This text examines, in a somewhat structural manner focused on organization and mission, the United States defenses against ballistic missile attack. The topic is inherently interesting as its present existence is predicated on North Korea's rise as a renegade nuclear power, unrestrained by the always dubious doctrine of mutually assured destruction. It is somewhat technical and dry in its presentation, but if you are familiar with the literature in this field, you might be grateful for the writer's refusal to romanticize or dramatize his source materials. It is certainly worth your time if you are a student of either the evolving science of ballistic missile defense or the threats inherent in modern technology in the hands of irresponsible foreign governments.

This was a great look at not only the history of missile defense, but the people behind keeping us safe. The technology mixed with humanity made this for a gripping story.

A compelling study of the 100th Missile Defense Brigade and the Army's contribution to protecting the American homeland from nuclear attacked. Daniel Wasserbly's narrative will inform experts and general readers alike.

I generally don't like giving books negative reviews, but I couldn't find anything to like here. Every time I tried, I was let down.

The narrative sections read so laughably bad, like a poorly written young adult novel. How many times can we say "Go weapons free!" That's cool, right?

There were several times where I thought the author was going to say something substantive. I gave up when his description of North Korean missile upgrades was that they were "lighter." No more complexity than that - just "lighter." You're writing a book about missiles. About 4 seconds on Wikipedia will give me better information.

I'm a pretty avid North Korea watcher, and I can tell you there are several podcasts on missile launches that will give you more and better information in 30 minutes than is to be found in this entire book.

I realize the focus of this book is on the people doing the missile defense - but at the end of the book all I know is a few names, that they went to train in Colorado, and that they prefer 8 hours shifts to 12 hours shifts. Should I ever visit Alaska, this book told me more about the few restaurants near the missile base than I ever needed to know. Do you really need to bring up chapters later after telling me that they just got internet that Uber doesn't service the area? I think I could have figured that out.

There were so many moments where interesting points could have been explored. Expand on the history of nuclear war, talk about Operation Paperclip instead of just name dropping one scientist, compare anything you're writing about to the Russian missile defense system instead of vaguely mentioning that it exists. Instead of saying that there are critics of land based missile systems, talk about what their criticisms are. Are they valid? Are they not? Talk about what the other forms of defense are. You vaguely mention sea-based and space-based (and in the epilogue, plane-launched) defenses exist, but you give zero detail about them or whether they might be better, worse, or more appropriate for different scenarios. Come on! Give me SOMETHING!

I didn't feel like the author was an expert on the material he was covering (which, according to his bio, he should be!). I think the most disappointed I got was when the author brought up cold weather training. Finally! Something of substance! But no, he just mentioned that one of the soldiers went to the training and the chapter abruptly ends.

As I said, I don't like beating up on books because I do feel bad for the authors, but I had the thought halfway through "I could have learned all of this from a few news articles..." and I wasn't disappointed when I got to the bibliography and found out, well, aside from interviews with soldiers about the hot dog stands in Alaska, that was pretty much the depth of his research.

I have to be honest, it took me a while to get through this book, as it probably should. This isn't really a light fiction you read at the beach. No, it's the product of extensive technical and historic research, written quite beautifully.
I am in no way an expert in nuclear weapons, but I studied international relations and I have always been fascinated by WMD, their history, and how to govern them. So this book was an interesting insight into some of it and I'm happy I had the chance to read it.

I'd like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a virtual copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My thanks to NetGalley for the pestering me to read this book before it became generally available. It's a fascinating glimpse into the very few soldiers charged with operating what we used to call "Star Wars" defense system. Developed mostly under Bush II, they are highly trained in a system that, if it doesn't work in a real attack, would submit the country to nuclear devastation.

The threat, as it evolved in the early 21st century, was seen mostly as coming from North Korea that vacillated between belligerence and seeking respect, both aspects leading them to the belief that a nuclear arsenal was the only way to satisfy both aims.

Fort Greeley in Alaska was reinstated as the base for the Missile Defense unit. It was about an unhospitable as one could imagine. It had been an active base during the sixties but then abandoned. Housing for families was virtually non-existent and soldiers had to commute by small airplane to Anchorage (a very scary proposition) when they had time off, of which there was little. Another concern was the rumor that the army had forgotten to take a pallet of VX gas artillery shells off the frozen Blueberry lake one winter and it went to the bottom during the spring melt. To quell rumors of its existence, the army drained the lake only to discover the rumor was true and the extremely toxic chemical weapon was indeed found at the bottom of the lake. The author doesn't say how they were disposed of. Maybe they let kids play with them.

Integrating base security with those residing on base in such a relatively small area led to a funny concern. The MPs would drive around the base perimeter with .50 calier machine guns on their vehicles. “Sir, we have TWIGs driving around with .50 -cals,” Kiraly warned the battalion’s executive officer, Wayne Hunt. Teenagers with Guns— TWIGs. “A .50-cal will range into the garrison, right next to the missile field,” Kiraly said . “What if there’s something in the wire, and they shoot into the housing area? It’s only a couple hundred meters.” TWIGS indeed. A different set of TWIGS was in charge of sophisticated interceptor missiles.

I would not want to have been stationed at Fort Greeley where they kept diffing up canisters of things that scared the crap out of the disposal teams.

<i>The EOD guys stopped laughing once they got to the canister and looked up the numbers on the data plate. There were some frantic radio calls and Scott and Marrero were ordered to leave. They never found out why. Soon afterward, while the MPs were clearing the woods away from the perimeter to build a new headquarters facility, they stumbled upon a buried batch of old Chinese mortars. And after that, contractors were digging new telephone lines near the fort’s chapel, and about five feet down they unearthed a large sealed drum. Scott and his patrol were ordered to guard the drum until EOD arrived the next day. He never found out what was in it." </i> Hope they didn't buy their kids shovels for birthdays.

The book has excellent chapters on the history and development of anti-missile missile systems. They had their beginning with attempts to shoot down V2 rockets, but the excessive amounts of shrapnel would have injured more on the ground than the rockets themselves which were ultimately rendered harmless following Montgomery's destruction of the launch sites. With the development of Soviet ICBM capability Kennedy was at first a fan of the Nike Zeus program that had evolved into the Nike-X system. It never had a chance for live testing as McNamara and Johnson believed the MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) scenario was the best deterrent and that continued development of any anti-missile defense system could be seen as destabilizing parity. All throughout this period, scientists debated whether such a system was even technologically feasible, not to mention the political debate over where to install the systems, i.e. which cities warranted protection and which not.
Administrations waffled on whether deployment was in the best interests until Reagan who wanted a bargaining chip in negotiations and he took what was now called "Star Wars" to a new level. That never went anywhere technically and it was gradually shelved until 9/11 when Congress was willing to fund anything that even hinted at defense.

By now, the technology had morphed into "hit-and-kill" whereby the ABM was expected to actually hit the incoming missile thereby destroying it. This required close interaction of radar systems and missile batteries, and the Bush administration was focusing on rogue nations like Iran and North Korea. Bush wanted everything up and running by the end of 2004.

It was an interesting way to fight and <b>An Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War</b> by Paul Scharre would make excellent simultaneous reading. The software was specialized and "If not constrained, the system would automatically take an aggressive approach and not necessarily the approach Northern Command or the White House wanted to take."

Enter the main focus of the book that is on the really very few who man (and a surprising number of women) the system connecting Colorado and Fort Greeley and the radar links.

Highly recommended for anyone interesting in the Cold War, MAD, and ABM systems, and the constraints of technological warfare, not to mention politics and the general reader. Entertaining and informative.

I am very grateful to St. Martin's Press for graciously providing me with an advance copy of "The 300: The Inside Story of the Missile Defenders Guarding America Against Nuclear Attack" by Daniel Wasserbly. This text examines, in a somewhat structural manner focused on organization and mission, the United States defenses against ballistic missile attack. The topic is inherently interesting as its present existence is predicated on North Korea's rise as a renegade nuclear power, unrestrained by the always dubious doctrine of MAD (mutually assured
destruction). For those interested in what Ronald Reagan's much maligned "Star Wars" program has evolved into, this is definetly worth examining. It is somewhat technical and dry in its presentation, but if you are familiar with the literature in this field, you might be grateful for the writer's refusal to romanticize or dramatize his source materials. It is certainly worth your time if you are a student of either the evolving science of ballistic missile defense or the threats inherent in modern technology in the hands of irresponsible foreign governments.