and U.S. Northern Command, buried deep under a granite shield inside Cheyenne Mountain, could stop enemy missiles from raining down on American cities.
In September 2004, that changed. For the first time, a space-aged unit of missile defense wizards, the 100th Missile Defense Brigade, was established as an operating unit at Fort Greely in Alaska and Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado Springs. Armed with advanced interceptor weapons, this unique outfit took on the most difficult feat in the long history of weapons engineering: to destroy an inflight ballistic missile.
Under the leadership of missile crew directors like Richard Michalski, a lieutenant colonel with the Colorado National Guard, the small brigade—just 300 soldiers—is tasked with defending 300 million Americans. They stand watch in desolate missile fields in the farthest reaches of Alaska. In Colorado, their engineering brain trust struggles to perfect the highly advanced and often unreliable missile technology of the Missile Defense Agency.
With unprecedented access, years of research, and dozens of exclusive interviews, author Dan Wasserbly has peeled back the layers of secrecy. For the first time, The 300 tells the true story of this secretive yet essential unit of homeland defenders.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
320 pages, Hardcover
First published June 16, 2020
32 people are currently reading
173 people want to read
About the author
Daniel Wasserbly
2 books4 followersDANIEL WASSERBLY is the editor of Jane’s International Defence Review a global publisher of military and security news and open-source intelligence. He has appeared as a military expert for BBC World Service and NPR's Marketplace, and has discussed missile defense and security issues on the Korean peninsula. He has appeared on CNN, CBC Television, BBC, CBC Radio One, and in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and other publications.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
July 17, 2020
To most people "The 300" refers to those brave 300 Spartans who fought to the death at Thermopylae to protect their homeland from the approaching Persian host. From now on I will also consider "The 300" as being the men and women who protect 300 million Americans from incoming ICBMs. Whereas the Spartans fought with shields and spears, the troops of the US Army 100th Missile Defense Brigade and the 49th Missile Defense Battalion will fight with computers, radars, and missiles. And to think that most, if not all, of those fine men and women were Weekend Warriors!
In the US, weekend warriors is a sometimes mildly derogatory term that refers to the National Guard units who practice one weekend a month and maybe two weeks once a year. Most of the time they help out with national disasters, though they can be mobilized for war. Yet these fine folks were the ones that made up the core of the initial manpower that defended America from space.
Being as one of the initial bases was in Alaska, the guardsmen there were quite the wild bunch. Their Alaskan Scouts were the best in the field and worst in garrison. One guardsman had a drinking problem, so as punishment, he had to walk the fence line guarding a billion dollar base armed with a stick!
How much do you know about what President Regan referred to as "Star Wars?" In a nutshell, you have about 300 troops operating from three different locations, thousands of miles apart yet operating together. Say a satellite detects a launch. A powerful radar at sea picks up the ICBM and plots its course. The 300 launch their own missile from Alaska or California which takes out the warhead with direct impact while ignoring the decoys. That is how it works, in theory.
But it wasn't always that easy. Sometimes a test was run where a target missile was launched from Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific. The interceptor missile was fired, and they missed! So hundreds or thousands of man hours were spent trying to figure out what went wrong. In the end they find out that some civilian contractor swapped out an official part for a $1.39 part he had laying in his toolbox, and that caused a 136 million dollar failure!
One last comment, it isn't the hundreds of Russian ICBMs that worry the Pentagon, it is North Korea getting just one.
This book was a real eye opener as to the history of the success and failures of our troops learning to effectively use their own version of Spartan shields.
Disclaimer: Thank you St. Martin's Press for sending me a copy of this fine book!
In the US, weekend warriors is a sometimes mildly derogatory term that refers to the National Guard units who practice one weekend a month and maybe two weeks once a year. Most of the time they help out with national disasters, though they can be mobilized for war. Yet these fine folks were the ones that made up the core of the initial manpower that defended America from space.
Being as one of the initial bases was in Alaska, the guardsmen there were quite the wild bunch. Their Alaskan Scouts were the best in the field and worst in garrison. One guardsman had a drinking problem, so as punishment, he had to walk the fence line guarding a billion dollar base armed with a stick!
How much do you know about what President Regan referred to as "Star Wars?" In a nutshell, you have about 300 troops operating from three different locations, thousands of miles apart yet operating together. Say a satellite detects a launch. A powerful radar at sea picks up the ICBM and plots its course. The 300 launch their own missile from Alaska or California which takes out the warhead with direct impact while ignoring the decoys. That is how it works, in theory.
But it wasn't always that easy. Sometimes a test was run where a target missile was launched from Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific. The interceptor missile was fired, and they missed! So hundreds or thousands of man hours were spent trying to figure out what went wrong. In the end they find out that some civilian contractor swapped out an official part for a $1.39 part he had laying in his toolbox, and that caused a 136 million dollar failure!
One last comment, it isn't the hundreds of Russian ICBMs that worry the Pentagon, it is North Korea getting just one.
This book was a real eye opener as to the history of the success and failures of our troops learning to effectively use their own version of Spartan shields.
Disclaimer: Thank you St. Martin's Press for sending me a copy of this fine book!
April 18, 2020
My thanks to NetGalley for the pestering me to read this book before it became generally available. It's a fascinating glimpse into the very few soldiers charged with operating what we used to call "Star Wars" defense system. Developed mostly under Bush II, they are highly trained in a system that, if it doesn't work in a real attack, would submit the country to nuclear devastation.
The threat, as it evolved in the early 21st century, was seen mostly as coming from North Korea that vacillated between belligerence and seeking respect, both aspects leading them to the belief that a nuclear arsenal was the only way to satisfy both aims.
Fort Greeley in Alaska was reinstated as the base for the Missile Defense unit. It was about an unhospitable as one could imagine. It had been an active base during the sixties but then abandoned. Housing for families was virtually non-existent and soldiers had to commute by small airplane to Anchorage (a very scary proposition) when they had time off, of which there was little. Another concern was the rumor that the army had forgotten to take a pallet of VX gas artillery shells off the frozen Blueberry lake one winter and it went to the bottom during the spring melt. To quell rumors of its existence, the army drained the lake only to discover the rumor was true and the extremely toxic chemical weapon was indeed found at the bottom of the lake. The author doesn't say how they were disposed of. Maybe they let kids play with them.
Integrating base security with those residing on base in such a relatively small area led to a funny concern. The MPs would drive around the base perimeter with .50 calier machine guns on their vehicles. “Sir, we have TWIGs driving around with .50 -cals,” Kiraly warned the battalion’s executive officer, Wayne Hunt. Teenagers with Guns— TWIGs. “A .50-cal will range into the garrison, right next to the missile field,” Kiraly said . “What if there’s something in the wire, and they shoot into the housing area? It’s only a couple hundred meters.” TWIGS indeed. A different set of TWIGS was in charge of sophisticated interceptor missiles.
I would not want to have been stationed at Fort Greeley where they kept diffing up canisters of things that scared the crap out of the disposal teams.
The EOD guys stopped laughing once they got to the canister and looked up the numbers on the data plate. There were some frantic radio calls and Scott and Marrero were ordered to leave. They never found out why. Soon afterward, while the MPs were clearing the woods away from the perimeter to build a new headquarters facility, they stumbled upon a buried batch of old Chinese mortars. And after that, contractors were digging new telephone lines near the fort’s chapel, and about five feet down they unearthed a large sealed drum. Scott and his patrol were ordered to guard the drum until EOD arrived the next day. He never found out what was in it." Hope they didn't buy their kids shovels for birthdays.
The book has excellent chapters on the history and development of anti-missile missile systems. They had their beginning with attempts to shoot down V2 rockets, but the excessive amounts of shrapnel would have injured more on the ground than the rockets themselves which were ultimately rendered harmless following Montgomery's destruction of the launch sites. With the development of Soviet ICBM capability Kennedy was at first a fan of the Nike Zeus program that had evolved into the Nike-X system. It never had a chance for live testing as McNamara and Johnson believed the MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) scenario was the best deterrent and that continued development of any anti-missile defense system could be seen as destabilizing parity. All throughout this period, scientists debated whether such a system was even technologically feasible, not to mention the political debate over where to install the systems, i.e. which cities warranted protection and which not.
Administrations waffled on whether deployment was in the best interests until Reagan who wanted a bargaining chip in negotiations and he took what was now called "Star Wars" to a new level. That never went anywhere technically and it was gradually shelved until 9/11 when Congress was willing to fund anything that even hinted at defense.
By now, the technology had morphed into "hit-and-kill" whereby the ABM was expected to actually hit the incoming missile thereby destroying it. This required close interaction of radar systems and missile batteries, and the Bush administration was focusing on rogue nations like Iran and North Korea. Bush wanted everything up and running by the end of 2004.
It was an interesting way to fight and An Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War by Paul Scharre would make excellent simultaneous reading. The software was specialized and "If not constrained, the system would automatically take an aggressive approach and not necessarily the approach Northern Command or the White House wanted to take."
Enter the main focus of the book that is on the really very few who man (and a surprising number of women) the system connecting Colorado and Fort Greeley and the radar links.
Highly recommended for anyone interesting in the Cold War, MAD, and ABM systems, and the constraints of technological warfare, not to mention politics and the general reader. Entertaining and informative.
The threat, as it evolved in the early 21st century, was seen mostly as coming from North Korea that vacillated between belligerence and seeking respect, both aspects leading them to the belief that a nuclear arsenal was the only way to satisfy both aims.
Fort Greeley in Alaska was reinstated as the base for the Missile Defense unit. It was about an unhospitable as one could imagine. It had been an active base during the sixties but then abandoned. Housing for families was virtually non-existent and soldiers had to commute by small airplane to Anchorage (a very scary proposition) when they had time off, of which there was little. Another concern was the rumor that the army had forgotten to take a pallet of VX gas artillery shells off the frozen Blueberry lake one winter and it went to the bottom during the spring melt. To quell rumors of its existence, the army drained the lake only to discover the rumor was true and the extremely toxic chemical weapon was indeed found at the bottom of the lake. The author doesn't say how they were disposed of. Maybe they let kids play with them.
Integrating base security with those residing on base in such a relatively small area led to a funny concern. The MPs would drive around the base perimeter with .50 calier machine guns on their vehicles. “Sir, we have TWIGs driving around with .50 -cals,” Kiraly warned the battalion’s executive officer, Wayne Hunt. Teenagers with Guns— TWIGs. “A .50-cal will range into the garrison, right next to the missile field,” Kiraly said . “What if there’s something in the wire, and they shoot into the housing area? It’s only a couple hundred meters.” TWIGS indeed. A different set of TWIGS was in charge of sophisticated interceptor missiles.
I would not want to have been stationed at Fort Greeley where they kept diffing up canisters of things that scared the crap out of the disposal teams.
The EOD guys stopped laughing once they got to the canister and looked up the numbers on the data plate. There were some frantic radio calls and Scott and Marrero were ordered to leave. They never found out why. Soon afterward, while the MPs were clearing the woods away from the perimeter to build a new headquarters facility, they stumbled upon a buried batch of old Chinese mortars. And after that, contractors were digging new telephone lines near the fort’s chapel, and about five feet down they unearthed a large sealed drum. Scott and his patrol were ordered to guard the drum until EOD arrived the next day. He never found out what was in it." Hope they didn't buy their kids shovels for birthdays.
The book has excellent chapters on the history and development of anti-missile missile systems. They had their beginning with attempts to shoot down V2 rockets, but the excessive amounts of shrapnel would have injured more on the ground than the rockets themselves which were ultimately rendered harmless following Montgomery's destruction of the launch sites. With the development of Soviet ICBM capability Kennedy was at first a fan of the Nike Zeus program that had evolved into the Nike-X system. It never had a chance for live testing as McNamara and Johnson believed the MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) scenario was the best deterrent and that continued development of any anti-missile defense system could be seen as destabilizing parity. All throughout this period, scientists debated whether such a system was even technologically feasible, not to mention the political debate over where to install the systems, i.e. which cities warranted protection and which not.
Administrations waffled on whether deployment was in the best interests until Reagan who wanted a bargaining chip in negotiations and he took what was now called "Star Wars" to a new level. That never went anywhere technically and it was gradually shelved until 9/11 when Congress was willing to fund anything that even hinted at defense.
By now, the technology had morphed into "hit-and-kill" whereby the ABM was expected to actually hit the incoming missile thereby destroying it. This required close interaction of radar systems and missile batteries, and the Bush administration was focusing on rogue nations like Iran and North Korea. Bush wanted everything up and running by the end of 2004.
It was an interesting way to fight and An Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War by Paul Scharre would make excellent simultaneous reading. The software was specialized and "If not constrained, the system would automatically take an aggressive approach and not necessarily the approach Northern Command or the White House wanted to take."
Enter the main focus of the book that is on the really very few who man (and a surprising number of women) the system connecting Colorado and Fort Greeley and the radar links.
Highly recommended for anyone interesting in the Cold War, MAD, and ABM systems, and the constraints of technological warfare, not to mention politics and the general reader. Entertaining and informative.
March 27, 2023
I always enjoy the human side of strategic missile warfare, and this book doesn’t disappoint.
300 tells the stories of the (mostly) regular 300 people who have moved to Alaska to keep tabs on ICBMs and fire interceptor missiles if necessary. The stories range from the (very military) ways people deal with seasonal depression bear attacks to how disillusionment creeps in when your weapons systems keep failing around you.
The weapons system failures remind me of the wonderful essay ”Forgetting the Asbestos” (https://1517.substack.com/p/forgettin...). There’s so much of the Cold War left around us - especially the nuclear arsenals that could wipe out the human race multiple times over - but so many vital counterbalances have been forgotten or neglected.
Rogue states can develop intercontinental missile capabilities, but the only truly extant superpower has utterly neglected defence against them. Generations of engineers and military men have passed to greener pastures, leaving fresh faces to re-figure out what ICBM defence should look like. Like the 300 did, while battling Arctic condirions.
A very serious topic, a very successful human angle and a nice book. Not world-shattering, as missile defence should be, but still a good addition to the genre.
(Okay: I admit. I read the book because I watched the trashy Netflix movie. Happy now?)
300 tells the stories of the (mostly) regular 300 people who have moved to Alaska to keep tabs on ICBMs and fire interceptor missiles if necessary. The stories range from the (very military) ways people deal with seasonal depression bear attacks to how disillusionment creeps in when your weapons systems keep failing around you.
The weapons system failures remind me of the wonderful essay ”Forgetting the Asbestos” (https://1517.substack.com/p/forgettin...). There’s so much of the Cold War left around us - especially the nuclear arsenals that could wipe out the human race multiple times over - but so many vital counterbalances have been forgotten or neglected.
Rogue states can develop intercontinental missile capabilities, but the only truly extant superpower has utterly neglected defence against them. Generations of engineers and military men have passed to greener pastures, leaving fresh faces to re-figure out what ICBM defence should look like. Like the 300 did, while battling Arctic condirions.
A very serious topic, a very successful human angle and a nice book. Not world-shattering, as missile defence should be, but still a good addition to the genre.
(Okay: I admit. I read the book because I watched the trashy Netflix movie. Happy now?)
March 22, 2021
This was all gloss and very little substance. An interesting subject that could of and should of been fascinating with details and depth but instead you get the People magazine version.
Still an interesting history of MDA if you know nothing about it. This was just okay.
Still an interesting history of MDA if you know nothing about it. This was just okay.
June 14, 2020
I generally don't like giving books negative reviews, but I couldn't find anything to like here. Every time I tried, I was let down.
The narrative sections read so laughably bad, like a poorly written young adult novel. How many times can we say "Go weapons free!" That's cool, right?
There were several times where I thought the author was going to say something substantive. I gave up when his description of North Korean missile upgrades was that they were "lighter." No more complexity than that - just "lighter." You're writing a book about missiles. About 4 seconds on Wikipedia will give me better information.
I'm a pretty avid North Korea watcher, and I can tell you there are several podcasts on missile launches that will give you more and better information in 30 minutes than is to be found in this entire book.
I realize the focus of this book is on the people doing the missile defense - but at the end of the book all I know is a few names, that they went to train in Colorado, and that they prefer 8 hours shifts to 12 hours shifts. Should I ever visit Alaska, this book told me more about the few restaurants near the missile base than I ever needed to know. Do you really need to bring up chapters later after telling me that they just got internet that Uber doesn't service the area? I think I could have figured that out.
There were so many moments where interesting points could have been explored. Expand on the history of nuclear war, talk about Operation Paperclip instead of just name dropping one scientist, compare anything you're writing about to the Russian missile defense system instead of vaguely mentioning that it exists. Instead of saying that there are critics of land based missile systems, talk about what their criticisms are. Are they valid? Are they not? Talk about what the other forms of defense are. You vaguely mention sea-based and space-based (and in the epilogue, plane-launched) defenses exist, but you give zero detail about them or whether they might be better, worse, or more appropriate for different scenarios. Come on! Give me SOMETHING!
I didn't feel like the author was an expert on the material he was covering (which, according to his bio, he should be!). I think the most disappointed I got was when the author brought up cold weather training. Finally! Something of substance! But no, he just mentioned that one of the soldiers went to the training and the chapter abruptly ends.
As I said, I don't like beating up on books because I do feel bad for the authors, but I had the thought halfway through "I could have learned all of this from a few news articles..." and I wasn't disappointed when I got to the bibliography and found out, well, aside from interviews with soldiers about the hot dog stands in Alaska, that was pretty much the depth of his research.
Copy provided by Netgalley.
The narrative sections read so laughably bad, like a poorly written young adult novel. How many times can we say "Go weapons free!" That's cool, right?
There were several times where I thought the author was going to say something substantive. I gave up when his description of North Korean missile upgrades was that they were "lighter." No more complexity than that - just "lighter." You're writing a book about missiles. About 4 seconds on Wikipedia will give me better information.
I'm a pretty avid North Korea watcher, and I can tell you there are several podcasts on missile launches that will give you more and better information in 30 minutes than is to be found in this entire book.
I realize the focus of this book is on the people doing the missile defense - but at the end of the book all I know is a few names, that they went to train in Colorado, and that they prefer 8 hours shifts to 12 hours shifts. Should I ever visit Alaska, this book told me more about the few restaurants near the missile base than I ever needed to know. Do you really need to bring up chapters later after telling me that they just got internet that Uber doesn't service the area? I think I could have figured that out.
There were so many moments where interesting points could have been explored. Expand on the history of nuclear war, talk about Operation Paperclip instead of just name dropping one scientist, compare anything you're writing about to the Russian missile defense system instead of vaguely mentioning that it exists. Instead of saying that there are critics of land based missile systems, talk about what their criticisms are. Are they valid? Are they not? Talk about what the other forms of defense are. You vaguely mention sea-based and space-based (and in the epilogue, plane-launched) defenses exist, but you give zero detail about them or whether they might be better, worse, or more appropriate for different scenarios. Come on! Give me SOMETHING!
I didn't feel like the author was an expert on the material he was covering (which, according to his bio, he should be!). I think the most disappointed I got was when the author brought up cold weather training. Finally! Something of substance! But no, he just mentioned that one of the soldiers went to the training and the chapter abruptly ends.
As I said, I don't like beating up on books because I do feel bad for the authors, but I had the thought halfway through "I could have learned all of this from a few news articles..." and I wasn't disappointed when I got to the bibliography and found out, well, aside from interviews with soldiers about the hot dog stands in Alaska, that was pretty much the depth of his research.
Copy provided by Netgalley.
August 5, 2020
This book offers a behind the scenes view of the establishment and development of the 49th Missile Defense Battalion at Fort Greely, Alaska and the 100th Missile Defense Brigade at Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado. The soldiers in these units are the front line of the United States Ground-based Missile Defense with the mission of defending the United States against nuclear attack. Other authors would probably choose to address the technical challenges, macro-level decision making, and political battles involved in developing and deploying the system. Daniel Wasserbly chose to tell the story of the frontline users of the system and detailed some of the difficulties they faced as they developed the procedures for employing a new weapon system. The struggle for the 49th Missile Defense Battalion was compounded by the remote, hostile environment of Fort Greely (107 miles from Fairbanks).
This book provides a high level overview of the successes and failures experienced during the flight test program. It also discusses missile and nuclear program developments in North Korea that provided a backdrop and urgency to the GMD development. Discussion of activities at the Department of Defense, Missile Defense Agency, and the associated contractors is provided, but this is limited since the focus is on the men and women on the front line.
I found the story of these units to be interesting. However, I could only give a rating of three stars based upon the choppy writing style used by the author. I found this to be a distraction. I would have liked more detail on some of the stories. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of GMD deployment since these personal stories are unlikely to appear elsewhere.
This book provides a high level overview of the successes and failures experienced during the flight test program. It also discusses missile and nuclear program developments in North Korea that provided a backdrop and urgency to the GMD development. Discussion of activities at the Department of Defense, Missile Defense Agency, and the associated contractors is provided, but this is limited since the focus is on the men and women on the front line.
I found the story of these units to be interesting. However, I could only give a rating of three stars based upon the choppy writing style used by the author. I found this to be a distraction. I would have liked more detail on some of the stories. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of GMD deployment since these personal stories are unlikely to appear elsewhere.
June 28, 2022
A good book, providing a history of the soldiers who operate the U.S. Army’s ground based missile defense system as members of the 100th Missile Defense Brigade and the 49th Missile Defense Battalion. The author, Janes Defence editor Daniel Wasserbly, gives a soldier-centric narrative of the creation and development of the units tasked with defending America from North Korean nuclear missile attacks. Wasserbly does a great job providing the human element in a very technical and politically laced story. The operating environment and unique mission of the ~300 soldiers who operate the missile defense systems in Alaska and Colorado, composed of both the military police who guard the missiles and the system operators, give the story much of its flavor. It’s a book where a moose attack in Alaska harmoniously shares a chapter with the physics of ballistic missile defense. The Missile Defense Agency and other large institution play a prominent role, but the book primarily concentrates on the individuals who made and continue to make homeland missile defense a reality. A great book for understanding the complexity and emotions of ballistic missile defense. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to learn more about individual adaptation to this one area of future warfare.
April 7, 2020
I am very grateful to St. Martin's Press for graciously providing me with an advance copy of "The 300: The Inside Story of the Missile Defenders Guarding America Against Nuclear Attack" by Daniel Wasserbly. This text examines, in a somewhat structural manner focused on organization and mission, the United States defenses against ballistic missile attack. The topic is inherently interesting as its present existence is predicated on North Korea's rise as a renegade nuclear power, unrestrained by the always dubious doctrine of MAD (mutually assured
destruction). For those interested in what Ronald Reagan's much maligned "Star Wars" program has evolved into, this is definetly worth examining. It is somewhat technical and dry in its presentation, but if you are familiar with the literature in this field, you might be grateful for the writer's refusal to romanticize or dramatize his source materials. It is certainly worth your time if you are a student of either the evolving science of ballistic missile defense or the threats inherent in modern technology in the hands of irresponsible foreign governments.
destruction). For those interested in what Ronald Reagan's much maligned "Star Wars" program has evolved into, this is definetly worth examining. It is somewhat technical and dry in its presentation, but if you are familiar with the literature in this field, you might be grateful for the writer's refusal to romanticize or dramatize his source materials. It is certainly worth your time if you are a student of either the evolving science of ballistic missile defense or the threats inherent in modern technology in the hands of irresponsible foreign governments.
June 5, 2020
From policymakers and others who keep a close eye on strategic weapons issues to those with a more general interest in military history and technology, Wasserbly’s book is a thorough account of a unique part of the U.S. military’s battlespace.
Wasserbly is adept at explaining the technical details of the systems the army uses in the nuclear defense mission, but he is also an engaging writer with an eye for the human interest behind the technology. He provides a good read by focusing on the people that make the mission possible–people like Richard Michalski, a star tennis player in each of his four years at West Point who emigrated from Poland as a child who eventually found his calling as an officer at the 100th Missile Defense Brigade in Colorodo Springs. At every turn, Wasserbly keeps in mind the individuals involved in defending the country.
He is also an exhaustive historian who provides a full view of missile defense development, from its inception in the 1960s through its various incarnations like Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), all the way up until the present when the North Korean threat looms large.
Wasserbly is adept at explaining the technical details of the systems the army uses in the nuclear defense mission, but he is also an engaging writer with an eye for the human interest behind the technology. He provides a good read by focusing on the people that make the mission possible–people like Richard Michalski, a star tennis player in each of his four years at West Point who emigrated from Poland as a child who eventually found his calling as an officer at the 100th Missile Defense Brigade in Colorodo Springs. At every turn, Wasserbly keeps in mind the individuals involved in defending the country.
He is also an exhaustive historian who provides a full view of missile defense development, from its inception in the 1960s through its various incarnations like Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), all the way up until the present when the North Korean threat looms large.
October 24, 2021
The 300 tells the story of the 100th Missile Defense Brigade in Fort Greely Alaska and Schriever Air Force base in Colorado Springs. This small brigade of 300 soldiers is responsible for defending American 24/7/365 against missile attacks from other countries (although as this book illustrates it is mostly focused on North Korea). The author I think wanted to tell the story of EVERY member of the 300 person brigade and this books jumps around thought a lot of people giving looks at each member and how their life and role in the brigade plays out. With congressional oversight stories, North Korea missile failures, and interplay between defense contractors and the brigade this book is thorough. I found it hard to get into a rhythm though and while I learned a lot I could never figure out what the purpose or the main point was supposed to be. Overall if you are really into military history this is something that will catch your fancy but not the casual reader.
March 31, 2022
(Audiobook) This book looks at the history of a middle defense unit that constituted itself from virtually nothing to becoming a key component of America’s Strategic Defense Initiative, primarily through ground-based middle defense. This is part unit history and part history of middle defense in the US writ large.
I don’t know if this would appeal as much to someone sans military experience. It read a lot like a unit history, and for the key individuals at Ft Greely, AK, it is. Yet, the idea of missile defense is at the heart of US political and military initiatives since the Cold War. Can be very hard to separate the politics from the tech capes.
Worth one read, but not one that you would likely re-read, no matter the format.
I don’t know if this would appeal as much to someone sans military experience. It read a lot like a unit history, and for the key individuals at Ft Greely, AK, it is. Yet, the idea of missile defense is at the heart of US political and military initiatives since the Cold War. Can be very hard to separate the politics from the tech capes.
Worth one read, but not one that you would likely re-read, no matter the format.
October 30, 2023
This book wasn't technically detailed enough for my taste, but it did provide some helpful insights that better contextualize my day-to-day work. I also didn't realize how much progress North Korea's missile programs have made in the last decade. For folks who don't have much knowledge of or experience with US Ground-based Midcourse Defense, this book contains a pretty good overview of the mission and test history.
April 21, 2022
This is an explanation of the whys and hows behind the development of our nuclear missile defense brigade. There are political factors, there are financial factors, there are technical factors; but at the core are the dedicated men and women who made this brigade what it is today. Interesting and informative.
September 8, 2020
Interesting bit of inside baseball about the folks at the pointy end of missile defense systems.
February 17, 2021
A good history of how the MDA came to be.
February 25, 2023
Listened to 4:32:48, stopped with 2:32:06 remaining
Boring people and their resumes
Boring people and their resumes
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 19, 2023
I am not sure what I wanted from this book, but it did what it was intending to do pretty well.
June 22, 2024
The 300 by Daniel Wasserbly: A fresh and insightful perspective on one of history's most legendary battles.
The 300 dives into the harrowing yet inspiring story of TF 300, the US Army’s pioneering force in the Afghan conflict. Wasserbly masterfully blends firsthand accounts with a broader historical perspective, painting a vivid picture of the soldiers' experiences and the war's impact on their lives.
This is more than a dry military account. Wasserbly captures the raw courage, camaraderie, and emotional toll of war with honesty and respect. The book brings to life the individuals behind the uniforms, showcasing their dedication to duty, their unwavering resilience, and the bonds forged in the face of danger.
The 300 offers a powerful testament to the human spirit's ability to endure and overcome adversity. Whether you’re interested in military history or seeking a deeper understanding of the human cost of war, Wasserbly's work provides a poignant and unforgettable journey into the heart of modern conflict.
The 300 dives into the harrowing yet inspiring story of TF 300, the US Army’s pioneering force in the Afghan conflict. Wasserbly masterfully blends firsthand accounts with a broader historical perspective, painting a vivid picture of the soldiers' experiences and the war's impact on their lives.
This is more than a dry military account. Wasserbly captures the raw courage, camaraderie, and emotional toll of war with honesty and respect. The book brings to life the individuals behind the uniforms, showcasing their dedication to duty, their unwavering resilience, and the bonds forged in the face of danger.
The 300 offers a powerful testament to the human spirit's ability to endure and overcome adversity. Whether you’re interested in military history or seeking a deeper understanding of the human cost of war, Wasserbly's work provides a poignant and unforgettable journey into the heart of modern conflict.
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