Seal
Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy SEAL Sniper by Howard Wasdin
My rating:
3 stars—I liked it.
My Thoughts:
I enjoy all types of memoirs and I liked this military memoir. It was a
little slow moving in parts, but overall I appreciated his journey.
I do wonder why so many military memoirs are coming out recently. This SEAL
team was supposed to be secret. The people that write this think their story is
more important than the overall strategy of the military, I assume? Most of the
men that serve in these elite military groups are more professional than this
author and you would never see a book from them. Their perspective would be the
most interesting, too.
One more comment. Wow. Wasdin has quite the ego. This book was mostly about
how much better than everyone else he is. I have to give him credit for his
accomplishments, of course, but he gives himself enough credit that he probably
doesn’t need anyone else’s input. A little humility would serve him well.
Description from Goodreads.com:
“SEAL Team Six is a secret unit tasked with
counterterrorism, hostage rescue, and counterinsurgency. In this dramatic,
behind-the-scenes chronicle, Howard Wasdin takes readers deep inside the world
of Navy SEALS and Special Forces snipers, beginning with the grueling selection
process of Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S)—the toughest and longest
military training in the world.
After graduating, Wasdin faced new challenges. First there was combat in
Operation Desert Storm as a member of SEAL Team Two. Then the Green Course: the
selection process to join the legendary SEAL Team Six, with a curriculum that
included practiced land warfare to unarmed combat. More than learning how to
pick a lock, they learned how to blow the door off its hinges. Finally as a
member of SEAL Team Six he graduated from the most storied and challenging
sniper program in the country: The Marine’s Scout Sniper School. Eventually, of
the 18 snipers in SEAL Team Six, Wasdin became the best—which meant one of the
best snipers on the planet.
Less than half a year after sniper school, he was fighting for his life. The
mission: capture or kill Somalian warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. From rooftops,
helicopters and alleys, Wasdin hunted Aidid and killed his men whenever
possible. But everything went quickly to hell when his small band of soldiers
found themselves fighting for their lives, cut off from help, and desperately
trying to rescue downed comrades during a routine mission. The Battle of
Mogadishu, as it become known, left 18 American soldiers dead and 73 wounded.
Howard Wasdin had both of his legs nearly blown off while engaging the enemy.
His dramatic combat tales combined with inside details of becoming one of the
world’s deadliest snipers make this one of the most explosive military memoirs
in years.”
