Billy Waugh (1929–2023)

A biting satire, showing the perfect soldier, devoid of any conscience or doubt. All he wants to do by his own admission is to kill people and wherever the government sends him he will happily go - whatever the circumstances. It shows the unreal cruelty of the American army in case you thought 3rd world dictators had the monopoly on pointless slaughter of innocent people.

But, as the main character would have it, we all know that America has never done anything wrong and all the history books show more are written by limp-wristed academics who frankly don't understand that what is important in life is to do what the general tells you to and not to question anything ever, in case your brain experiences a thought that does not involve imagining killing another human being (with a smile on your face). Otherwise the pinkos win.

Parts of the book made me ill. The deranged glee the author exhibits describing blowing up sleeping soldiers with grenades or killing a woman in case she woke them up with her screaming was just vomit inducing. show less

I had this book for long time on a TBR list and finally I picked it up and read about the US Special Operations Community "Celebrity" - Billy Waugh.

And what a mixed bag.....

Lets go first through good points. Billy Waugh was involved in the irregular warfare since Korea. From Korea 'till early 2000's (global war on terror era) he was intimately linked with finding ways of making US special forces teams as deadly possible. As he says [while witnessing the Afghan war in 2000's] US MACV SOG show more teams were ahead of their time - it took 40 years for concepts of what you might call combined special warfare to mature. Just for this segment, witnessing the development of key combat concepts for special operations, this is very interesting book. I also like how Billy Waugh is not so obsessed with firepower but with communications and navigation.

Now the bad sides of this book..... Quite a few that poke me in the eye as I read the book. Lets go from least bad element to worst bad point encountered.
First author does not disclose much, most of operations he talks about are "safe" for release. But even so, hunt for Jackal, Sudan investigations and MACV SOG activities are pretty interesting. Also interesting part is how he got recruited for CIA special operations team.
Second, author's stand on US policies and his view of actions overall. Impression one gets from the book is that Billy Waugh is 100% patriot and he just does not care what others think - if his superiors give him the mission he will do it. And this is trademark of professional soldier who dedicated his life to his country. Now is he just a killing machine as he portrays himself? I think he is very clever and capable professional soldier in profession where few reach his age alive and [mostly] with all body parts. I think if he wanted he would say a lot about his country policy but he is concerned only about one thing - finishing his task. He avoids politics because as every soldier he believes that people above him know what they are doing. This has its downside but unfortunately indoctrinated professionals like this who would lie down their lives on moment notice need to be this way. In the middle of conflict one cannot start doubting or one loses life very fast, and not just their own. Upper echelons are supposed to know the best (which is not always the case and here lies the tragedy). Billy Waugh is at best low level officer, tactics specialist, and this is what he likes - to go down and dirty against the enemy. As I said tragedy is when people like this are abused by higher echelons.
Third, his view of all other military or paramilitary he trained is very low. His comparison of Soviet Afghan war and US led Afghan war is ridiculous [but inline with general propaganda views] to say the least and while Soviet Afghan war lasted 10 years they at least left the more or less functional country. It took next six years for Talibans to take the power. West led coalition entered in 2001 and left in 2021 with only change in the field being left over Western arsenal picked up by the Talibans who just took over the power again while West and its allies fled the country in the most shameful way (making Saigon evacuation look like orderly event)! Like previous 20 years of bombardments and anti-guerilla war meant nothing at all, everything went back to square one. And I just wont mention Iraq, nor disasters in the rest of Middle East. Also when it comes to his opinions on military capability of Arabs - I think Jordanians would take offense.
Fourth (and this was the greatest issue for me) when one reads this book it becomes obvious that in entire almost 50 years of service in the most unforgiving field of counter-terrorism Billy Waugh's greatest challenge was getting heavily wounded in Vietnam. Everything else? According to Billy Waugh no challenge at all, because there is just no-one capable to stand against the might US Army, both in terms of technology and/or training (which sound ridiculous in light of recent conflict against Houthis). One of the readers was aghast of author's decisions to kill off witnesses or guards. While this might seem cruel it was all done on the battlefield. Sad events, true, but when guns are drawn there is no second thinking. Everyone not identified as ally previously is potential enemy and nobody wants to make risks that will endanger the entire team. As they say War is Hell.

Final conclusion is that this is book by true patriot, man who dedicated his life to safeguarding his country by fighting external enemies on their own turf. But while trying to build the legend of the US military supremacy (in parallel to author's own legendary status in the special operations community) author went into almost Captain America territory and thus unintentionally made parts of this work look ridiculous. Which is bad because lots of things could be made more interesting [even without entering politics].

Interesting book, but good parts of it read like Jason Bourne novel, which is very bad when you say this for [auto]biographical work. I can only recommend it for the author's perspective on development of US special forces from Korea to modern times. show less

Billy Waugh’s fifty year military and para-military career makes for some good reading. It also does a service by illustrating the high human cost of war, but also the price we pay for lapsed vigilance.

Although filled with equal parts braggadocio “I developed a propensity for attracting gunshots and shrapnel; I possess eight Purple Hearts to commemorate these occasions” and false modesty “Let me be clear: I am not a hero,” this is a compelling book.

Waugh details his seven years in show more Vietnam, most as a Master Sergeant attached to the Special Operations Group. He retired after the war and worked at a series of unsatisfying civilian jobs until he was hired to train soldiers in Libya. He later became a CIA contractor, hired to keep tabs Osama Bin Laden in Khartoum, Sudan in the early 1990s. (This book was published in 2004. In it Waugh says he believes Bin Laden was killed by a smart bomb on 2/4/02).

Waugh was later instrumental in the tracking and surveillance of Carlos the Jackal (Ilich Ramirez-Sanchez) in Khartoum, which led to his capture by the French. This may be the most gripping part of the book.

Waugh finishes out his career – in his seventies - with two months in Afghanistan at the beginning of the war there. show less

3.2 stars. Hard not to appreciate this man’s perspective. I guess we can spot him some humble brag here and there with all he did and saw in a career spanning from the Korean War to Tora Bora in 2001. A few of his anecdotes made me chuckle out loud, and overall I’m glad I got to hear him tell his interesting story. At this writing it’s available to read / listen on scribd.