Monday Book Pick: Damn Few
Damn Few: Making the Modern SEAL Warrior by Rorke Denver
Memorial Day Special. Rorke Denver was one of the actual Navy SEALs who starred in the movie Act of Valor. He is a combat vet, having lead a SEAL team in Iraq and has been of of the officers in charge of SEAL Training. An interesting book that goes into how the program molds highly motivated men at the peak of physical conditioning into highly skilled special operators.
Monday Book Pick: Scope of Justice
Filed under: Global War on Islamofascism, Monday Book Pick, US Military
Scope of Justice by Michael Z. Williamson
The first of MZW’s MilFic Sniper series. The story of two US Army snipers taking on a dangerous mission in Pakistan to take out a high ranking al Qaeda member. It’s full of SNAFU, FUBAR and TARFU. In other words a good description of a military mission. An engaging and interesting read.
Monday Book Pick: No Easy Day
Filed under: American History, Monday Book Pick, US Military
No Easy Day by Mark Owen & Kevin Maurer
This is an autobiography of a US Navy SEAL, and member of DEVGRU, who took part in Operation Neptune Spear. That was the mission where Osama bin Laden died of acute lead poisoning, when one of the SEALs shot him in the head. It is a very stright foward book that tells the story of how Mark Owen (not his real name) trained and deployed prior to the mission, as well as the boots on the ground perspective of how the operation took place. It is not a political book, the authors don’t have political axes to grind. They do make an honest assesment of VP Joe Biden though. A good and honest read. Well worth the money and time invested.
Monday Book Pick: OSS Commando: Final Option
OSS Commando: Final Option by Charles Sasser
A military thriller set in the final days before the D-Day invasion in 1944. The hero is Captain James Cantrell, a former Chicago homicide detective, now a member of the OSS (Office of Strategic Services). His mission is to keep the secret of the D-Day landing location from the Germans. He has a landing craft sunk underneath him, survives a bombing attack in downtown London, parachutes into Nazi occupied France, breaks into a heavily guarded castle, and has not one, but two beautiful women to deal with. One a Nazi spy and other a member of the French resistance forces.
Monday Book Pick: Eye of the Hammer
Eyes of the Hammer (The Green Beret Series) by Bob Mayer
Fast paced military fiction set the 1980s with that late 80s Golden Age of Tom Clancy Techno Thrillers feel. In this case it’s Columbian drug lords being targeted by Green Berets and the rest of the Special Operations Command. The Drug Lords have their moments, but they don’t fair well against in the long run against the U.S. Military. A good read with Good Guys and Bad Guys, and most of the Bad Guys get what is coming to them. There are the standard themes running through that you can pick up in other Military Fiction, typically written by former enlisted or NCOs, including the concept that the only good officers are mavericks.
Thank Our Troops Day
President Reagan D-Day speech at Normandy
In honor of D-Day, which occurred on this day in 1944, here is a speech given by President Ronald Reagan at Normandy.
Update: The official US Army D-Day page.
Originally posted on June 6, 2009
Monday Book Pick: Act of Valor
Act of Valor by Dick Couch and George Galdorisi
The Memorial Day edition of the Monday Book Pick is the book version of the movie Act of Valor. Filmed with real Navy SEALs playing Navy SEALs, the story follows a SEAL team on a series of missions that starts with the rescue of a DEA agent being tourtured by drug dealers. We’re not talking faux tourture like water boarding either. Intelligence gathered on that mission puts them on the trail of a terrorist planning on bringing death and destruction to America. Multiple reviews by combat vets state that this is one of the most realistic military movies they have ever seen.
Monday Book Pick: SEAL Team Six: The Novel
SEAL Team Six: The Novel by Chuck Dixon
A nice action novel about SEALs in the unit formerly known as SEAL Team Six. Here they are hunting Islamic terrorists who are finding and grooming “home grown” terrorists. It’s not about the fancy gear, or the politics behind the scenes, it’s about Good Guys finding and killing Bad Guys. For a $0.99 Kindle ebook, it certainly delivers value for your money. When I finished it, I was happy to find out it was the first in a planned series.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Navy SEALs
This movie was made in 1990, back when Hollywood wasn’t afraid to have Muslim terrorists be the bad guys. Charlie Sheen pulled off what was a badly written character as well as it could be expected. It was Michael Biehn who really shined in this film though. This was the first of at least three times he play a Navy SEAL. A good action flick where the bad guys get shot, stabbed, drown and blown up. Think of it as low budget way to get ready for Act of Valor, which is current playing in theaters and has real Navy SEALs playing the Navy SEALs. It also has Muslim terrorists as bad guy, which bucks the trend Hollywood has been following. A trend that has resulted in movies that suck and don’t make much money.