Navy Seals: A History Part III - Post-Vietnam to the Present [Hardcover]

Kevin Dockery (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2, 2003

The new SEALs hardcover, packed with photos from the UDT/SEAL museum and the SEALs themselves.

By the close of the Vietnam war, the SEALs had established themselves as a living legend in combat. But the nature of combat was about to change. Learning to outmaneuver terrorists, and contain volatile situations, the SEALs have maintained their authority into the new millennium.

This fully illustrated, comprehensive volume follows the life of the Navy SEALs from the aftermath of Vietnam--through the trials of Grenada, Bosnia, and Afghanistan-- and looks toward the future with first-hand accounts as well as little known facts about the men, their weapons, and their missions.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A fine conclusion to the author's valuable oral history of the Navy SEALs, this volume actually covers most of the history of the Teams. Dockery, a former soldier in the President's Guard under Nixon and Ford, uses the personal narratives of at least a dozen well-known and obscure SEALs to weave together the story of how, after Vietnam, the organization faced drastic cutbacks even as it enjoyed new and improved weaponry and delivery techniques. Eventually, the SEALs were merged with the old Underwater Demolition Teams and incorporated (much to their benefit) in Special Operations Command. Through it all, they have swum out of submarines, jumped out of airplanes and rappelled down cliffs. They have died in the waters off Granada, in firefights in Panama and in last stands in Afghanistan. Dockery's history covers all the major post-Vietnam military engagements, but this volume also spends more time than the first two did on modern SEAL training. The book's last chapter, "The Building of an Operator," provides a detailed description of the 26-week long training course, which includes an aptly named Hell Week, in which would-be SEALs must survive malfunctioning experimental equipment, flesh-eating bacteria and attack-trained dolphins. The course is designed not only to cultivate tactical sea, air and land skills but also to develop a SEAL's total commitment to his or her Teammates. "There is no 'I' in SEAL Team," Ensign Erick Peterson points out. "Everything you did was for the betterment of the Team and not for yourself." Dockery's whole series deserves praise for letting some accomplished warriors tell their own stories.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Dockery has worked up interviews conducted by Bud Brutsman and his own insights into another valuable oral-history-derived contribution to the literature of the navy's special warfare force. Contributors range from Scott Lyon, who joined the SEALs-forerunner Underwater Demolition Teams in 1952 and was one of the first into Vietnam, to Jesse Ventura, who joined the teams as that war wound down but will never forget being in one of them. The best single narrative is probably that of corpsman Greg McPartlin, a team medic, but a variety of other types and specialties are represented, including that of the ubiquitous but, it seems, not universally popular Rogue Warrior, Richard Marcinko. Activities covered include everything the teams did on or near "brown water," plus their erstwhile secret activities working off submarines, and tribute is rendered to the Seawolves, the navy's dedicated attack-helicopter squadron. Dockery makes his books accessible to any reader with a basic knowledge of the subject without compromising their status as treasure troves for serious students. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Hardcover (September 2, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 042519034X
• ISBN-13: 978-0425190340
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,228,248 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best accounts of the UDT/SEAL Teams in Vietnam!, August 21, 2002

By 

Leslie S. Gn (Scottsdale, Arizona USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Navy Seals: The Vietnam Years (v. 2) (Hardcover)

This is the second volume of Kevin Dockery's collection of oral history of the Navy SEALs. His first volume, 'Navy SEALs: A History Of The Early Years' was released about a year ago. I believe a third and final volume about the Navy SEALs and their operations during the Persian Gulf conflict will be released next year.
In part two of this fascinating history of the Navy SEALs Kevin Dockery again presents a collection of oral accounts by former UDT and SEAL team members. Famous, former, frogmen like Richard Marcinko (Commander, USN (Ret.)) and Governor Jesse Ventura are just some of the SEALs that recount their operations during the South East Asian conflict.
My favorite feature about this second volume are the numerous rare black and white photographs depicting the UDT and SEAL team members in action.
If you have enjoyed Chief James Watson's 'Point Man' and all the other Richard Marcinko books, then you will definitely want to read 'Navy SEALs: A History Part II: The Vietnam Years.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Missed opportunity, or mis-titled, December 29, 2002

By 

Frank (Stockton CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Navy Seals: The Vietnam Years (v. 2) (Hardcover)

Dockery's book is titled "a history," but it's not.
This book is an Ode to the Navy Seal, and there are many personal stories in the "there I was in the jungle" and "the making of a Navy Seal" veins, but any type of overview, or where the Seals fit into the overall strategy, or critical analysis of how the political considerations driving the civilian leadership either directed or limited the actions of the Seals, is largely missing. Analysis is largely limited to "the President said go, and we went." Even the Gulf of Tonkin incident in August 1964, widely acknowledged to be mistaken, is accepted at face value. The many interviews quoted at length give the book a very episodic feel. There is, I believe, not one negative word about the Seals, or their success in Vietnam, in this book.
The pictures and narratives are good in giving the reader a sense of what it's like to be a Seal, how the Seals operate on their missions, the tools they use, and how important the concept of "team" is to the effectiveness of the Seals. Buy it for this purpose, if you wish, but not to gain any concept of history.