For over a year, anthropologist Anna Simons was given unprecedented access to a Special Forces unit. Having first met these unconventional soldiers under difficult circumstances in Somalia, she also followed them through the rigors of basic training in the U.S., and discovered that even routine training can be dangerous and debilitating.

From field exercises to the inner worlds of team rooms and base camps, and finally into the private spheres of soldiers' marriages and family lives, Simons came closer than any outsider to discovering what these unique soldiers are - and are not. Her experiences shape this first post-Vietnam, in-depth portrait of the legendary armed force.

Teamwork and unremitting training are at the heart of the Special Forces, and are the vital ingredients to its success. The Company They Keep explores the crucial characteristic of a Special Forces soldier: how each member must be able to think and function independently, while simultaneously being a member of an intensely small and close-knit team. In today's military, however, Simons finds that this distinct combination of individuality and esprit de corps is under assault.

Bolstered by John Kennedy and reinvigorated by Ronald Reagan to function as a unique adjunct to the mainstream army, today's Special Forces are under increasing pressure to bend to the conformism of military bureaucracy, which - more than any foe - could destroy this highly successful fighting force.