Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #430819 in Books
• Published on: 1997-06-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Synopsis
Goes behind the scenes of an armored cavalry regiment to present photographs, illustrations, and diagrams of tanks, helicopters, and artillery systems, and interviews with high-ranking officers.

Customer Reviews

Here comes the Cavalry!
Not, of course the cavalry of old, but the modern hi-tech US Army Cavalry using tanks, armored vehicles, and state-of- the-art helicopters and weapons systems. The work is written in typical Tom Clancy style. You can practically hear him humming the Star-Spangled Banner while writing the book: a patriot at heart! He gives the reader a guided tour through modern weapons systems. He interviews General Franks (not, I repeat, not a new brand of frankfurters), the one who led the cavalry charge of armor in the Gulf War. There are some insights into the life and training of modern-day cavalry men. A must for military buffs and technology freaks. Almost makes you wish you were American!

Good introduction to armored cavalry
For me, this book was a fine introduction to what makes up today's armored cav--the armored vehicles, the weapons, the personnel, the training and the missions. I was especially impressed by his discussion of how GPS works. However, I felt that Clancy was weak on the history of the development of armored cav. I would have liked to have seen more discussion of how armored cav evolved from say, World War I through World War II, Korea, Vietnam right up to today. Clancy did a wonderful job of discussing the development of the submarine in his first nonfiction work SUBMARINE, and he would again talk about the history of the Marine Corps in his book about the Marines. Similarly, he should have talked about the history of the development of armored cavalry--Clancy's already proven that it's quite fascinating. Also, as with his other nonfiction works (save for INTO THE STORM) this book could use an index. For example, I saw a reference to the Sherman Tank in the glossary in the back; however, I could not find any references to it in the book itself. With his novels, and with nonfiction works such as this one, Clancy has probably done more to introduce the public to today's military than anyone else. I hope he continues to write nonfiction books such as this one, and I plan to continue buying them.

Skip this one
The topic is well worth reading about, but Clancy has just gone through the motions with ARMORED CAV. Try one of his other books, many of them are excellent. DEBT OF HONOR comes to mind, as does EXECUTIVE ORDERS. Or read the new WWII novel, THE TRIUMPH AND THE GLORY, it was magnificent! But avoid Armored Cav, it didn;t do justice at all to a fine branch of the US Army, which deserves better than a half-hearted effort from an otherwise fine writer.