Inside SEAL Team Six: My Life And Missions With America's Elite Warriors (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
NOTE: If this is the first book that you are reading about the Navy SEALs or SEAL Team Six for that matter....avoid reading at all cost. This book's meant to be read only after you've read previous books on SEALs or SEAL Team Six. Reason? Heavily Redacted...I mean so heavy you can't imagine. Almost 80% of the author's info regarding SEAL Team Six has been blacked out..in some cases two to three consecutive pages have been blacked out.MY REVIEW : Before I read this...I've read Rogue Warrior by Richard Marcinko,One Perfect Op by Dennis "The Snake" Chalker and Warrior Soul by Chuck Pfarrer and they were exceptional reads. Being a huge SEAL buff since 6 or 7 I loved every bit of those books and they definitely rank among the top that I've read under Military Non-Fiction..which is one of my favourite genres.Inside SEAL Team Six by Don Deveraux Mann is yet another compelling tale where Mann tells his story brilliantly right from a high-octane and rough childhood as an adrenaline junkie to joining the SEALs and then going on to serve on SEAL Team Six and on various issues,dealing with countless personal tragedies and marital problems along with the perils that lie in combat. I first heard about Don Mann when I read an online article where he was interviewed regarding what Matt Bissonette should have avoided writing about in his book No Easy Day and in the interview he himself stated that he chose to leave out classified ops and any sensitive piece of info good enough to attract unnecessary attention thus placing former operators' safety at risk. So after reading I could understand why I could not find atleast 70 percent of the book's content(redacts included) dedicated towards his experiences as a SEAL. Being an adrenaline junkie and a fitness freak Don Mann details all his adventures as a rock-climber,sprint-runner,cycling and participation in various triathlons all over the world. That to me was one big negative because at one point I found it stifling and the other major negative was redacting of 80 percent of content regarding SEAL Team Six and you cannot blame Mann for it because he wrote the book post Operation Neptune Spear and Washington,at the time, was tightening screws with OPSEC. Where Don Mann scores big time is in the way he recounts his childhood years, BUD/S,becoming a brilliant corpsman,serving on SEAL Team One and then the training that went on SEAL Team Six and also his combat deployments in Panama,El Salvador and various other hot-spots during the late 80s and early 90s. Most important of all are the countless personal tragedies which he had to face and the lives that he saved during combat as a corpsman,the horrors and challenges of war and how he dealt with them.Since I've read almost every book on SEAL Team Six I could figure out the info that was redacted,like references to Delta Force Operators,classified operations and certain names which I was already aware of. So reading this book was not much of a problem. For a reader who wants to know about SEAL Team Six...this is definitely not the book to start with. Overall,it's a good read and yet another amazing tale of an elite operator,one among many who put their lives at risk over the past two to three decades. I salute Don Mann for his service and the U.S.Navy SEALs for making this world a better place to live in. This is an insider’s story of what it means to be a member of one of our elite fighting units, the U.S. Navy Seals. In particular, Seal Team Six gained special notoriety after the taking of Osama Bin Laden. The author spent an entire career with the SEALS beginning in the 1970s and spanning over two decades. It is a brotherhood this select fraternity offers, and only those who have endured the most grueling of initiations can understand. Mann begins with his high school days as a “badass” and his entry into the navy and then the seals. The training, as mentioned above, is grueling with a very high attrition rate. The actual work is even more taxing, often life and death at every corner. It requires super dedication that sometimes will tax family relationships and marriages. Mann has two failed marriages that happened during his tenure. I enjoyed reading of the training and of the various missions the author underwent. What we get from the news media was so limited compared to what this book presents. It is great reading that is simple and moves fast. Yet it packs a solid amount of information presented in an entertaining style. One flaw I found is through no flaw of the author. The editors/publisher opted to leave redactions in place but making them unreadable with dark marks. They did say this is to show the knowledge of the author. I feel that one with Mann’s experience need not prove knowledge. I would have preferred the redactions excised and the text reworked for a smoother reading.
What do You think about Inside SEAL Team Six: My Life And Missions With America's Elite Warriors (2011)?
Interesting but the blacked out text detract and at times become distracting.
—AshahWilkinson
