Warrior Soul: The Memoir of a Navy Seal
by Chuck Pfarrer
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Book Summary Information
Author: Chuck PfarrerEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-12-28
ISBN: 0891418636
Number of pages: 416
Publisher: Presidio Press
Book Reviews of Warrior Soul: The Memoir of a Navy Seal
Book Review: Spec-Ops Triumvirate
Summary: 4 Stars
These were my recent when-reading-does-not-otherwise-require-serious-concentration books. I'll review them together since they have considerable overlap and then cross post this review.
Why one might want to read these books together, or in quick succession, is that they cover Spec Ops, particularly counter terrorism, from the late 1970's to about 2004 and do so in a complimentary manner. For example:
- Mr. Pfarrer did 7 months in Lebanon and covers some of the complexity on the ground there. While Mr. Haney only did one (successful) counter sniper mission there, Mr. Smith gives a detailed account of the politics behind the whole mess.
- Mr. Haney did combat time during the invasion of Grenada, Mr. Pfarrer only heard about it from others and Mr. Smith again gives us the politics behind this operation.
Warrior Soul by Chuck Pfarrer - 4 stars
At first I was having feelings of regret over purchasing this book. The cover has a cheesy Hollywood photo of a Rambo wanna-be and the opening chapters have all the hallmarks of "military jock blows sunshine in ego inflating tall tale telling". Certain facts are a bit suspect. Take the following quote from the Author's Note, first page; "No SEAL has ever been captured, and not one teammate or body has ever been left in the field". I used to work with a guy who completed two combat tours in the Vietnam War as a Navy SEAL. He talked about the war on perhaps two occasions. The one I remember is the comment he made to another coworker about mining Haiphong Harbor at night and there was a relatively small but deadly explosive mishap underwater. Two SEALs were left in the water that night after the effort was made to recover the bodies. Given the extreme danger and great number of missions performed by SEALs I simply cannot believe others have not been unwillingly left behind under equally distressing circumstances.
By about chapter 4 ("Operator 156") Mr. Pfarrer gets into his own as a writer and the book flows rather seamlessly from then on. The author does a great job of relating the attitude/culture and abilities of the SEALs. Unfortunately, but by necessity I think, the facts not involving the author's personal life have a high degree of gloss. Operationally we get a good idea of what SEALs are capable of but not really how they go about fulfilling those capabilities.
One criticism of BUD/S comes to mind and if anyone reading this has an answer please feel free to leave a comment on this review. Training, particularly Hell Week, it seems to me, weeds out those less willing to suffer but also takes out a fair number of perfectly capable men. Sure training needs to be harder than combat but as the author himself points out some of the training crosses over the line from hard utility to plain stupidity. Washing out an entire boat crew because one or two members ring-out ends up removing one or more men who would otherwise have made a fully competent member(s) of the Teams. I guess maybe these guys are superstitious and if one is "unlucky" enough to get assigned to a wash-out prone boat crew then they don't want you or your bad luck on the Teams. To say the current system works well enough is to say `lets not find out if it can work better'.
Inside Delta Force by Eric Haney - 3 Stars
One thing I'll say for Delta Force members is that the mental stability of the men who are accepted into Delta is unrivaled. The SEALs are mostly crazy but have one redeeming mental quality - they can shut off the craziness to get the job done. Off hours there is no such restraint. And SEAL Team 6, the direct counterpart of Delta, is by far the craziest. Mr. Marcinko (founder of SEAL 6, known as "Mob Six" under his command) was Class-A egotistical bonkers and an insatiable thrill seeker. Just read his books if you don't believe me.
Because the war on terror (war against extremists) is ongoing, neither of these first two books gives us much insight into specific techniques and/or training. I suppose that is a necessary element since, even though much of that can be found out on the web, one can never be sure about the accuracy of strictly web-based information sources.
On the negative side Mr. Haney does not have the writing acumen of Mr. Pfarrer which interrupts the flow of his book. In his defense Mr. Haney has far less popular writing experience than Mr. Pfarrer (several major movie scripts) and, relatedly, may also not have had access to as talented an editorial group as someone with Tinsel Town connections. For example when Mr. Haney describes his encounter with an Army shrink; "`Haney,' he began in a sibilant voice". Seriously now, who, besides a parseltongued adept at Hogwarts, can reasonably be described as using a sibilant voice? People whisper when they talk sometimes but sibilance went out of the common parlance shortly after the days of Jane Austin. This type of airy language is used in conjunction with; "How dare that fat bastard speak to me that way" and the contrast is a bit distracting.
However, this book is a quick read and has a useful, if short, epilogue on the war on terror.
Killer Elite by Michael Smith - 4 Stars
This book has a dorky (if apt) title and reads like a summary report for a house sub-committee member in DC. The latter is both its strength and weakness. The book is a quick enough read and gives some good insight and back story on SEAL 6 and Delta and an indispensable treatment of the Activity. The authors' background in writing history shows and that's a good thing if you like reading history. Extensively end-noted there is enough ancillary information to keep one reading for quite some time on the subject.
Mr. Smith goes into more non-technical detail on how Spec-Ops was and is being used. So for instance we get to know just how many members of Delta, SEAL 6, etc there are at any given time (sorry but you'll have to read the book to find that out). His book also gives us some idea of the costs involved. My back of the envelope guess is that the major terrorist targets are costing our government (us taxpayers) somewhere around 5 billion each to track and put out of commission. That adds up to half a trillion dollars in just a few years - not a sustainable pace I think.
Taken together these books give a good picture of what kind of effort the US and a few allies (most notably the UK and Australia) are throwing at the War On Terror. These books might accomplish the proverbial help in sleeping at night except for one tiny little fact. Osama bin Laden is still a free man. Not as free as he would like to be but still free and he must be the most hunted man on Earth in these days. I find it more than a little disturbing, after reading these books, that we cannot bring him to justice.
And a couple of after thoughts:
Another facet of modern Spec-Ops warfare not directly addressed is suicide bombers. While it is clear that the most effective means of combating them is to target and take out the leadership* there does not seem to be anyway to stop the bombers proper except by happenstance. Terrorists that want something can be delayed until taken out but a suicide bomber just has to get close enough to the intended target and (boom) in no time the task is complete (*the leaders aren't too crazy or dumb - that's what the bombers are recruited for because they're too dumb to scratch together a coherent bombing plan or build suicide/homicide vests).
Lastly, there also seems to be no plan for building economies that breed people of responsible global citizenship. Not that this is a task for Spec-Ops but what good is it to chase and kill the current terrorist mastermind while waiting for the next one to show through some horrendously spectacular event?
Summary of Warrior Soul: The Memoir of a Navy Seal
?Since the first navy frogmen crawled onto the beaches of Normandy, no SEAL has ever surrendered,? writes Chuck Pfarrer. ?No SEAL has ever been captured, and not one teammate or body has ever been left in the field. This legacy of valor is unmatched in modern warfare.?Warrior Soul is a book about the warrior spirit, and it takes the reader all over the world. Former Navy SEAL Chuck Pfarrer recounts some of his most dangerous assignments: On a clandestine reconnaissance mission on the Mosquito Coast, his recon team plays a deadly game of cat and mouse with a Nicaraguan patrol boat. Cut off on the streets of Beirut, the author?s SEAL detachment must battle snipers on the Green Line. In the mid-Atlantic, Pfarrer?s unit attempts to retrieve?or destroy?the booster section of a Trident ballistic missile before it can be recovered by a Russian spy trawler. On a runway in Sicily, his assault element surrounds an Egyptian airliner carrying the Achille Lauro hijackers.
These are only a few of the riveting stories of combat patrol, reconnaissance missions, counter-terrorist operations, tragedies, and victories in Warrior Soul that illustrate the SEAL maxim ?The person who will not be defeated cannot be defeated.?
From the Hardcover edition.
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