Table of Contents

IN

About the Author

Richard Marcinko was a US Navy SEAL commander and Vietnam War veteran. He was the first commanding officer of SEAL Team Six. After retiring from the navy, he became an author, radio host, military consultant, and motivational speaker. He is the author of The Rogue Warrior(R)'s Strategy for Success: A Commando's Principles of Winning, and the New York Times business bestseller Leadership Secrets of the Rogue Warrior: A Commando's Guide to Success. In addition to his bestselling autobiography, Rogue Warrior, he coauthored with John Weisman the New York Times bestselling novels Rogue Warrior: Red Cell, Rogue Warrior: Green Team, Rogue Warrior: Task Force Blue, Rogue Warrior: Designation Gold, Rogue Warrior: Seal Force Alpha, Rogue Warrior: Option Delta, and Rogue Warrior: Echo Platoon. He died on December 25, 2021.

Reviews

Special-warfare devotees will find this to their liking: an insider's account of the Navy's amphibious commandos known as SEALS, by one of the group's most controversial veterans, along with Weisman (coauthor of Shadow Warrior ). Marcinko describes his combat adventures in Southeast Asia in the '60s; his command of SEAL Team Six, one of the most effective counterterrorist outfits in the world, in the '70s; and his pioneering leadership in the '80s of Red Cell, a unit designed to test the Navy's vulnerability to terrorists. Super-macho in outlook and behavior, Marcinko delights in recalling the traditionally gross behavior of the SEALS as well as his own unique experiences such as eating the brains of a live monkey to impress his Cambodian allies. The super-secret Red Cell successfully penetrated many key U.S. naval installations, creating so much havoc that Marcinko was arrested. He is evasive about the conspiracy charges brought against him but reveals that he is currently serving time in a federal prison. Marcinko's anti-authoritarian behavior, as he improvises his own doctrine of unconventional warfare, makes for entertaining reading. Military Book Club selection. (Mar.)

An autobiography of a career naval officer who dropped out of high school, enlisted in the U.S. Navy, and spent his ca reer struggling to win acceptance for special warfare SEAL (sea-air-land) units within the Navy establishment from the late 1950s to the present. Marcinko provides detailed descriptions of the early transformation of underwater demolition teams (UDT) into SEAL units. With interesting vignettes about training and actual missions during the Vietnam War, he gives a close-up view of this specialized and little-known brand of warfare. Marcinko's participation in the Iran hostage rescue attempt in 1980 and the U.S. invasion of Grenada in 1983 provide a perspective vastly different from the accepted versions of these events. However, the overuse of salty language throughout the book that lends new meaning to the phrase ``curse like a sailor'' and Marcinko's polemical accounts of his struggles to win acceptance for specialized warfare within the Navy are unfortunate. Not a necessary purchase. Military Book Club main selection.-- Harold N. Boyer, Marple P.L., Broomall, Pa.