Years later, when he read a newspaper article that said Beckwith had a sign on his desk at his Texas-based security company which read, “kill ’em all and let God sort ’em out” he had been disappointed in the man he now considered his mentor.  He wrote him a scathing letter, and one of the former Delta officers who worked with Beckwith, Wade Ishimoto, told Sadler that when Beckwith read the letter that he replaced the sign.  The most precious thing on the face of the earth is a human life.” -Excerpted from “A Mission for Delta” by L.H. Burruss

This obscure novel, published in 1991, offers a small glimpse into the covert world of espionage and counter-terrorism as few could ever describe, the author having served as the deputy commander of Delta Force.

In part one of this review, the first half of the book is unpacked as we read about a Delta operator named Matt Jensen who tracks down a rogue Green Beret named Raul Valenzuela in El Salvador, the character clearly based on the real life Special Forces soldier David Baez who died under mysterious circumstances in Honduras.  In the novel, Delta conducted the snatch and grab at the CIA’s request because it is believed that Valenzuela constructed an improvised nuclear device, a loose nuke that is now missing.  Unfortunately, Valenzeula was killed during the mission by an errand shot fired by a Cuban helicopter.  The Delta operators did manage to pick up his pregnant girlfriend though and smuggle her back to Delta’s compound on Fort Bragg.

With Valenzeula dead, it is decided that Delta and one expert from NEST will begin the hunt for the improvised nuclear device which is suspected to be somewhere in the U.S.  A Spanish-speaking operator will begin working to win the trust of Valenzeula’s girlfriend, while a small team is put together to snatch Hakim Nidal (obviously based on the real like Abu Nidal who also had an interesting relationship with the KGB as does his fictional counter-part) who has left Lebanon and is vacationing in Cyprus as it is suspected that Valenzeula was going to sell Nidal the bomb, meaning the notorious terrorist may have additional information that could lead the Americans to the weapon.

Meanwhile, Delta’s operations officer embarks on a ad hoc not quite legal counter-intelligence mission in Washington D.C. as it becomes apparent that classified information is leaking from Congress.  At one point, Delta’s commander even grumbles about how his unit keeps coming under investigation despite it being clear that his operators are not the ones leaking sensitive information, but rather the leaks come from politicians.  In reality, a journalist named David Martin wrote a rather revealing article about Delta’s mission into Iran in 1980 dubbed Operation Rice Bowl/Eagle Claw.  In the Newsweek article Martin writes that, “(Dick) Meadows and another member of Beckwith’s staff, Capt. Lewis (Bucky) Burruss, were dispatched to Washington to draw up an emergency rescue plan, to be used if the Iranians started killing their hostages.”

In “A Mission for Delta” Delta’s operations officer named Dave Ames laments that some damn journalist outted his name to the public in an article about Eagle Claw, calling out Martin by name.  Ames believes this makes him too compromised for undercover work.  It comes off as a bit of a inside joke between friends.  Dave Ames seems to be a stand in character for Burruss and David Martin offers a blurb on the back of the novel about what a great writer Bucky is.  The real life references continue throughout the book, with Charlie Beckwith and Wade Ishimoto, who served as Delta’s first commander and intel officer respectively, named in the lead quote to this article.  Others are presented under thin aliases such as Schumann (Walt Shumate), Mel (Mel Wick), Birdie Sadler (Barry Sadler), and of course there is a Marine officer on the National Security Council named “Rollie” who is none other than Oliver North.

In real life, it is worth taking a look back at the early years of Delta Force.  Counter-terrorism was a new field, tactics were being developed on the fly, developing the inter-agency processes needed to successfully conduct these operations were in their infancy, and considering the myriad of potential threats, a unit like Delta had to be prepared for anything.  Delta’s Naval counter-part, SEAL Team Six probably felt the same way.  In an interesting aside, it is rumored that Dick Marciko made Bucky Burruss the villain in one of his novels, of course using a different name.

In real life, Delta Force participated in a training exercise called Gold Junction in June of 1982 which saw the unit challenged with gaining access to an airplane, air traffic control tower, and a tractor-trailer  which were protected by high end security systems and to then defeat a simulated improvised nuclear device (IND).  Two other NEST exercises followed at the Nevada Test Site and the Idaho National Energy Laboratory in which Delta Squadrons had to assault guarded objectives and then secure the simulated IND.  These types of exercises continue to this day and no doubt influenced the plot of “A Mission for Delta.”