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Down Range: Navy SEALs in the War on Terrorism [Paperback]

Dick Couch (Author)
3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)

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Book Description

May 23, 2006
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 an 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.



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Editorial Reviews

Review

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 Veterans Affairs (2001–2005)

“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 Hanson, Senior Fellow, the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and author of Ripples of Battle


From the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Dick Couch is the author of The Warrior Elite: The Forging of SEAL Class 228 and The Finishing School: Earning the Navy SEAL Trident, as well as six novels. He commanded a SEAL platoon in Vietnam that conducted one of the few successful POW rescue operations of the war. He lives in central Idaho.


From the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Three Rivers Press (May 23, 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1400081017
  • ISBN-13: 978-1400081011
  • Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #325,124 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

DICK COUCH is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy who has served as a Navy SEAL and as a CIA case officer. He has written six novels and the nonfiction works Down Range, The Finishing School, and The Warrior Elite. He lives in central Idaho.

 

Customer Reviews

33 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.6 out of 5 stars (33 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

65 of 74 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Lots of Fluff and Little Substance, September 6, 2005
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laz_254 "laz_254" (miami, fl United States) - See all my reviews
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I bought this book hoping to learn something new about Seals and their missions. What I ended up reading was a cheerleading manual on Seals and SOF in general. I will call that the "rah-rah-rah" factor. There was lots of "they (SOF,USMC,CCTs) are our brothers", "they are real professionals", "we are proud to work with them", and "we'd go to war with them anytime". I even caught a mistake: MOPP (military protective chemical suit) stands for Mission-Oriented Protective Posture. The author gave the wrong info for the acronym. I expect the author to have his facts straight. As usual I recommend the following books: C. Pfarrer's Warrior Soul, E. Haney's Delta Force, Walker's At the Hurricane's Eye, Orr's series on Navy Seals (I think there are 2 worth reading, but don't get the most recent one with all the interviews--uhhh), and Waller's The Commandos. I guess if you are new to the subject of Seals and other SOF this book is ok, but otherwise save yourself the money and get more in-depth info from the above books I mentioned.
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52 of 59 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Misleading Title, no action, September 23, 2005
When I saw a book covering the exploits of Navy SEALs in Iraqi I thought it was far too soon for anything interesting to be declassified. I was very right. Mr Couch's book probably does the best job possible without offending Navy censors, but that still makes for a boring book. Less than 10 operations are covered, and even then many of the details were left out. The rest of the book is filler with information about training and command structures. Maybe in 10+ years Mr Couch will be able to write a more interesting book about Mid East SEAL operations when the information is released to the public.
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26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Shake and Bake, January 3, 2006
By 
James Mone (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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With the experience and access of Dick Couch that is touted on the inside flap, I expected something more than what I got. This is a very "novelly" non-fiction book that is light on new or original information, and heavy on the compliments.

SEALs, some of our best and bravest, have withstood some pretty intense criticism as to thier performance in Afghanistan and Iraq - I was particularly interested in getting some insight on that topic - none to be found.

There have been few quality books written on the conflict - mostly due to the covert nature of many of the units currently involved - but you cannot help but notice the sense of inter-service jockeying in the books that have come out. Roberts Ridge, and Down Range both paint glimmering portraits of the SEALS, while "Not a Good Day to Die" really skewers them. In my review of "Not a Good Day.." I point out that Naylor is a writer for the Army times; and mention that there may be some alterior motives for slamming the DEVGRU/SEAL performance in Anaconda, but after reading this and other books, I think his work is superior, and far less biased.
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