By submitting hundreds of Freedom of Information requests, the author has also assembled an extensive and readable guide to the patches included here, making this volume the best available survey of the military's black world: a $27 billion industry that has quietly grown by almost 50 percent since 9/11.

Shown here for the first time, these sixty patches reveal a secret world of military imagery and jargon, where classified projects are known by peculiar names (andldquo;Goat Suckers,andrdquo; andldquo;None of Your Fucking Business,andrdquo; andldquo;Tastes Like Chickenandrdquo;) and illustrated with occult symbols and ridiculous cartoons. Although the actual projects represented here (such as the notorious Area 51) are classified, these patchesandmdash;which are worn by military units working on classified missionsandmdash;are precisely photographed, strangely hinting at a world about which little is known.

By submitting hundreds of Freedom of Information requests, the author has also assembled an extensive and readable guide to the patches included here, making this volume one of the best available surveys of the militaryandrsquo;s black worldandmdash;a $27 billion industry that has quietly grown by almost 50 percent since 9/11.

Trevor Paglenis a geographer by training, and an expert on clandestine military installations. He leads expeditions to the secret bases of the American West and is the author, with A.C. Thompson, of Torture Taxi: On the Trail of the CIAandrsquo;s Rendition Flights, which The New York Timespraised as andldquo;the real thing . . . and not on the evening news.andrdquo;