About book The Mission, The Men, And Me 1st (first) Edition Text Only (2000)
This book happens to one of these "bundle packs" - for the price of one, you actually get multiple books, albeit in between the same covers. Firstly, and most surprisingly, it's a fantastic management and strategy book. It sings the same tune as many modern management and strategy scholars, for instance there are many parallels with "emergent strategy" concepts (Mintzbert, Grant, Eisenhardt et al), and also with the "eight themes" of Peters and Waterman. But it is not only doing a fantastic job applying these concepts to military situations, it also develops some actual new ground in terms of strategy studies. Secondly, it provides an interesting view (a pretty grim one, sadly) into the fallacies of political decision-making, more particularly into those related to the US military. Over-developed risk aversion on one side and a blind faith in technology on the other, decision-makers shut their eyes in front of actual information and base the decisions on wishful thinking and populist agendas.Thirdly, it's just good story telling. War stories, but not the bragging and boasting usually found in such ex spec ops memoirs. Pete Blaber served in the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, more popularly known as Delta Force, and his leadership experiences while with that particular organization make him uniquely qualified to impart wisdom in regards to leadership in combat. His book, THE MISSION, THE MEN, AND ME, does exactly that, with a few key points: don't get treed by a chihuahua; when in doubt, develop the situation; imagine the unimaginable, humor your imagination; always listen to the man on the ground; and it is not reality unless it is shared.Blaber's experiences take us from the opening stages of the war in Iraq, to hunting war criminals in the Balkans, to an aborted mission to infiltrate Afghanistan to eliminate Osama bin Laden pre-9/11, and finally, to the opening stages of the war in Afghanistan and Operation: ANACONDA. Here, he exposes where his lesson come into play by demonstrating where he made mistakes and where others he has worked with made mistakes, ranging from fellow Delta operators to those in the highest annals of power. At the level that Blaber operated, mistakes cost people their lives, which is strongly demonstrated in the closing chapters of the book.Writing-wise, Blaber's prose is solid. He does not self-aggrandize, he does not exaggerate. He simply tells the facts as he saw them, being the man on the ground. It's not ground-breaking prose, but it is skilled and calculated, as one would expect from a man who spent his career honing his skills and calculating risks. Researchers of other books regarding Operation: ANACONDA--particularly, NOT A GOOD DAY TO DIE, by Sean Naylor--will see cross-references to and excerpts from other accounts.Video gamers might find passages that served as inspiration to the game MEDAL OF HONOR (particularly, the parts about Advanced Force Operations, and Blaber's call sign, "Panther"), which should add incentive for those gamers to research the men behind the story that drives the game. Military service members and veterans will find combat lessons to apply to their own craft. Civilians will find lessons they can apply in their every day lives. This latter point has been a point of contest with some in the military community who feel that Blaber's book was possibly edited from a book about war to a "self-help" book…while this may certainly be the case, the war stories are still there, and the lessons--while perhaps unnecessarily spot-lighted--are still there, as well, and it does not read like the self-help books one would expect from, say, Anthony Robbins.All in all, THE MISSION, THE MEN, AND ME delivers insights in spades through amusing and interesting stories, as well as by way of the modern battlefield from a commander's perspective. It is definitely recommended reading for military enthusiasts from all walks of life.
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A fascinating book on leadership in both military and civilian jobs.
—lovenut14
One of the better first hand accounts of leadership that I've read.
—9920351616
Gives great ways of looking at real life situations differently.
—routson_d52
