Fortune Favors the Brave [Mass Market Paperback]

Bruce F. Meyer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 3, 2004

At the end of World War II, when daring marine reconnaissance units made a life-and-death difference in island warfare in the Pacific, a secret unit was formed inside the military. With courageous men risking their lives, Test Unit 1 experimented with new ways of inserting marines behind enemy lines-by sea and by land-and then getting them out again. As America barreled towards a confrontation in Indochina and a new era of warfare, First Force Recon was born...

This is the untold, inside story of a super elite reconnaissance force-U.S. Special Operations Forces who practiced clandestine insertion and extraction by submarine, jet aircraft and helicopter, using tools and techniques that had never been tried before. Strapping you in the harness of a HALO parachute, launching from the torpedo room of a submerged submarine or climbing the extraction rig of a hovering marine chopper, Fortune Favors the Brave is a firsthand account of what it was like to build a new strike force from the ground up... to make sure that the next time America fought a war, Force Recon would be there.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A true, gritty story of Marine Corps parachute and submarine reconnaissance. A real-life counterpart to the heroes in my historical fiction." -W.E.B. Griffin, author of The Brotherhood of War, The Corps, Honor Bound, and Men at War.

"Everything that force recon is today was built upon the solid foundation laid by Colonel Meyers and his generation. From night parachuting off carrier-based jets to slipping stealthily ashore from submerged subs, they 'wrote the boo' for those who followed. Today's recon men owe them a debt of gratitude for their ingenuity, daring, and dedication. My thanks to the author for telling their story so well." -Maj. John Plaster, U.S. Army Special Forces (Ret.), author of SOG: The Secret Wars of America's Commanders in Vietnam

"The danger starts before men ever go to war. FORTUNE FAVORS THE BRAVE is an intriguing account of men who learned to swim from submerged submarines and others who fell from jets in the sky-and how they came together to create a remarkable fighting force."
-Sherry Sontag, coauthor of Blind Man's Bluff, The Untold Story of American Submarine
Espionage

"Colonel Meyers has made a major contribution to the nation's reconnaissance capability by perfecting techniques for launch from submarines. Although his book describes these technical issues, it is written in a narrative style filled with excitement-an adventure story in the laboratory." -Capt. Paul Keenan, USN (Ret.)

"Good slide history that covers the very complex nature of creating something new and different within a culture that is hidebound and conservative."-Lt. Col. Alex Lee, USMC (Ret.)

From the Publisher

Catalog Entry,(Front Flap Copy) Naval Institute Press 2000 Spring Books, pp.3 "U.S. Marine Corps amphibious reconnaissance patrols preceded every major landing in the Pacific during World War II, coming ashore on rubber boats from submarines and high-speed transports to recon enemy beaches. After the war better techniques were developed by a small group of highly trained, fearless Marines who in 1957 established the first of the Corps' now legendary Force Recon Companies. The story of those pioneering post-war years is told by Force Recon's first commanding officer, Bruce Meyers, a legend in his own right. Commissioned six months before the end of World War II to command a combat swimming platoon, Meyers later headed Gen. "Chesty" Puller's amphibious recon school, initiating new ideas for the insertion of small teams behind enemy lines by parachute and by buoyant ascent from submerged submarines. In 1955 Meyers joined the commandant's experimental "Test Unit One as the project officer for its reconnaissance unit that led to first Force Recon.

The book chronicles many Force Recon firsts: HALO jumps from jets; operational parachute jumps from navy carrier aircraft; the locking out and underway recovery of recon patrols from navy fleet submarines; the live pickup by Fulton Skyhook of downed personnel; and the development and use of pathfinding tactics and equipment for Marine helicopter assaults. This groundbreaking work by Force Recon pioneers has never before been recorded in detail. Meyers' account makes it clear that the company earned the reputation it enjoys today. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks (August 3, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312996802
• ISBN-13: 978-0312996802
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,246,853 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The Real Deal., July 23, 2011

By 

OneEyedBerto - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fortune Favors the Brave (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is not a dramatized, blood and guts novel. The fact that other reviewers refer to it as a "novel" is somewhat revealing as to their low ratings.
Yes, the new cover art tries to market this book to the lowest common denominator.

Here's the deal:
Colonel Meyers was instrumental in the formation of United States Marine Corps Special Warfare, and this is the story of how he made it happen.

This book details every aspect of the early years of Marine Corps Reconnaissance, including not only the mission of the Recon units, but the doctrine and methods the units would use to carry out their mission. It primarily focuses, however; on how the Marine reconnaissance units came to develop their methods of special warfare.

This book IS: A very detailed, personal and insightful look into the innovations that made Special Warfare what it is today.

This book IS NOT: Stories of heavily armed dudes smashing doors down and firing machine guns at bad guys while defusing bombs, throwing grenades, dodging flamethrowers with commando rolls, and making breakfast while punching Commies in the face.

If you are a student of special warfare, or a United States Marine; I highly recommend this book for both education and entertainment.

If you are looking for stories of knife fights, machine-guns and snake-eaters, I recommend you go back to watching "The A-Team."

Semper Fidelis: Colonel Meyers.

-B

4.0 out of 5 stars Fortune Favors the Brave, May 22, 2009

By 

tayloao - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fortune Favors the Brave (Mass Market Paperback)

It is an interesting story. It definately isn't the book for you if you want to read about spec ops guys doing super secret missions, but if you want a quick and interesting read this is a fun book. It shows how a lot of things that are now considered to be standard training for most special operations units around the world came to be such as HALO, the fulton sky hook, swimming out of a torpedo tube and so on. My personal favorite is the stories about guys sitting in the bomb bay of fighter bombers and then getting dropped out at high speed.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Misleading title, June 14, 2010

By 

Disciple of Poseidon "Drewcifer" (Swampscott, MA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Fortune Favors the Brave (Mass Market Paperback)

This is not a horribly written novel, just not a very interesting one. Mr. Myers could have written a one chapter synopsis that covered the whole book and could have shared some operations that Recon were involved with at it's beginning. In fact, it is just the reverse. He spends the whole book describing the formation of test unit one and all the training that went into forming the Recon. (including equipment testing) Only the last chapter in the book gives some small snippetts about units in combat using the Fulton Skyhook and SPIE rigging extraction methods. All in all a very technical but boring book. Good for those who want to know what type of material that was selected for special forces parachutes or for spie rigging ropes....