The Teams: An Oral History of the U.s. Navy Seals

From Publishers Weekly In the early 1960s, when the Cold War seemed quite capable of morphing into a horrifying hot war with the Soviet Union, President Kennedy directed the U.S. armed services to create special units dedicated to unconventional warfare. The Navy's response was to form the SEALs, which stands for Sea, Air and Land. Performing a mission that is still partially cloaked in secrecy, the SEALs specialize in such skills as sabotage, underwater demolition, reconnaissance and other mainstays of guerrilla warfare. They have gained a reputation as a group of tough hombres bound by an unwavering code of honor. That reputation is underscored here by the personal stories of individual SEALs, related in the first person and assembled in a fine insider's tribute. One contributor speaks matter-of-factly of an oceanic endurance swim that lasted 12-1/2 hours, remarking that the episode "proved what real distance swimming meant and what it took." A former radioman recalls how, during Hell Week, SEAL instructors heaped abuse on trainees, who learned to preserve their strength by withholding their anger ("Anger just took up too much energy, and whatever it was that would get you mad in the first place just didn't seem important anymore," says one). SEAL voices also speak eloquently and absorbingly of loyalty, teamwork and humor, and of the lasting legacy each man gained from serving with this elite Navy unit?a legacy to which this book pays such engaging tribute. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal These are the reminiscences of six individuals who served in the SEALs during the Vietnam War. The stories include that of James Tipton, who earned three Purple Hearts, and Storekeeper Third Class James Janos, better known to the public by the name he used as a professional wrestler, Jesse "the Body" Ventura. After retiring in the late 1980s, he acted in films such as Predator and explains how his SEAL training helped him in both his wrestling and his movie careers. Dockery is coauthor of James Watson's Walking Point: The Experiences of a Founding Member of the Elite Navy SEALs (LJ 4/1/97); Fawcett is a field curator for the UDT/SEAL Museum in Fort Pierce, Florida. People wanting to learn more about the background and history of the SEALs should consult Walking Point or Orr Kelly's Brave Men, Dark Waters: The Inside Story of the Navy SEALs (Presidio, 1992). This book is strictly for Vietnam War collections.?Michael Coleman, Regional Lib. for Blind & Handicapped, Montgomery, Ala.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.