What the critics said about the first edition of
Koevoet
Correspondent Jim Hooper took an AK-47 slug in his right arm during a firefight
on 17 January 1987. Less than two months later, he took a sizeable mortar
fragment in his left arm. Neither kept him from pounding out a fiercely human
war book. Hooper has captured the exquisite terror and tenderness of battle
in a way that will touch both combat veterans and those who could, until
now, only imagine the gritty fascination of war.
-Don Sider, Time magazine (retired) - former Vietnam correspondent
[Koevoet] is in a class of its own as a very well-written and illustrated
military history. This book is for those interested in warfare, African
macro-politics - or those looking for a very exciting read. Be warned, though,
that sections of the book and some of the photographs are not for the
faint-hearted.
-SA Financial Mail
I don't pretend to be a literary critic or a book reviewer. But, as a newspaper
columnist and reader, I can tell you that Hooper's book is gripping, well-written
and deals with his time in the field with Koevoet, an elite South African-led
counter-insurgency unit. Whether you read it as a necessary work about a
little-known aspect of the situation in that part of the world…or as
a book by a guy who has spent as much time living his dreams as he has
contemplating them, you could find worse ways to spend a chilly fall weekend.
-St Petersburg Times
Journalist Jim Hooper took time to be accepted by this elite group. When
they learned to trust him, he gained a unique insight into the bush war.
He writes openly and movingly of the hot pursuits, the "contacts", the kills
the failures and the successes. He tells of seeing men-who had become part
of his life-suddenly wasted by a piece of shrapnel, a bullet, a landmine,
a "strim" rocket. He describes how, wounded himself, he watched as a comrade's
fight for life finally ended with the heart monitor straightlining.
-The Star
[Koevoet] covers Hooper's time with a tough but little-known South African
Police anti-terrorist unit-Koevoet. It operated very effectively in the 1980s
on the Namibian/Angolan border against men of the South West Africa People's
Organization (SWAPO) who were attempting to destabilise the country with
ambush and assassination. Hooper's book is in part a history of this conflict
and as such a useful English-language reference. It is also a personal odyssey.
-Campaigner
… this is no ordinary war book and no ordinary wander through a war
zone. It's probably as close as you can get to the real thing without leaving
one's comfortable armchair.
-European Freedom Review
[It] is a brutal tale, but well told and compulsory reading for anyone interested
in modern guerrilla warfare.
-Combat & Survival
Mr Hooper … has produced an exciting, disturbing and thought-provoking
story. He evokes much of the loneliness, beauty and tragedy of Southern Africa
in the book's quieter moments, which are sprinkled between sections of breathless
and gruesome action.
-The Herald
Hooper explores the mystique of an elite unit and provides an insight into
the personalities and motivations of men who thrive on war. [He] comes across
as an honest reporter with a keen eye for detail, and has crafted a superb
account of the black and white comrades-in-arms who make up a unique unit
already a legend in counterinsurgency warfare.
-Zephyrhills News
The tough comradeship within Koevoet, which made distinctions of colour or
race meaningless, is captured by Hooper and by the end of the book we share
with him the sense of personal loss as he begins his journey back to his
home in the peace of rural Hampshire. Koevoet combines information and reflection
with adventure, humour and tragedy. Hooper is a gifted photographer and a
craftsman with the written word.
-Defence Magazine
[Koevoet]…a sympathetic book…[is] written by an American journalist
who was given the unprecedented facility of living and patrolling with the
unit for more than six months. The author, Jim Hooper, describing them as
"hunter-killer teams", says …: "They very much fit the mould and
psychological profile of other elite special warfare units…extremely
aggressive and thriving on adrenaline highs. The fact is most of the love
and need the constant stimulation of combat…"
-David Beresford, The Guardian
In Hooper's own words, Koevoet "is an account of people caught up in a
little-known conflict in an even less-known part of the world." What makes
this book particularly exciting -and it definitely is-is knowing that the
author voluntarily gave up the security of jumping out of airplanes for taking
real risks, the likes of which none of us normal skydivers would never consider.
-BJ Worth, Skydiving
When American journalist Jim Hooper, was first given permission to accompany
Koevoet on operations in the bushwar, nothing had prepared him for the vicious
guerilla war raging in the dense bush of northern S.W.A/Namibia and Angola,
for the bloody tactics used by both sides, for seeing new-found friends die
next to him. Courage, desperation, comradeship, exhilaration, horror, all
are here in one riveting package, told in eminently readable style by a master
storyteller.
-Marc Pienaar, Amazon.com
Mr. Hooper's description of his time with Koevoet is both exciting and in-depth
in his examination of the people conducting counter-insurgency against the
communist supported SWAPO. A good, fast read that can allow the reader a
chance to expand their knowledge of what atrocities were committed by forces
in the name of "global Marxism." Balance this work with recently released
histories on American work against communism.
-Amazon.com
Some parts of this took me back so completely that I could even smell the
fear, sweat, diesel and guns. Adrenaline levels depleted- I'll leave it at
that
-Skoums, Amazon.com
[Koevoet] is a highly personal and riveting account of an often forgotten
African conflict. Often dismissed as thugs of the apartheid regime, Jim Hooper
tells the story of the men who made up the South African Koevoet unit with
a keen and observant outside eye. Along the way you can smell the diesel
and the sweat and feel the tension as he rides along with the men of Koevoet
on a terrible venture called war.
-Russell Hunter, Amazon
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