Never Mind, We'll Do It Ourselves

The Inside Story of How a Team of Renegades Broke Rules, Shattered Barriers, and Launched a Drone Warfare Revolution

De: Alec Bierbauer, Col. Mark Cooter USAF (Ret.), Michael Marks

Narrado por: David de Vries

The inside story of how a CIA officer and an Air Force officer joined forces to develop America's most powerful tool in the war on terror.

Never Mind, We'll Do It Ourselves is the character-driven story behind the origins of the Predator drone program and the dawn of unmanned warfare. A firsthand account told by an Air Force team leader and a CIA team leader, Never Mind, We'll Do It Ourselves takes the listener into the back offices and secret government hangars where the robotic revolution went from a mad scientist idea to a pivotal part of global air power.

The story will reveal the often conflicting perspectives between the defense and intelligence communities and put you inside places like the CIA's counterterrorism center on the morning of 9/11. Through the eyes of the men and women who lived it, you will experience the hunt for Osama Bin Laden and the evolution of a program from passive surveillance to the complex hunter-killers that hang above the battlespace like ghosts.

Poised at the junction between The Right Stuff and The Bourne Identity, Never Mind, We'll Do It Ourselves will document the way a group of cowboys, rogues, and bandits broke rules and defied convention to change the shape of modern warfare.

©2021 Alec Bierbauer, Mark Cooter, and Michael Marks (P)2022 Tantor

Superb book!!

Loved it! Never boring! It culminates with a rarely seen or written about view of one of the most harrowing battles in Afghanistan.

Great History of the Predator Drone

This was a great history of the Predator Drone told through the eyes of those who were there.

One of the best 

This is one of the best audiobooks that I have listened to. It kept my interest at a high level through the entire audiobook. The speaker was top-notch. 

Outstanding, nuff said.

The narration of this book was perfect. The attitude of the various main characters was admirable and often left me chuckling even in the most intense moments of the book. Excellent pace for the stories unfolding. An ending you can feel and one that fills you with pride to stand beside men and women this brave. You don't need a military background to follow this book, everyone should read this book if for nothing more than to relive our history and understand the depth of our power in interrogative and electronic warfare.

Nostalgic Passage to a Remarkable Time

Excellent book. Should be required reading in USG / DoD acquisition courses and our War Colleges. Having served alongside my friend Alec and Mark at CIA HQ in the ‘pick-up’ team known as CTC/SO during the late 2001 and early 2002 timeframe, I bear witness to the factuality of this great book. It was awesome remembering once familiar faces like Hank, Hal, Cofer, Rich, Linda, Soup, and others unnamed up and down the chain of command who helped bring this capability into being and put it onto the battlefield. I can testify to Predator’s utility to my SOF and agency colleagues during my 2002 deployment to Gardez and elsewhere in Afghanistan. Despite machinations of bureaucracies and rice bowls, Alec and Mark and their team got the job done!

Smart, funny, absolutely true

Good for this team in the ability to push the beuracrucy aside and make it happen. What a great story, the narrator did a great job as well.

MacGyver Ingenuity Saving American Troops

I lean toward diplomacy over blowing up bad guys. Still, this book, written like a "hold-your-breath adventure," made me grateful for what these men and women did to protect embattled troops from 20,000 feet and eight thousand miles away in real-time.

Great story but narrator is THE BEST!

The narrator, David de Vries, made this book super engaging. It was as if he had actually lived the story.
The book is pretty awesome too. :)

I'm now looking for other David de Vries narrated books to listen to!

Wonderfully written account.

Great story telling adding more insight into the unseen and unknown actions of great humans.

Excellent story

Witty, well narrated, entertaining from beginning to end. Hey superbly well documented narration. If you’ve been in the service, you will chuckle with its military wittiness.