Review Death Waits in the Dark by Greg Coker/ George Hand IV

[AWP]

I'll take a beating for this, but the book was a hard read. CW4 Coker is a retired Nightstalker. He flew the AH-6 and made something like 9 deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan before retiring to his ranch in Texas. The man has one hell of a story, both personally and professionally, including being shot down by a SAM in Iraq. The book also chronicles Coker's faith, struggles with alcoholism, the toll it all took on his family, etc. His is a great story.

Why was this a hard read? The ghost writer, George Hand IV, is a retired Delta guy and friend of Coker's. Hand's delivery is informal to the point of distraction for me. It's not even like a couple of bros telling war stories, it reads a bit like an old OAF weekend safety brief. "The Chief of Smoke and Scunion...", "Chief Fire and Brimstone", etc. Hand had a new "title" for Coker throughout the book. Maybe these were inside jokes? I don't know, but I found them to detract from the overall story.

Fantastic story, off-putting delivery. YMMV

ETA something I just remembered: the book shits all over CCTs, to the point of one story where Chief Coker beat up one for not providing IR illum during a sketchy weather-related flight and landing. It had Coker set up to MFF into Afghanistan with a Delta or RRD team (I forget which) as a fire support guy, but was bumped off for a CCT because of Air Force politics. I can't recall them writing a single positive thing about combat controllers. That kind of blew my mind.

 

[BlackSmokeRisinG]

Sounded like an interesting book since I've already read Delta Force and Inside DF but never picked up anything on the Nightstalkers.

"the book shits all over CCTs..."

Theres enough SOF high school jock shit out there already, I've checked out.

 

[Topkick]

Sounded like an interesting book since I've already read Delta Force and Inside DF but never picked up anything on the Nightstalkers.

"the book shits all over CCTs..."

Theres enough SOF high school jock shit out there already, I've checked out.

I read Durant's book on Mogadishu. It was interesting. But yeah, that was when those guys were still quiet professionals and it was super interesting to hear from them. Not to mention Chief Durant does have a worthy story to tell.

 

[Kaldak]

I started reading this book over a year ago. I couldn't finish it.

The stories are interesting and a unique look into the pilots of the 160th SOAR. However, as @AWP mentioned, the delivery of them is taxing. I would enjoy it if I this was being told over beers or dinner, but in a book format, it gets tedious. Had the way the writer presented the information been a little less informal, I think I would've stuck with it. In this case, I just couldn't get into it and stay focused

Some of you may enjoy that style of writing, but it just wasn't for me.

Oh, and, as mentioned, calling people different nicknames every other paragraph is just annoying.