I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to Be Destroyed By Me: Emblems from the Pentagon's Black World

I love this fascinating little book. It is a tiny fact-filled volume, with a patch from a different top-secret test flight or satellite reconnaissance unit on each page. Where possible, the author describes what the patch symbolism represents and where the unit was located. This is a thrilling little book for anyone that was involved in these or similar "black" programs themselves, and maybe even more intriguing for civilians. Not the dimensions of the book - it is very small; the patches are photographed at approximately life size and each page is not much bigger than each patch. This book focuses mainly on Air Force and NRO secret units. I'd love to see one of these for military intelligence and NSA units.

If you are at all interested in the military, insignias, secret projects, or just good conversational pieces, buy this book. Then take it for what it's intended. The author doesn't promise a comprehensive or even consistent summary of military patches or black ops; he's picked some of the more interesting emblems and thrown a few program tidbits in where he could. It's surface level insight into the secret world of black ops, and if we all knew about it, it wouldn't be very secret or black, would it? The photos are great, the back stories are interesting, and we enjoyed it so much I'm buying more as gifts for my the history/military buffs in my family (i.e., all the guys.)

I would agree with the author that this book is not complete. It is an excellent primer for a layman or even the experienced collector to learn the nuances of insignia design. Some of this is directly related to heraldry-or put another way, taken from the lineage of the patch or related to the mission of the unit it represents. In these cases, there is more information about areas 51 and 52, and at least some idea of their purposes. I was able to use the information in the book to give me an idea of what units might have worn patches I had thusfar been unable to identify. Thanks for writing it and I hope there are some followup volumes as more is learned.

I'm not entirely sure what I expected with this book, but whatever it was it's not what I got. There's a short introduction about the world of black-ops, and from there we move into the structure that takes us through the rest of the book: an image of an emblem from the 'black' world, and some text outlining what we (the outside world) know about it. Usually, that's not very much. The emblems themselves are often teenage in tone - they feature wizards and lightning bolts and basic Latin, and it's not hard to see them springing from the imagination of an adolescent military-crazed boy. That's a bit hard to reconcile with the world of extraordinary rendition and Guantanamo Bay, but the book itself casts no judgment on the morality of the world it seeks to represent. In the end, all we get are questions. Some of the explanatory texts state that we know nothing about the emblems represented, others are open about the fact that they are purely speculative. It's a fascinating look into an other-world or under-world existing beside our own, and the only difference between it and the imaginings of speculative authors is that this one is real.

This is a fun and unique book and worth picked up for any patch or military enthusiast. This in the only books I have seen written on military morale patches. The cover has an actual embroidered patch affixed to it. It is a bit out of date and deals almost exclusively with Air Force unit's, the patches are good and the write ups are pretty well done. I would like to see a second version and would love to see this as the first in a series. But I don't know if the military patch collector is a big enough demographic to support it. That said if you find this at all fascinating or interesting its worth picking up.

Love the pictures that go with this book

Smaller format than hoped for, poor page binding, some pages were partially detached upon delivery. Very nice cover, with actual patch on top of it. Images are in black background, information about each patch is on white background. Would rate it 5/5 if not for poor page binding and if it was slightly larger format.

I found myself gaping as I read this book, by turns astonished that classified personnel could get away with having a sense of humor on the job and cackling madly at the inside jokes. There appears to be a rich language of symbolism in the patches' patterns, and many an afternoon could be whiled away by the reader attempting to piece it together. I've already recommended this book to several friends, and I can't recommend it highly enough to anyone curious about military heraldry or black projects.

Fantastic Book By Trevor my son Loves it and has now most patches to his Collection.

Si te gusta el tema de los programas militares secretos, este libro te muestra y describe los parches de estos programas.

Livre inclassable sur certains badges associés à des programmes militaires noirs américains... Dans la première version, la couverture est un véritable badge !!! Au lecteur d'imaginer à quels types de projets secrets ils correspondent...

Für alle, die mehr über die Bedeutung diverser Patches "geheimer" Militäreinheiten wissen wollen *simply perfect!* Daher von mir volle 5*****

Very high end