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Never Mind, We'll Do It Ourselves: The Inside Story of How a Team of Renegades Broke Rules, Shattered Barriers, and Launched a Drone Warfare Revolution
Never Mind, We'll Do It Ourselves is the character-driven story behind the origins of the Predator drone program and the dawn of unmanned warfare. A firsthand account told by two of the Air Force and CIA team leaders, Never Mind takes the reader into the back offices and secret government hangars where the robotic revolution went from a mad scientist-idea to a pivotal part of global air power. The story will reveal the often conflicting perspectives between the defense and intelligence communities and put you inside places like the CIA's counterterrorism center on the morning of 9-11. Through the eyes of the men and women who lived it, you will experience the hunt for Usama Bin Ladin and the evolution of a program from passive surveillance to a complex hunter-killer that hung above the battlespace like a ghost. Poised at the junction between The Right Stuff and The Bourne Identity, Never Mind, We'll Do It Ourselves will document the way a group of cowboys, rogues and bandits broke rules and defied convention to change the shape of modern warfare
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First published January 19, 2021
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September 28, 2022
A fast-paced insider account of the origins of the Predator UAV program, and the Predator’s role in the first phases of the war against al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.
I’d first heard of Cooter and Bierbauer in Whittle’s Predator: The Secret Origins of the Drone Revolution (Bierbauer is called “Alec B.” in that book), and if you’ve read that book, a lot of this material will be familiar, although there is a lot of new information here. The narrative is gripping, and the authors do a good job showing how different elements of the military and the intelligence community collaborated on the project, and how many technological and bureaucratic obstacles were met and overcome. The story is told in chronological order, and reads pretty smoothly. The alternating chapters by the different authors complement each other well and result in a pretty well-rounded story. The book is also humorous (I especially liked Cooter’s chapters)
Sometimes the narrative can bog down a little in technical jargon, though. Often the authors discuss how targets were selected, and accuse those higher-ups of declining to give attack orders as cowardly (they use phrases like “afraid to give the order” or “we couldn’t find anybody with the balls to shoot the son of a bitch”) There could have been more discussion of some of the dilemmas regarding collateral damage, and definitely in a more nuanced way. At one point they claim that “concepts like right and wrong have little impact in the modern courtroom.” (huh?) There’s also a few pseudonyms and euphemisms used in the book that are actually kind of easy to figure out.
A concise and engaging work.
I’d first heard of Cooter and Bierbauer in Whittle’s Predator: The Secret Origins of the Drone Revolution (Bierbauer is called “Alec B.” in that book), and if you’ve read that book, a lot of this material will be familiar, although there is a lot of new information here. The narrative is gripping, and the authors do a good job showing how different elements of the military and the intelligence community collaborated on the project, and how many technological and bureaucratic obstacles were met and overcome. The story is told in chronological order, and reads pretty smoothly. The alternating chapters by the different authors complement each other well and result in a pretty well-rounded story. The book is also humorous (I especially liked Cooter’s chapters)
Sometimes the narrative can bog down a little in technical jargon, though. Often the authors discuss how targets were selected, and accuse those higher-ups of declining to give attack orders as cowardly (they use phrases like “afraid to give the order” or “we couldn’t find anybody with the balls to shoot the son of a bitch”) There could have been more discussion of some of the dilemmas regarding collateral damage, and definitely in a more nuanced way. At one point they claim that “concepts like right and wrong have little impact in the modern courtroom.” (huh?) There’s also a few pseudonyms and euphemisms used in the book that are actually kind of easy to figure out.
A concise and engaging work.
April 5, 2021
It was the evening of October 7th, 2001 when the phrase, “Who the f*** did that?” was uttered in response—in anger and not praise—to the first Hellfire missile strike from a Predator drone. USAF Lt Gen Chuck Wald, who at the time was charged with coordinating all aspects of the nascent air war over Afghanistan as Operation Enduring Freedom kicked off, was incredulous at not knowing the CIA was operating armed drones in ‘his’ airspace without his knowledge. And this first strike was a botched effort to kill Taliban Supreme Commander Mullah Mohammed Omar. Thus, the era of armed unmanned warfare began.
“Never Mind We’ll Do It Ourselves” is the inside true story of how a handful of self-proclaimed ‘renegades’ broke barriers and rules that ushered in the advent of armed drone warfare. Co-author, retired USAF Colonel Mark Cooter, was a career intelligence officer with distinguished service and experience in Operation Desert Storm, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq. As a Predator squadron operations officer he was on the leading edge of Predator programs at near inception—both in the military Joint community and with the CIA. Co-author Alec Bierbauer spent most of his career conducting counterterrorism and counterintelligane operations with the CIA in Bosnia, Yemen and Afghanistan among others. He was the point man for the CIA’s Predator program, which is how he came to meet and work with Col Cooter. Co-author Michael Marks has a long history, mostly with special operations and intelligence work, and has written numerous books of acclaim. He was trusted with penning this volume and ‘bringing the stories to life’ as Cooter characterized in the book. Marks noted that this was the most complex book he’s ever helped write because of the extensive security clearance process required to ensure it remained unclassified for a mass audience.
Despite what we may have read or know about armed drone operations and their use in modern warfare, not much has really been known about the ‘who’ until now. Years before the terror attacks of 9/11 surveillance drone operations got off the ground in Bosnia in small measure before then being employed overhead Tarnak Farms—a former Afghan training camp near Kandahar which also served as the base of operations for Osama bin Laden and his followers from 1998 to 2001. This is also the place where it is thought the 9/11 aircraft hijackers trained. Between 2000 and 2001 unarmed Predators captured nearly four and a half hours of passive overhead surveillance of bin Laden. As the Predator program evolved from an observation platform to an offensive standoff killing machine, timing of the unfortunate 9/11 attacks served as an accelerating catalyst already undergoing transformation.
“Never Mind” is organized chronologically from the second chapter onward (the first chapter opens with that October 2001 1st strike noted above) beginning in January 2000 with alternating 1st person chapters from Mark and Alec. Each perspective complements the other and weaves a more complete contextual profile of the evolution of the armed Predator operations based upon their own organizational and cultural upbringing in the USAF and CIA, respectively. Readers are treated to what casual observers may not otherwise appreciate and is--in my view, one of the most appealing features of this story--the bureaucratic and technological hurdles required to traverse, bring about, and then convince numerous bureaucracies to stand behind and take the risk in employing this tremendous capability.
As with most encounters with something unfamiliar in which one has no previous frame of reference, the idea of arming drones to the establishment met with fierce skepticism, let alone opposition, by those operators and platforms that had been doing the shooting and killing at the time. Many said the idea and investment in experimenting and improving the ability of the spindly drone to launch a supersonic weapon was a big waste of money fraught with failure and wasted resources. And, like many new ideas there were initial failures, each led to a new lesson and improvement made to further refine procedures and techniques while also mitigating the extent of future failures. For example, a couple of the early experimental obstacles that had to be overcome were ensuring that launching a Hellfire missile off the Predator wing wouldn’t rip said wing off and causing the loss of the asset and missile; while another was ensuring the Hellfire could operate at the higher altitudes and colder temperatures that had previously not been demonstrated while attached to the Predator wing. Both challenges were overcome as were all the others. Naysayers of conventional air-to-ground strike platforms also had to be swayed, convinced and become advocates of the program if it were to bureaucratically succeed—and that happened in time, too. The idea of ‘split remote operations’ was also born during the age of full-coverage GPS satellite constellations where the physical Predators could be operated near the point of attack while the ground station and operators could employ them from the other side of the world—a concept we just take for granted today.
History was made by the team led by Bierbauer and Marks. They were modern-day ‘Wright Brothers’ in this regard, deftly navigating the birth and early years of the armed drone program. The stories of the other players also contributed greatly to the success and positive outcomes of this program. I have necessarily left them out of this review so that you as the reader can experience this background first-hand. However, one contributor deserves mention as being pivotal, and that is then-Capt Ginger (now Col (Retired), USAF) Ginger Wallace. Also a career intelligence officer, Cooter relied on her expertise every step of the way. I came to know Ginger while she was the 488th Intelligence Squadron Commander at RAF Mildenhall, UK, while I was the 100th Air Refueling Wing and installation commander there. She is the real deal!
This book adds to the airpower history, innovation and ingenuity Airmen and airpower are known. A recommended read for all who wish to understand the people and processes required to bring such a force-multiplying capability to fruition that is here to stay for many years to come.
“Never Mind We’ll Do It Ourselves” is the inside true story of how a handful of self-proclaimed ‘renegades’ broke barriers and rules that ushered in the advent of armed drone warfare. Co-author, retired USAF Colonel Mark Cooter, was a career intelligence officer with distinguished service and experience in Operation Desert Storm, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq. As a Predator squadron operations officer he was on the leading edge of Predator programs at near inception—both in the military Joint community and with the CIA. Co-author Alec Bierbauer spent most of his career conducting counterterrorism and counterintelligane operations with the CIA in Bosnia, Yemen and Afghanistan among others. He was the point man for the CIA’s Predator program, which is how he came to meet and work with Col Cooter. Co-author Michael Marks has a long history, mostly with special operations and intelligence work, and has written numerous books of acclaim. He was trusted with penning this volume and ‘bringing the stories to life’ as Cooter characterized in the book. Marks noted that this was the most complex book he’s ever helped write because of the extensive security clearance process required to ensure it remained unclassified for a mass audience.
Despite what we may have read or know about armed drone operations and their use in modern warfare, not much has really been known about the ‘who’ until now. Years before the terror attacks of 9/11 surveillance drone operations got off the ground in Bosnia in small measure before then being employed overhead Tarnak Farms—a former Afghan training camp near Kandahar which also served as the base of operations for Osama bin Laden and his followers from 1998 to 2001. This is also the place where it is thought the 9/11 aircraft hijackers trained. Between 2000 and 2001 unarmed Predators captured nearly four and a half hours of passive overhead surveillance of bin Laden. As the Predator program evolved from an observation platform to an offensive standoff killing machine, timing of the unfortunate 9/11 attacks served as an accelerating catalyst already undergoing transformation.
“Never Mind” is organized chronologically from the second chapter onward (the first chapter opens with that October 2001 1st strike noted above) beginning in January 2000 with alternating 1st person chapters from Mark and Alec. Each perspective complements the other and weaves a more complete contextual profile of the evolution of the armed Predator operations based upon their own organizational and cultural upbringing in the USAF and CIA, respectively. Readers are treated to what casual observers may not otherwise appreciate and is--in my view, one of the most appealing features of this story--the bureaucratic and technological hurdles required to traverse, bring about, and then convince numerous bureaucracies to stand behind and take the risk in employing this tremendous capability.
As with most encounters with something unfamiliar in which one has no previous frame of reference, the idea of arming drones to the establishment met with fierce skepticism, let alone opposition, by those operators and platforms that had been doing the shooting and killing at the time. Many said the idea and investment in experimenting and improving the ability of the spindly drone to launch a supersonic weapon was a big waste of money fraught with failure and wasted resources. And, like many new ideas there were initial failures, each led to a new lesson and improvement made to further refine procedures and techniques while also mitigating the extent of future failures. For example, a couple of the early experimental obstacles that had to be overcome were ensuring that launching a Hellfire missile off the Predator wing wouldn’t rip said wing off and causing the loss of the asset and missile; while another was ensuring the Hellfire could operate at the higher altitudes and colder temperatures that had previously not been demonstrated while attached to the Predator wing. Both challenges were overcome as were all the others. Naysayers of conventional air-to-ground strike platforms also had to be swayed, convinced and become advocates of the program if it were to bureaucratically succeed—and that happened in time, too. The idea of ‘split remote operations’ was also born during the age of full-coverage GPS satellite constellations where the physical Predators could be operated near the point of attack while the ground station and operators could employ them from the other side of the world—a concept we just take for granted today.
History was made by the team led by Bierbauer and Marks. They were modern-day ‘Wright Brothers’ in this regard, deftly navigating the birth and early years of the armed drone program. The stories of the other players also contributed greatly to the success and positive outcomes of this program. I have necessarily left them out of this review so that you as the reader can experience this background first-hand. However, one contributor deserves mention as being pivotal, and that is then-Capt Ginger (now Col (Retired), USAF) Ginger Wallace. Also a career intelligence officer, Cooter relied on her expertise every step of the way. I came to know Ginger while she was the 488th Intelligence Squadron Commander at RAF Mildenhall, UK, while I was the 100th Air Refueling Wing and installation commander there. She is the real deal!
This book adds to the airpower history, innovation and ingenuity Airmen and airpower are known. A recommended read for all who wish to understand the people and processes required to bring such a force-multiplying capability to fruition that is here to stay for many years to come.
April 12, 2023
Just finished Never Mind, We'll Do It Ourselves about turning the Predator drone from a platform limited to line-of-sight navigation into one capable of flying hundreds of miles to a target area directed by SATCOM controls, feeding its live feed directly to intelligence analysts 8,000 miles away in real-time while hovering for hours. The book chronicles the crash mad-science program kicked off in January 2000 for hunting down and taking out bin Laden. Aside from its historical interest, the book lays out all the challenges many of us have seen in pulling together an ad hoc team, who, with a laser-focus on the goal, can accomplish miracles with duct tape and baling wire, while side-stepping as many bureaucratic landmines as possible. So many things that happened sounded eerily familiar to me from cheap, but clever tricks to, “Let’s just not tell them we’re doing this until after it’s done,” maneuvers.
The President had told the CIA, NSA, etc. to find Bin Laden and eliminate him by October 2000. Bin Laden’s network was already responsible for the destruction of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The deadline, if not the purpose, was based on politics rather than reality of course. It was for the various brain trusts of the intelligence agencies to figure out how to do it. The President's job is to set the goals. The How it All Began chapter of the book starts with a scene directly out of The Hunt for Red October where Jack Ryan, as he's ushered into an emergency meeting populated with all the top brass, asks his boss Admiral Greer, “Who’s giving the briefing?” to Greer’s, “You are,” rejoinder.
Alec Bierbauer, one of the authors finds himself in a brainstorming session with all the top minds and heavy hitters of the intelligence agencies, wondering to himself why is he there with this accumulation of brass and brainpower? He listens to them throw out ideas, ruling each of them out, and, as a listener, ticks off all the assumptions and limits that are articulated by all these smart people, tying the mission into an insoluble problem. Then, as he memorably writes:
Some moments in your life you hear the words being spoken, and you pray to God they didn’t just come from your own mouth.
“If we can’t send a pilot into harm’s way, can we just send the plane?”
The book chronicles how the authors assemble a team of mavericks and go-getters and accomplishes one crazy task after another until, in September 2000, they find themselves watching bin Laden emerge from a convoy into an Al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan, and relay the information to the command structure to send the cruise missiles from the subs parked in the Indian Ocean in anticipation of just such a moment, only to be asked after a long delay, “Can you guarantee he’ll still be there 2 hours from now?”
They had run into a hidden assumption that they hadn’t anticipated. They had accomplished the nearly impossible goal of putting eyes on the target, a single human being, from 8,000 miles away in real time, using an unpiloted aircraft but had no way of taking a shot that wouldn’t take at least 2 hours to get there.
From there the book chronicles how they set about squashing that hidden assumption by arming the drone itself in another odds-defying effort.
This book is not only a great work of historical documentation, but a great business book on how to get things done. It doesn’t sugar-coat the things they did that would have to be fixed to turn drone warfare into another tool in the armed forces, but it doesn’t focus on them. Those in the cybersecurity community will hold their heads in their hands at some of the things they did, and that part’s a great lesson too. Thrilling and entertaining and one of the best business books I’ve ever read to boot.
The President had told the CIA, NSA, etc. to find Bin Laden and eliminate him by October 2000. Bin Laden’s network was already responsible for the destruction of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The deadline, if not the purpose, was based on politics rather than reality of course. It was for the various brain trusts of the intelligence agencies to figure out how to do it. The President's job is to set the goals. The How it All Began chapter of the book starts with a scene directly out of The Hunt for Red October where Jack Ryan, as he's ushered into an emergency meeting populated with all the top brass, asks his boss Admiral Greer, “Who’s giving the briefing?” to Greer’s, “You are,” rejoinder.
Alec Bierbauer, one of the authors finds himself in a brainstorming session with all the top minds and heavy hitters of the intelligence agencies, wondering to himself why is he there with this accumulation of brass and brainpower? He listens to them throw out ideas, ruling each of them out, and, as a listener, ticks off all the assumptions and limits that are articulated by all these smart people, tying the mission into an insoluble problem. Then, as he memorably writes:
Some moments in your life you hear the words being spoken, and you pray to God they didn’t just come from your own mouth.
“If we can’t send a pilot into harm’s way, can we just send the plane?”
The book chronicles how the authors assemble a team of mavericks and go-getters and accomplishes one crazy task after another until, in September 2000, they find themselves watching bin Laden emerge from a convoy into an Al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan, and relay the information to the command structure to send the cruise missiles from the subs parked in the Indian Ocean in anticipation of just such a moment, only to be asked after a long delay, “Can you guarantee he’ll still be there 2 hours from now?”
They had run into a hidden assumption that they hadn’t anticipated. They had accomplished the nearly impossible goal of putting eyes on the target, a single human being, from 8,000 miles away in real time, using an unpiloted aircraft but had no way of taking a shot that wouldn’t take at least 2 hours to get there.
From there the book chronicles how they set about squashing that hidden assumption by arming the drone itself in another odds-defying effort.
This book is not only a great work of historical documentation, but a great business book on how to get things done. It doesn’t sugar-coat the things they did that would have to be fixed to turn drone warfare into another tool in the armed forces, but it doesn’t focus on them. Those in the cybersecurity community will hold their heads in their hands at some of the things they did, and that part’s a great lesson too. Thrilling and entertaining and one of the best business books I’ve ever read to boot.
January 21, 2022
This study of how the CIA killer drone program got started and was operationally proven during the first phase of Operation Enduring Freedom has exciting moments but most of it is a reminder that war is 99% boredom and 1% pure terror. Only the scary part is exciting. This book focuses on the logistical and bureaucratic hurdles that the CIA drone program had to overcome to reach the field, and that's all in 99%. Some of the buildup is very interesting, but it's very chatty and heavy with nicknames and military slang. That's not a problem during the exciting parts, but it wears thin during long, mildly interesting sections. This story is certainly realistic though. It often reminded me of time spent deployed. It will give you an appreciation for how difficult it is to deploy a weapon system, especially a kluged one. The best part of this book, aside from descriptions of actual missions, is the policy-related struggle going on behind the scenes. It isn't described in detail but it looms over all the action in the story. If you really like first-hand accounts of drone strikes, this is the book for you. If you're looking for a more comprehensive study of the rise of the UAV as a weapon, look elsewhere. Based on that distinction, I deducted one star for limited appeal.
June 29, 2022
This profanity laced tome describes exactly what its subtitle does. It is an average read for books of this genre, but if you have lived through the events it describes, you will doubtless enjoy the telling as I did. It's description of the battle of Takur Ghar/Roberts Ridge from above is particularly salient to the subject matter and a worthwhile perspective to add to the canon of that battle's lore. Its description of the bureaucracy which so often hamstrings warfighters is accurate and tragic at the same time. One wonders what might have been if one such trigger pull had been authorized when it should have been (as described in the book). I recommend the book if you are interested in modern warfare's recent history.
November 8, 2024
This book is fine for what it is, but it isn't quite what I was looking for.
I was looking for information about how the Predator drone was created and refined, with details on how the technology works, and how the drone is deployed and piloted.
Instead, this is an insider's account of how the Predator was used in the years before and after 9/11. Written by a leader of the team, there are some gripping anecdotes from the field, with some information about the command-and-control structure, but few technical details.
I would have preferred a book written by an outsider that approached the subject more broadly, including the development and technology of military drones. I'll need to look elsewhere for that.
I was looking for information about how the Predator drone was created and refined, with details on how the technology works, and how the drone is deployed and piloted.
Instead, this is an insider's account of how the Predator was used in the years before and after 9/11. Written by a leader of the team, there are some gripping anecdotes from the field, with some information about the command-and-control structure, but few technical details.
I would have preferred a book written by an outsider that approached the subject more broadly, including the development and technology of military drones. I'll need to look elsewhere for that.
May 2, 2021
Absolutely riveting
There are times when my faith in the political realm is shaken to the core. Other times simply my faith in some of my fellow Americans. This story reminds me that there are still bad motherfuckers out there that bleed Red, White and Blue and press forward with the grit and determination that not only founded this great country, but continue to make it great. My utmost respect to the men and women that got this done and fought this fight.
Nothing about this book is boring or drawn out. I was glued to this book page after page. I was sad when it ended and I hope for more in the future.
There are times when my faith in the political realm is shaken to the core. Other times simply my faith in some of my fellow Americans. This story reminds me that there are still bad motherfuckers out there that bleed Red, White and Blue and press forward with the grit and determination that not only founded this great country, but continue to make it great. My utmost respect to the men and women that got this done and fought this fight.
Nothing about this book is boring or drawn out. I was glued to this book page after page. I was sad when it ended and I hope for more in the future.
November 11, 2021
Great read on how we got here….
After the video of the killing of a Medal of Honor recipient recipient was released, interest in America’s drone program surged. So many “Top Secret” programs are hidden until all involved are dead-this is the exception! Fascinating history of how fast the Predator Drone came into it’s own, as well as the sad look back on how we could have taken out Osama Bin Laden long before 9/11. So glad the CIA did not win the fight to keep this story secret. So many every day American heroes were involved in this project, & this book shares the credit. Highly recommended!
After the video of the killing of a Medal of Honor recipient recipient was released, interest in America’s drone program surged. So many “Top Secret” programs are hidden until all involved are dead-this is the exception! Fascinating history of how fast the Predator Drone came into it’s own, as well as the sad look back on how we could have taken out Osama Bin Laden long before 9/11. So glad the CIA did not win the fight to keep this story secret. So many every day American heroes were involved in this project, & this book shares the credit. Highly recommended!
January 9, 2023
A Collaboration of Greatest
Great information of detailed events. Sometimes the action was so rapid fired and the use of so many different names and abbreviation of military and other groups that made the story hard to follow. When I powered through some of that the heart of the message gave a sensed of wow, gratitude, excellence and other worldly intelligence from such heroic group. Your title gave the most meaning to what you had to do to be great.
Great information of detailed events. Sometimes the action was so rapid fired and the use of so many different names and abbreviation of military and other groups that made the story hard to follow. When I powered through some of that the heart of the message gave a sensed of wow, gratitude, excellence and other worldly intelligence from such heroic group. Your title gave the most meaning to what you had to do to be great.
August 4, 2021
A great book!
This is a great book. It makes technical developments clear and understandable. The account of the Battle of Hunters Ridge is intense and nerves wracking. An account of American ingenuity and bravery. Read it!
This is a great book. It makes technical developments clear and understandable. The account of the Battle of Hunters Ridge is intense and nerves wracking. An account of American ingenuity and bravery. Read it!
August 29, 2021
Never easy with so many ranks involved
Keep getting confused with all the military jargen, and I was in the US Air Force during Vietnam. I enjoyed all the info on the predator and all the effort to make it happen.
Keep getting confused with all the military jargen, and I was in the US Air Force during Vietnam. I enjoyed all the info on the predator and all the effort to make it happen.
December 12, 2021
Rare and insightful look into a CIA operation. Unpolished (rightfully so)account about how the Predator program came to be along with some of the successful missions they had. The account captures the emotions and challenges perfectly.
December 12, 2023
Wow
I felt like I was part of the team just observing from the sidelines.
Great narration, it reads like a good novel is supposed to read!
Thank you for letting us look behind the curtain.
The government often times forgets who they work for!
I felt like I was part of the team just observing from the sidelines.
Great narration, it reads like a good novel is supposed to read!
Thank you for letting us look behind the curtain.
The government often times forgets who they work for!
July 11, 2025
Fascinating history of the Predator drone program in the wake of 9/11. The common refrain after 9/11 was that intelligence was too stove-piped and agencies didn't share information or work together well. The DoD/USAF, CIA, and cross-service spec ops collaboration described suggests better.
March 25, 2021
Amazing story and well written
January 5, 2023
2.5 to 3 stars. An important story told very poorly.
November 29, 2023
Very well done documentation of the development of drone use leading to armed drone use. Just enough technical information for the engineer in me without losing the story of why it was done.
February 3, 2025
A gripping story behind the most consequential weapons system of the 21st century: The Armed Predator
This is a solid read. If you're into aviation and military science, you may have also read Ben Rich's book Skunk Works. This is in many ways a spiritual successor to that work insofar it describes a story from the perspective of two individuals (a CIA and Air Force officer) that together took the unarmed, unmanned Predator drone and found a way to remotely operate it to conduct surgical strikes around the world. It has a fun cast of characters and a very cohesive narrative that follows the early days of the program, including its impetus after the 9/11 attacks. It's also well worth a read if you're curious about US drone operations in Afghanistan, and I still believe the book holds together well after Operation Neptune Spear and the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. Perhaps that's a testament to its scope, but there's two big nits I have with the book.
The first is I simply wish it were more detailed. This is likely a consequence of both the fact it took three years to pass an adversarial CIA Publication Review Board (which should interest you!) and that it is aimed to a fairly casual audience. The work, perhaps to avoid boring the reader or avoid classification, skips over the finer points of delegating authority between the CIA and Air Force, why the chain of command failed to authorize a strike on OBL in 2000, or how exactly the liaison officers managed the tight network of the State Department, the USIC community, and the separate DoD services. It will spend pages describing why it's challenging to designate targets by eye to an F/A-18 but not mention a sentence as to why the Predator's laser and an F-15E's LANTIRN are incompatible. Maybe it's classified, maybe they thought that was boring to most... but I find the art of making separate systems and organizations work together the best part of these works.
The second is that Bierbauer intimately describes how the CIA stumbled into and supported the Battle of Takur Ghar, but he completely elides (perhaps wisely) the political sh*tstorm below. During the course of the battle, the reckless Navy SEAL team on the ground led US forces into a well-positioned ambush, resulting in the loss of 2 MH-47 Chinooks from the Army's 160th SOAR, deaths of 3 Army rangers and 1 Army pilot, and deaths of 2 Air Force airmen. The back-and-forth between the Navy and the Army/Air Force lasted years, and the tie breaker of what happened came from the CIA drone Bierbauer flew, which officially didn't exist. Furthermore, the valor and final moments of John A. Chapman -- one of the Air Force servicemen the SEALs abandoned -- were recorded by Bierbauer. It's on YouTube, plainly labeled as "The First Medal of Honor Ever Recorded." Bierbauer, while he gives a detailed synopsis of his conversation with one of the other combat controllers, does not mention this. Yes, it's political, but it feels like a huge miss around events that were hugely consequential for the US Special Forces community.
Great book overall, and despite my nits, well worth your time.
This is a solid read. If you're into aviation and military science, you may have also read Ben Rich's book Skunk Works. This is in many ways a spiritual successor to that work insofar it describes a story from the perspective of two individuals (a CIA and Air Force officer) that together took the unarmed, unmanned Predator drone and found a way to remotely operate it to conduct surgical strikes around the world. It has a fun cast of characters and a very cohesive narrative that follows the early days of the program, including its impetus after the 9/11 attacks. It's also well worth a read if you're curious about US drone operations in Afghanistan, and I still believe the book holds together well after Operation Neptune Spear and the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. Perhaps that's a testament to its scope, but there's two big nits I have with the book.
The first is I simply wish it were more detailed. This is likely a consequence of both the fact it took three years to pass an adversarial CIA Publication Review Board (which should interest you!) and that it is aimed to a fairly casual audience. The work, perhaps to avoid boring the reader or avoid classification, skips over the finer points of delegating authority between the CIA and Air Force, why the chain of command failed to authorize a strike on OBL in 2000, or how exactly the liaison officers managed the tight network of the State Department, the USIC community, and the separate DoD services. It will spend pages describing why it's challenging to designate targets by eye to an F/A-18 but not mention a sentence as to why the Predator's laser and an F-15E's LANTIRN are incompatible. Maybe it's classified, maybe they thought that was boring to most... but I find the art of making separate systems and organizations work together the best part of these works.
The second is that Bierbauer intimately describes how the CIA stumbled into and supported the Battle of Takur Ghar, but he completely elides (perhaps wisely) the political sh*tstorm below. During the course of the battle, the reckless Navy SEAL team on the ground led US forces into a well-positioned ambush, resulting in the loss of 2 MH-47 Chinooks from the Army's 160th SOAR, deaths of 3 Army rangers and 1 Army pilot, and deaths of 2 Air Force airmen. The back-and-forth between the Navy and the Army/Air Force lasted years, and the tie breaker of what happened came from the CIA drone Bierbauer flew, which officially didn't exist. Furthermore, the valor and final moments of John A. Chapman -- one of the Air Force servicemen the SEALs abandoned -- were recorded by Bierbauer. It's on YouTube, plainly labeled as "The First Medal of Honor Ever Recorded." Bierbauer, while he gives a detailed synopsis of his conversation with one of the other combat controllers, does not mention this. Yes, it's political, but it feels like a huge miss around events that were hugely consequential for the US Special Forces community.
Great book overall, and despite my nits, well worth your time.
September 6, 2025
Pre-9/11 dry but great perseverance.
September 29, 2025
If you find yourself with a blank check based on circumstances (geopolitical or otherwise) beyond your control, you don't get to talk about your cred as an innovator.
Rec'd by some general's professional reading list.
Rec'd by some general's professional reading list.
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