Product Description
The U.S. Navy SEALs have long been considered among the finest, most courageous, and professional soldiers in American military history—an elite fighting force trained as parachutists, frogmen, demolition experts, and guerrilla warriors ready for sea, air, and land combat. Born out of a proud naval tradition dating back to World War II, the first SEAL teams were commissioned in the early 1960s. Vietnam was their proving ground.
In this remarkable volume, fifteen former SEALs—most of them original founding team members, or "plankowners"—share their vivid first-person remembrances of action in Vietnam. Here are honest, brutal, and relentlessly thrilling stories of covert missions, ferocious firefights, and red-hot chopper insertions and extractions, revealing astonishing little-known truths that will only add strength to the enduring SEAL legend.
Hunters & Shooters: An Oral History of the U.S. Navy SEALs in Vietnam
Tags: Shooters, Vietnam, History, Navy
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The great thing about this oral history is that you get a personal feel for the characters as they talk about their experiences. The wide range of experiences are reflected in the wide range of personalities that the history is drawn from. The accounts are honest and sincere. Each account begins with a brief editorial introduction and summary of a different aspect of the SEALs unit formation and operational history in Viet Nam. This helps the reader to understand the subject as a broad total of experiences rather than just a bundle of yarns slapped together. The editor did a great job of putting the accounts in an informative sequence which gave this reviewer a greater background understanding of the following accounts as I progressed through the book.
I bought my copy during a visit to the SEAL/ UDT Museum in Fort Pierce, Florida and I strongly recommend other interested military buffs to buy this book and check out the museum. Well worth it.
I love the fact that this story was written with 15 different voices. Often times people would try to shell out 15 separate books instead, but I like the weaving interplay of the stories as they go into around and through one another.
This truly does (as another reviewer said) give the impression of an oral history and stories as they’d be told around a camp fire, very enjoyable.
This is a great book about 15 SEALS and their experiences from training to the Vietnam war and life in the teams. It is interesting to read about the different personalities of this elite group and the things that make them alike. Highly recommended.
I thought this book was and indepth and exciting book. It is about 16 Navy SEALs and their stories in Vietnam. The storys range to be about 10-60 pages in length. They are written from a first person view of a Navy SEAL in their own account of the Vietnam war. The stories start from about where they were born and why they joined the Navy to become a SEAl. It goes through indepth deatil about the traing in some stories. And it also has a detailed accurate account of that person’s part in the Vietnam War. I would reccomed this book to anybody who is interested in the Navy SEALs or the Vietnam War. I personally had fun reading this book and hope anyone else who does the same experince
There are an increasing number of books being published about U.S. Navy SEALs, but HUNTERS & SHOOTERS is one of the best, especially about the era when Navy SEALs served in Vietnam.
The editor of this book, Bill Fawcett, gathered 15 former SEALs and asked them to relate their experiences. Some of their tales are short, others are longer, but they all have the ring of truth.
The SEAL Teams matured during the Vietnam War when their mission was to identify, disrupt and eliminate where possible the leadership infrastructure of the Viet Cong. The SEALS served primarily in the Mekong Delta and over the course of the six years that they served in country, they were able to provoke deadly fear into the Viet Cong leadership. In some cases, the SEAL platoons operated individually in the Delta, though frequently with the support of Vietnamese SEALs (who were trained by the American SEALs). In other instances, the SEALs were attached to the PHOENIX program, advising Provincial Reconaissance Units (PRU’s) who were often ex-Viet Cong who had turned on their communist colleagues.
The PHOENIX program became a target for anti-war protesters in the late 60′s and early 70′s, but in fact the program was probably the most effective operation the Americans undertook in terms of inflicting damage on the Viet Cong infrastructure. Frank Thornton and Mike Boynton give the most enlightened accounts of their PHOENIX/PRU experiences.
The writer should note that he himself served as a SEAL in Vietnam, so this favorable critique of HUNTERS & SHOOTERS is based on first-hand knowledge of SEAL operations. The hope from this end is that Fawcett or some other editor will compile a similar book about SEAL operations in the Middle East, including Afghanistan, to give the SEALs in those conflicts their own recognition for their efforts on behalf of our country’s security.
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