Top Highlights

• In one of the offices I ran into Buckshot, who was in the Pentagon on another matter. I confided in him where I was going in a few hours. He became as excited as I. He was wearing his SAS regimental tie and he gave it to me to wear that evening. I wanted it for good luck.
• Tell them that in the event this operation fails, for whatever reason, the fault will not be theirs, it will be mine.”
• I couldn’t make heads or tails of this situation. The officers were so professional, so well read, so articulate, so experienced.
• The instructions were very clear but very short. I remembered that if I were back in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, I’d be an hour answering questions. Sergeant Major Ross did not tolerate any questions. “This is your task. You are here and this is where your rendezvous point will be tomorrow morning and you bloody well better get hopping.” That was i...
• They’d had a lot of experience, going back to World War II, whereas our own Army Special Forces hadn’t actually been established until 1954. The Brits had made lots of mistakes, but they’d learned from them. We Americans had a ways to go.