Here I will post reviews of books I have read and recommend reading. Unless otherwise specified, all of them can be found at www.amazon.com, www.militarybookclub.com, or your local library. I will also post reviews of any movies I have seen that are worthwhile.
The Warrior Elite
The Forging of SEAL Class 228
DICK COUCH
"The Warrior Elite is the first book that captures how the SEAL spirit is tempered. It reveals all the grit, sweat, mud and blood of BUD/S training -- real-time, down and dirty. This is a must-read if you want to know what becoming a real warrior is all about." -GOVERNOR JESSE VENTURA, BUD/S Class 58
"A story written of men's souls and the passion of deep personal challenge--an illuminating description of human endeavor. Dick Couch has delivered the best accounting yet of the extraordinary young men I was so privileged to lead." -READ ADMIRAL RAY SMITH (USN., Ret.), BUD/S Class 54, and former commander, Naval Special Warfare Command
"An authentic voice that spells out what it takes to become a SEAL--the sheer grit to overcome all obstacles. America is lucky that it continues to attract such men as these to serve." -THEODORE ROOSEVELT IV, BUD/S Class 36
"I served extensively with Dick Couch in combat in Vietnam. The Warrior Elite captures the essence of a Navy SEAL--the indomitable will to win and steadfast commitment to team." -ROBERT J. NATTER, Admiral, U.S. Navy, Commander in Chief, U.S. Atlantic Fleet
"The Warrior Elite is a very accurate and authoritative look at basic SEAL training. A must-read for any young man who wants to become a Navy SEAL." -RUDY BOESCH, MCPO (USN., Ret.), BUD/S Class 6 and "Survivor" contestant
"A wonderful, thought-provoking book by Dick Couch and a quick study of human personalities; his conclusions are optimistic and uplifting." -VICE ADMIRAL JAMES STOCKDALE (USN., Ret.), recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor
Front flap: Navy SEALs are the tip of the spear. They are able to strike without warning, anywhere, anytime. They come from under the sea, out of the air, and across the land. Their predecessors, the Navy frogmen, cleared the landing beaches during World War II, from Normandy to Okinawa. They led MacArthur's forces ashore to Inchon. In Vietnam, SEALs were the men with green faces who struck the Viet Cong in their sanctuaries. Today they are deployed around the world - ready, waiting, lethal.
What does it take to become a Navy SEAL? What makes talented, intelligent young men volunteer for physical punishment, cold water, and days without sleep? Why is the price of admission to this unique warrior culture so steep? In The Warrior Elite, former Navy SEAL Dick Couch documents the process that transforms young men into warriors. SEAL training is the longest, toughest, most relentless military training in the free world. It is the distillation of the human spirit, a tradition-bound ordeal that seeks to find men of character and courage, men with a burning desire to win at all costs, men who would rather die than quit.
The book follows the trainees of Class 228 as they struggle through the twenty-seven-week Basic Underwater Demolition/Seal (BUD/S) training course at the Navy Special Warfare Training Center in Coronado, California. Only on in five will be left standing at the end of this brutal ordeal, a rite of passage that is but one step in the long road to becoming a SEAL. Few men have the character or stamina that allows them to keep going while others give in to the pain and the cold. The Warrior Elite reveals who these men are, where they come from, and what makes them so special.
I found this book to be my very favorite ever; truly a gem. Dick Couch, who graduated at the top of BUD/S Class 45 in 1969, commanded a SEAL platoon in Vietnam and led one of the only successful POW resue operations of that conflict. His job on this book is clear, excellent writing that is wonderful to read, with perfect insight into the training of SEALs and the inside scoop. I've read this book twice already and am going to again, when I get the time - it is refreshing, encouraging, enlightening and amazing. I highly recommend buying (if not borrowing) it. Hardcover; contains photographs. ©2001.
Down Range
Navy SEALs in the War on Terrorism
DICK COUCH
"Down Range puts the reader in the SEAL squad file, in the action. It is the unique and personal story of the warriors who go in harm's way in the global war on terror." -THE HON. ANTHONY PRINCIPI, Secretary of Veteran's Affairs
"An intimate account of the deadly work of the U.S. Navy SEALs. We associate the Navy's special forces with maritime operations, but in the war against terrorists they have been almost everywhere--from the high mountains of Afghanistan blowing up Taliban ordnance to the streets of Mosul hunting down former Baathists and al-Qaedists. Down Range is a fascinating, behind-the-scenes account of how the SEALs fight and why they are so good at it--written by a seasoned veteran in gripping fashion." -VICTOR DAVIS HANDSON, Senior Fellow, the Hoover Institution, Standford University, and author of "Ripples of Battle"
Front flap: In America's battle against al-Qaeda and their allies, the goal of the Navy SEALs is to be the best guns in the fight - stealthy, effective, professional and lethal. Here for the first time is a SEAL insider's battle history of these Special Operations warriors in the war on terrorism.
"Down range" is what SEALs in Afghanistan and Iraq call their area of operations. In this new mode of warfare, "down range" can refer to anything from tracking roving bands of al-Qaeda on a remote mountain trail in Afghanistan to taking down an armed compound in Tikrit and rousting holdouts from Saddam Hussein's regime. It could mean interdicting insurgents smuggling car-bomb explosives over the Iraqi-Syrian border or silently boarding a freighter on the high seas at night to enforce an embargo. In other words, "down range" could be anywhere, anytime, under any conditions.
In Down Range, author Dick Couch, himself a former Navy SEAL and CIA case officer, uses his unprecedented access to bring the reader firsthand accounts from the warriors in combat during key missions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Couch creates a pulse-pounding, detailed narrative of the definitive engagements of this war, while painting and unusually intimate portrait of these warriors in the field. The performance of the SEALs in difficult, changing environments - in the heat of the Afghan desert, in the snow-packed Hindu Kush, on the high seas, and in the urban chaos of Baghdad - has been nothing short of extraordinary. The SEALs, coordinating with other American forces, the CIA, and foreign special operations units like the Polish GROM, have once more shown their genius for improvisation and capacity for courageous action in leading the fight against this new and vicious enemy.
The first battle history of its kind, Down Range is a riveting close-up of some of America's finest warriors in action against a deadly foe.
I have just begun to read this - the third book in a series ("The Warrior Elite", "The Finishing School" and "Down Range") and can already tell it's going to be a really good one. I have not read "The Finishing School", but it documents the second phase of SEAL training, after the hell of BUD/S and before the SEALs are in actual combat. However, I highly recommend this one and for all I know the second in the series is just as good. Hardcover; contains photographs. ©2005.
The Right Thing
The untold story of the deadly collision of the nuclear submarine USS Greeneville with a Japanese fishing vessel, and one man's courageous descision to do the right thing.
CMDR. SCOTT WADDLE (RET.)
"This fine American patriot... is taking the heat... that says something about his character." - PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
Back of the book: Against the advice of his lawyer, against the direction of the Navy, Scott Waddle followed his conscience.
When a U.S. nuclear submarine collided with a Japanese fishing boat in February 2001, the story made international headlines. Navy Commander Scott Waddle, captain of the USS Greeneville, was at the center of the controversy. This is his firsthand, never-before-published account of that fatal moment and the heartbreaking events that followed.
Unlike many other leaders in the public eye who have denied or made excuses for their behavior, Waddle stood boldly and took complete responsibility for his actions. The support of his family and his steadfast faith in God strengthened him through this horrible ordeal. And his deep remorse has compelled him to offer a sincere apology to the victims' families.
Waddle's pursuit of integrity against all odds is not only dramatic reading, but provides an inspiring challenge to anyone facing difficult choices in life.
I've read this one and it is indeed a good one. Waddle graduated from the Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1981 and his career in the Navy went perfectly until this disaster. The book is a brief biography leading up to the events that ended his career and his descision to do the right thing and take responsibility for his crew, letting the chips fall where they may. Harcover; contains photographs. ©2002.
Biggest Brother
The Life of Major Dick Winters, the Man Who Led the Band of Brothers
LARRY ALEXANDER
Front flap: They were Easy Company, 101st Army Airborne - a fighting unit whose members became legendary in the annals of World War II combat for their bravery, their ability to get the job done against nearly insumountable odds, and their unswerving loyalty to one another in the face of death. They were more than brothers in arms. They were a family. And there was one man to whom every soldier in Easy Company looked for leadership, guidance, and embodiment of courage and devotion to duty: Major Dick Winters.
Here, for the first time, is the compelling story of an ordinary man who became an extraordinary hero. Winters' childhood in the rolling farmlands of Lancaster, PA, taught him the core values of hard work and personal integrity that guided him, leading him to enlist at the outbreak of war and volunteer for the arduous training that forged the army's new Airborne division. His natural skill as a leader in combat elevated him into the higher ranks, where he gelt an increasing responsibility for the lives of his men. After the war, he gradually adjusted to civilian life, but was reactivated to duty during the Korean conflict. Yet it was only decades later that worldwide fame and recognition - which he had never sought - were thrust upon him with the publication of Stephen E. Ambrose's "Band of Brothers".
Including interviews with family, friends, and fellow veterans of Easy Company, and the insight and knowledge only Winters himself could provide, Biggest Brother is the fascinating, though-provoking and ultimately inspiring life story of a man who became a soldier, a leader, and a living testament to the valor of the human spirit - and of America.
I read this a few months ago and found it to be a good look into the life of Major Winters, which after reading "Band of Brothers" was welcome reading. Whether you've read "Band of Brothers" or not, this is still a good biography to read of a man with character on a par with Robert E. Lee, leadership on a par with Patton's, and bravery that he and all of Easy Company displayed in the Battle of the Bulge and other desperate days of World War II. Hardcover; contains photographs. ©2005.
We Were Soldiers Once... And Young
Ia Drang - The Battle That Changed The War In Vietnam
LT. GEN. HAROLD G. MOORE (Ret.) and JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY
"We Were Soldiers Once... And Young is a great book of military history, written the way military history should be written. It is a gut-wrenching account of what war is really all about, which should be 'must' reading for all Americans, especially those who have been led to believe that war is some kind of Nintendo game." - GENERAL H. NORMAN SCHWARZKOPF
"A powerful and epic story... raw, gutty and eye-stinging. This is the best account of infantry combat I have ever read, and the most significant book to come out of the Vietnam War." -COLONEL DAVID HACKWORTH, author of the bestseller "About Face" as well as "Steel My Soldiers' Hearts" and others
"Did you ever wonder where the classic book of battle of the Vienam War was? Here it is, and finally - a book about Vietnam that is not ideology but tragic heroism of the highest caliber, a book that makes us understand not politics but life." -GEORGIE ANNE GEYER, author and syndicated columnist
Front flap: In November 1965, some 450 men of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, under the command of Lt. Col. Hal Moore, were dropped by helicopter into a small clearing in the Ia Drang Valley. They were immediately surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers. Three days later, only two and a half miles away, a sister battalion was chopped to pieces. Together, these actions at landing zones X-Ray and Albany constitute one of the most savage and significant battles of the Vietnam War.
The Americans faced what seemed to be certain destruction. How these men persevered - sacrificed themselves for their comrades and never gave up - makes a vivid portrait of war at its most inspiring and devastating. General Moore and Joe Galloway, the only journalist on the ground through the fighting, have interviewed hundreds of men who fought there, including the North Vietnamese commanders. The result is a story of unparalleled human interest.
We Were Soldiers Once... And Young also brings the war back home with unforgettable stories of those who lost family members to combat. This devastating account rises above the specific ordeal it chronicles to present a picture of men facing the ultimate challenge, dealing with it in ways they would have found unimaginable only a few hours earlier. It reveals to us, as rarely before, man's most heroic and horrendous endeavor.
I have read partway through this book and can tell you that it is as good as they say. I am quite familiar with the story through the movie made about this battle called "We Were Soldiers", which is refreshingly true to the book as well as the real-life events, but the books would be even better, I'm sure. Highly, highly recommended reading. Hardcover; contains photographs. ©1992.
