Once a Ranger

by Stan Johnson

Book Overview

In one terrifying moment, former Army Ranger David Craig is attacked in broad daylight and his son is kidnapped. When police come up empty-handed, Craig comes up with a better plan. Contact his Ranger buddies. Then search and destroy.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0451209583
• ISBN13: 9780451209580
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Signet Book
• Length: 386 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 4.2" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

INCREDIBLY EXCITING

The author captures your attention from the very beginning and leaves you sitting on the edge of your seat throughout the whole book. I couldn't put it down. It is very easy to read and each chapter was truly a cliff hanger. By page 30 I was all choked up as David Craig recalls a Vietnam experience that brought to mind what my friends endured in that war. As a parent, I felt the pain and anxiety that David Craig and the other parents experienced with their children being kidnapped. I highly recommend this book to everyone. It is incredibly exciting.

Action packed with a human side

Who knows the lengths to which a loving parent will go to recover a kidnapped child? After reading Once a Ranger you realize that the sky is not the limit but merely an avenue of apprpach for a daring rescue mission that glues you to the story and keeps you turning those pages. Guys will love this book with night free fall parachute assaults, special forces type tactics and all the modern gagets associated with war. But Once a Ranger captures a human side of men and the women who love them in a way that will appeal to women also. Author Stan Johnson went to great lengths to make certain that the details of this exciting story were as correct as possible. He researched present day cocaine smuggling operations, special warfare techniques and tactics, the Vietnam experience and New York City police work to make this story so true to life that the reader can feel the heat of the jungle and smell the acrid ordor of fresh gunpower on every page.Once a Ranger is also a love story on several levels: parental love - unchecked and undetered by the most incredible challenges, the unbreakable brotherhood of men forged in the cauldron of combat, and the unquestioning love of women for their men that drives them to give up everything for that love. You will sit on the edge of your seat the entire time. You will cry, laugh and sweat. But whatever you do, get ahold of Once a Ranger. Warning: I recommend that you start reading Once a Ranger early in the afternoon because you won't be able to put it down till you finish!

Move over, Ludlum, Grisham and Clancy

I have a new favorite adventure writer--Stan Johnson. I've read Clancy, Ludlum, Grisham and lots of others. This book is as exciting as anything I've read. It was so good that when my wife begged me to turn the light out I continued reading like my seven year old, with a flashlight. The book says the author was in the JAG Corps. OK, he probably was. With his obvious knowledge of commando operations, he must have firsthand experience in black ops as well. The story has everything, a beginning that will bring tears to any parent's eyes, excitement, intrigue, plot twists and a love story. I highly recommend it and hope Mr. Johnson writes another one soon. Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll quit his lawyer job to write books like this full time.

Great

As a woman who normally reads romance novels, when I first looked at the cover it looked nice but not like the normal book I would pick up to read, because of the military-themed cover. The first night I started reading this book, I could not put it down. I read to Chapter 13 and thought this book was really good. I also realized it has been a long time since I picked up a good book, I started to slow down the pace of reading because I knew it would be a while before another book captured my interest as much as this book. The characters were great. I could only imagine myself fighting just as hard for my kids and contacting every resource I had to rescue them. It wasn't until I was close to the end that I stop reading and looked at the cover and was able to really visualize what was happening and why a fighter plane was the cover of the book. I can't wait for the next release from this author.

I couldn't put it down.

When my husband suggested that I read the book he had just finished in record-breaking time, I thought I was in for another "guy's book." Wow, was I surprised! From the first page, I couldn't put it down. Once a Ranger is every bit a "gal's book" as well. The women characters are very strong, especially Jenny Benson, David Craig's lover. Jenny is what every woman wants to be: brilliant, successful, sexy, courageous, and as kick-bum as the guys, but smarter. This book is a very powerful story of serial kidnappings and the parents' efforts to find the kids. The characters are amazingly powerful. You cry with them in the depths of their depression, and fight alongside them in their desperation, as if you were there. More importantly though, Once a Ranger, is really more about relationships, love, sacrifice and courage. It's the first book of which I am aware in which straight men, the ex-Army Rangers, love each other so profoundly and so expressively, and where the women are as strong, if not stronger, than the men. It's the characters and their relationships that make Once a Ranger an Oprah book for both sexes.