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The Element of Surprise: Navy SEALS in Vietnam
It used to be said that the night belonged to Charlie. But that wasn't true where SEALs patrolled. For six months in 1970, fourteen men in Juliett Platoon of the Navy's SEAL Team One--incuding the author--carried out over a hundred missions in the Mekong Delta without a single platoon fatality. Their primary kidnap enemy soldiers--alive--for interrogation.
306 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 28, 1990
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
June 14, 2018
I met one SEAL when I was in Vietnam. He came to Saigon on R & R and stayed at my hotel. He invited a bunch of us down for a drink and talk. He turned out to be a murdering, drunken, pathetic loser. He called us "pussies" because we did not drink much. That only made me not drink at all. All of us were totally disappointed.
I have seen stories about SEALS in other wars, and they all seemed like well-trained professionals. I hoped this book would present another side to my feelings about SEALS in Vietnam. It did not.
I learned a lot in the introduction about becoming a SEAL. It is a six-month onslaught. All it takes to leave is throwing down your helmet and saying, "I quit." No stigma is supposed to be attached.
Minimum requirements: run an obstacle course in 10 minutes, swim 2 miles in the ocean with fins in 70 minutes, run 4 miles in 30 minutes, and run 14 miles in 110 minutes on the beach in fatigues and combat boots. Officers were trained WITH the enlisted personnel. Other military units trained the officers separately. And they were expected to take all criticisms without a hint of resentment.
"Hitting the bay" meant jumping into 55 degree water fully clothed.
SEALS were known as the "men with green faces." The legend among the Vietnamese was that they came out of the swamps and went back in to the swamps. They were never tired, never slept, never ate.
Then the story begins. Drunkenness prevails. And using pot. No professional should be drunk on the job. Mr. Young claims that he and his buddies NEVER went out on the job drunk or on drugs. So I am torn between calling them unprofessional or not based on that issue.
The pervasive racism disgusted me. Racial slurs are everywhere. Good training should teach decency and humanity. Instead he learned to view the enemy as less than human.
He treats civilian Vietnamese almost the same way. He is often cruel and disrespectful.
One time he practiced shooting blue swallows until a "hell of a pile of dead swallows" were on the ground.
He watched what he ate to avoid burping and farting while out on a mission.
I was often ready to throw the book away. I finished and reached an "Author's Note." He apologized for the racism, claiming it was just "a 1970 point of view." It does not reflect his feelings today. "Some of his instructors" treated the Vietnamese "as lower forms of life." He says, "I doubt many of us would have survived the combat situations we were exposed to if we had thought of those people in any other way." If nothing else, this "note" belonged at the beginning.
I think that such ideas are total nonsense. I have met many great professional soldiers who fought in combat who had no such feelings. They treated their enemies as human beings. As a result, they were able to avoid any unnecessarily vile abuses on the battlefield. That applies to both "sides."
I have seen stories about SEALS in other wars, and they all seemed like well-trained professionals. I hoped this book would present another side to my feelings about SEALS in Vietnam. It did not.
I learned a lot in the introduction about becoming a SEAL. It is a six-month onslaught. All it takes to leave is throwing down your helmet and saying, "I quit." No stigma is supposed to be attached.
Minimum requirements: run an obstacle course in 10 minutes, swim 2 miles in the ocean with fins in 70 minutes, run 4 miles in 30 minutes, and run 14 miles in 110 minutes on the beach in fatigues and combat boots. Officers were trained WITH the enlisted personnel. Other military units trained the officers separately. And they were expected to take all criticisms without a hint of resentment.
"Hitting the bay" meant jumping into 55 degree water fully clothed.
SEALS were known as the "men with green faces." The legend among the Vietnamese was that they came out of the swamps and went back in to the swamps. They were never tired, never slept, never ate.
Then the story begins. Drunkenness prevails. And using pot. No professional should be drunk on the job. Mr. Young claims that he and his buddies NEVER went out on the job drunk or on drugs. So I am torn between calling them unprofessional or not based on that issue.
The pervasive racism disgusted me. Racial slurs are everywhere. Good training should teach decency and humanity. Instead he learned to view the enemy as less than human.
He treats civilian Vietnamese almost the same way. He is often cruel and disrespectful.
One time he practiced shooting blue swallows until a "hell of a pile of dead swallows" were on the ground.
He watched what he ate to avoid burping and farting while out on a mission.
I was often ready to throw the book away. I finished and reached an "Author's Note." He apologized for the racism, claiming it was just "a 1970 point of view." It does not reflect his feelings today. "Some of his instructors" treated the Vietnamese "as lower forms of life." He says, "I doubt many of us would have survived the combat situations we were exposed to if we had thought of those people in any other way." If nothing else, this "note" belonged at the beginning.
I think that such ideas are total nonsense. I have met many great professional soldiers who fought in combat who had no such feelings. They treated their enemies as human beings. As a result, they were able to avoid any unnecessarily vile abuses on the battlefield. That applies to both "sides."
August 29, 2017
I am not sure when I originally heard of “The Element of Surprise” though I think I remember seeing it for sale in catalogues for “Ranger Joe’s”. I probably bought the Kindle edition after seeing an advertisement for it online, or possibly because of its mention in the bibliography of “GURPS: Special Ops” or “GURPS: SEALs in Vietnam”.
I’ve read a lot of Vietnam books, but mostly written by Rangers and LRRPs operating further north in the mountains, where the enemy was usually North Vietnamese regulars (soldiers) instead of Vietcong guerillas.
SUMMARY
Darryl Young was 19 years old when he completed Navy SEAL training and was sent to Vietnam in 1970 for six months of operations in the Mekong Delta. Collected from his experiences and also drawn on the memories of his fellow SEAL team members, Young describes dangerous operations in waist-deep water hunting down and hiding from an elusive and lethal enemy. The area, weapons, tactics, and personalities around him are explored, and he offers his own observations (limited to his viewpoint at the time) on the innocent civilians, the enemy forces, and the conflict in general.
OVERALL: 2.4 out of 5
Darryl Young’s book provides the reader a good idea of what operations were like for a young SEAL in Vietnam. He describes the missions, the people around him, his own attitudes at the time, the weapons, the enemy, and the environment.
The book is not organized very well, and sometimes it feels like some events are being related out-of-order to satisfy the need to use it as an excuse to describe a weapon or person (that probably should have been described earlier). A lot of the writing is repetitive (though Young undoubtedly felt some of the missions were repetitive too).
There’s a fair amount of adult language, and Young doesn’t shy away from his attitudes toward the native Vietnamese people. He frequently wonders why he is in Vietnam, describes his dislike for the people, and plans to never come back. Toward the end he becomes softer, saying that the enemy were an honorable and driven people who fought for a cause, the average Vietnamese farmer was a good person, and he ends the book with a surprise that I wasn’t expecting. He does not tell the audience what his feelings are when he published the book, twenty or so years after the conflict.
If anyone is looking for insight regarding the moods and social swings back in the United States, and how it influenced fighting men in Vietnam, this is the wrong book. Young only spends a couple of sentences on his own history prior to SEAL training, and does not once mention the protests or opposition to the war back home, even though he relates his own confusion about American involvement after seeing how unmotivated many South Vietnamese people were to fight for their freedom.
RATINGS BY CATEGORY
CHARACTERS: 2 out of 5
Due to this being a nonfiction book, “Characters” refers to how well the author brings people to life in the writing.
Young trained with several of the people he served with, and the ones who receive the most attention are Weber, Reeves, and Bruce. The motivations and relationships of the others around him are never explored, and not much time is spent describing any deeper bond except hard training, narrow escapes, and parties when they were away from the field. It’s obvious that all of these men trust each other, but you don’t find out if anyone had a favorite song, if anyone had a girl back home they were writing to, or anything like that.
PACE: 3 out of 5
Young keeps things moving fast, but the narrative becomes repetitive. Some unique operations are mentioned near the end, but only in passing. It would have been nice if he focused more on these (such as missions where they dressed in enemy gear) instead of the time spent describing operations that were virtually identical to each other.
STORY: 3 out of 5
Young’s Vietnam experience is quite different from the others I’ve read. Unlike Gary Linderer (“Eyes of the Eagle” and “Eyes Behind the Lines”), Young trained from the beginning for special operations and he doesn’t spend much time getting used to things after arriving in-country.
The missions are different too. The SEALs weren’t handed as many reconnaissance missions, and Young spends more time describing attempts to take prisoners than anything else (there were also two attempts to rescue prisoners during his time in Vietnam). Also unlike Linderer’s narrative, the SEALs were frequently successful in their “snatch” missions.
A fair amount of time is also spent relating the off time, parties, and relaxation Young participated in. Without going into too much detail, he is open about at least some of his sexual exploits with Vietnamese prostitutes, and how marijuana helped him get through his six months. Sometimes he spends too much time justifying this particular habit instead of moving on.
The weapons and equipment of both SEALs and their enemy, including firearms, boats, rocket launchers, clothing, etc., is described in almost textbook detail. Though eventually these “diversions” from the primary narrative almost drew a groan when I saw them coming, they’re kept fairly short.
DIALOGUE: 2 out of 5
Young doesn’t do a lot of dialogue, which makes sense since he wouldn’t remember the conversations verbatim. He includes some of the “typical speech” he would have heard during mission briefings, and some of the common things Vietnamese people said to him in their limited English.
STYLE/TECHNICAL: 2 out of 5
There is nothing to complain about in the word-for-word execution of the book. Young is literate and can describe things clearly, though there were a couple of editing errors in the Kindle edition I read.
Problems reside in the larger layout. The book reads like the author recorded most of it, recalling memories and sensations from memory, and thus there is a lot of stuff that is repeated over and over and over again in sentences that are almost identical to ones that the reader has already read. Some of this enforces the “feel” that Young is trying to impart, but at other times it muddied things up.
I also don’t like the way some experiences (or “episodes”) seem to exist only for the author to use it as a gateway to describe some weapon or piece of equipment. This wasn’t a problem at first, but when you’re three quarters of the way through the book and it’s suddenly time-out to learn about a common weapon that the reader should have been told about near the beginning, it doesn’t work.
In short, the organization of the book is jumbled. It would have been better if there was a larger “info dump” near the beginning, so that the reader is familiar with the things the author is describing later and can really focus on what is being related.
I’ve read a lot of Vietnam books, but mostly written by Rangers and LRRPs operating further north in the mountains, where the enemy was usually North Vietnamese regulars (soldiers) instead of Vietcong guerillas.
SUMMARY
Darryl Young was 19 years old when he completed Navy SEAL training and was sent to Vietnam in 1970 for six months of operations in the Mekong Delta. Collected from his experiences and also drawn on the memories of his fellow SEAL team members, Young describes dangerous operations in waist-deep water hunting down and hiding from an elusive and lethal enemy. The area, weapons, tactics, and personalities around him are explored, and he offers his own observations (limited to his viewpoint at the time) on the innocent civilians, the enemy forces, and the conflict in general.
OVERALL: 2.4 out of 5
Darryl Young’s book provides the reader a good idea of what operations were like for a young SEAL in Vietnam. He describes the missions, the people around him, his own attitudes at the time, the weapons, the enemy, and the environment.
The book is not organized very well, and sometimes it feels like some events are being related out-of-order to satisfy the need to use it as an excuse to describe a weapon or person (that probably should have been described earlier). A lot of the writing is repetitive (though Young undoubtedly felt some of the missions were repetitive too).
There’s a fair amount of adult language, and Young doesn’t shy away from his attitudes toward the native Vietnamese people. He frequently wonders why he is in Vietnam, describes his dislike for the people, and plans to never come back. Toward the end he becomes softer, saying that the enemy were an honorable and driven people who fought for a cause, the average Vietnamese farmer was a good person, and he ends the book with a surprise that I wasn’t expecting. He does not tell the audience what his feelings are when he published the book, twenty or so years after the conflict.
If anyone is looking for insight regarding the moods and social swings back in the United States, and how it influenced fighting men in Vietnam, this is the wrong book. Young only spends a couple of sentences on his own history prior to SEAL training, and does not once mention the protests or opposition to the war back home, even though he relates his own confusion about American involvement after seeing how unmotivated many South Vietnamese people were to fight for their freedom.
RATINGS BY CATEGORY
CHARACTERS: 2 out of 5
Due to this being a nonfiction book, “Characters” refers to how well the author brings people to life in the writing.
Young trained with several of the people he served with, and the ones who receive the most attention are Weber, Reeves, and Bruce. The motivations and relationships of the others around him are never explored, and not much time is spent describing any deeper bond except hard training, narrow escapes, and parties when they were away from the field. It’s obvious that all of these men trust each other, but you don’t find out if anyone had a favorite song, if anyone had a girl back home they were writing to, or anything like that.
PACE: 3 out of 5
Young keeps things moving fast, but the narrative becomes repetitive. Some unique operations are mentioned near the end, but only in passing. It would have been nice if he focused more on these (such as missions where they dressed in enemy gear) instead of the time spent describing operations that were virtually identical to each other.
STORY: 3 out of 5
Young’s Vietnam experience is quite different from the others I’ve read. Unlike Gary Linderer (“Eyes of the Eagle” and “Eyes Behind the Lines”), Young trained from the beginning for special operations and he doesn’t spend much time getting used to things after arriving in-country.
The missions are different too. The SEALs weren’t handed as many reconnaissance missions, and Young spends more time describing attempts to take prisoners than anything else (there were also two attempts to rescue prisoners during his time in Vietnam). Also unlike Linderer’s narrative, the SEALs were frequently successful in their “snatch” missions.
A fair amount of time is also spent relating the off time, parties, and relaxation Young participated in. Without going into too much detail, he is open about at least some of his sexual exploits with Vietnamese prostitutes, and how marijuana helped him get through his six months. Sometimes he spends too much time justifying this particular habit instead of moving on.
The weapons and equipment of both SEALs and their enemy, including firearms, boats, rocket launchers, clothing, etc., is described in almost textbook detail. Though eventually these “diversions” from the primary narrative almost drew a groan when I saw them coming, they’re kept fairly short.
DIALOGUE: 2 out of 5
Young doesn’t do a lot of dialogue, which makes sense since he wouldn’t remember the conversations verbatim. He includes some of the “typical speech” he would have heard during mission briefings, and some of the common things Vietnamese people said to him in their limited English.
STYLE/TECHNICAL: 2 out of 5
There is nothing to complain about in the word-for-word execution of the book. Young is literate and can describe things clearly, though there were a couple of editing errors in the Kindle edition I read.
Problems reside in the larger layout. The book reads like the author recorded most of it, recalling memories and sensations from memory, and thus there is a lot of stuff that is repeated over and over and over again in sentences that are almost identical to ones that the reader has already read. Some of this enforces the “feel” that Young is trying to impart, but at other times it muddied things up.
I also don’t like the way some experiences (or “episodes”) seem to exist only for the author to use it as a gateway to describe some weapon or piece of equipment. This wasn’t a problem at first, but when you’re three quarters of the way through the book and it’s suddenly time-out to learn about a common weapon that the reader should have been told about near the beginning, it doesn’t work.
In short, the organization of the book is jumbled. It would have been better if there was a larger “info dump” near the beginning, so that the reader is familiar with the things the author is describing later and can really focus on what is being related.
February 13, 2018
These days, the Navy SEAL memoir is practically a cliche. For 'silent warriors', the SEALs sure do write a lot. Young's 1990 memoir is an earlier example of the genre, an action-packed adventure let down by some repetitive writing.
Young served his six month tour in the Mekong Delta, raiding in the canals around Dung Island with Juliette Platoon. The 14 men of this unit owned the night, making silent aquatic patrols, prisoner grabs, and infiltration raids. The SEALs were self-consciously elite, immune to traditional military discipline and grooming standards, and using a host of tricked out weapons and vehicles to get the job done on their missions.
Young emphasizes the quiet tension of the raids, lurking in pitch black jungle in absolute silent, wading through neck high canals to avoid booby-traps, and then the desperate and overwhelming fire of an ambush and evacuation. He has a good sense for both the quiet and the action. There's also a lot of fooling around at base camp, water-skiing, smoking weed to relax, playing football in the tidal mud with the Seabees, and stealing supplies from REMFs. It may be flip for me to say this, but after BUDS (SEAL training), Vietnam seemed pretty easy for Young and Juliette Platoon. No multi-day missions, no NVA heavy artillery, and none of the tensions and incompetence that more mundane units experienced.
This book is written in a "1970 mindset", as the afterward explains, and there's a lot of racism. More than calling the Vietnamese "gooks" or worse, there's an attitude of casual mayhem towards the country. The SEALs use a cemetery as a firing range, demolishing it with grenades. They spend a truck ride stealing the hats off of men riding mopeds. In a strategic sense, it's hard to see what the SEALs accomplished. Dung Island was VC territory before and after the intervention of the SEALs. The griping about not knowing why they were fighting seems more obligatory than real--Young was there to prove he was the deadliest animal in the jungle, and he did. That was enough.
I believe that all the men on the SEAL team were consummate professionals, but Young can't seem to find the words to write about his brothers in arms. There's more love for the Stoner machine gun than there is for any of the fellow SEALs.
Young served his six month tour in the Mekong Delta, raiding in the canals around Dung Island with Juliette Platoon. The 14 men of this unit owned the night, making silent aquatic patrols, prisoner grabs, and infiltration raids. The SEALs were self-consciously elite, immune to traditional military discipline and grooming standards, and using a host of tricked out weapons and vehicles to get the job done on their missions.
Young emphasizes the quiet tension of the raids, lurking in pitch black jungle in absolute silent, wading through neck high canals to avoid booby-traps, and then the desperate and overwhelming fire of an ambush and evacuation. He has a good sense for both the quiet and the action. There's also a lot of fooling around at base camp, water-skiing, smoking weed to relax, playing football in the tidal mud with the Seabees, and stealing supplies from REMFs. It may be flip for me to say this, but after BUDS (SEAL training), Vietnam seemed pretty easy for Young and Juliette Platoon. No multi-day missions, no NVA heavy artillery, and none of the tensions and incompetence that more mundane units experienced.
This book is written in a "1970 mindset", as the afterward explains, and there's a lot of racism. More than calling the Vietnamese "gooks" or worse, there's an attitude of casual mayhem towards the country. The SEALs use a cemetery as a firing range, demolishing it with grenades. They spend a truck ride stealing the hats off of men riding mopeds. In a strategic sense, it's hard to see what the SEALs accomplished. Dung Island was VC territory before and after the intervention of the SEALs. The griping about not knowing why they were fighting seems more obligatory than real--Young was there to prove he was the deadliest animal in the jungle, and he did. That was enough.
I believe that all the men on the SEAL team were consummate professionals, but Young can't seem to find the words to write about his brothers in arms. There's more love for the Stoner machine gun than there is for any of the fellow SEALs.
September 17, 2020
Darryl Young is a hero. A member of a small unit of elite warrior seals who cut their teeth in Vietnam. His recollections are amazing and if you have ever been in any jungle you feel like you are there with him on each mission. His feelings about jungle combat and misgivings about fighting for the Vietnamese who didnt seem to care and at times were openly hostile. Very interesting read and he does not waste a lot of time like many military books do about what was going on back home. You stay in the jungle with him facing an elusive and dangerous enemy on Dung island. Well written good read.
November 13, 2022
This is a scary book. The tales of SEALs sneaking into VietCong camps to 'capture' enemy leaders for intelligence reek with reality, to say nothing of mosquitoes, leeches, camo face paint, sweat, mud, mangrove roots, and some times urine.
Several areas of SEAL life are described in detail: the hazardous training; the things that men love that go bang, or pop, or boom; the exact description of what each man on a given mission carried, the weapons and their capabilities, down to ammunition size and grains of powder; the kinds of boats, helicopters, and semi-submarines they used to get to and from their targets. Somewhat TMI for me, but I do appreciate the necessity to have total command of the information that made for their effectiveness.
Because of the unpredictability of the Cong, the SEALS had to be unpredictable, so they often operated outside authoritarian systems, officers and enlisted men functioning as equals; they were really not understood by more conventional military, who tended to fear their bravado, long haircuts, different weapons, and willingness to steal a jeep -- any jeep.
This book made me stay up after midnight way too many times. Because of the small unit size (six to eight men) I was better able to follow this sort of combat than the more typical stories which have many more moving parts.
There were several irritations of jargon which I was able to understand more or less by the end of the book.
I recommend this book enthusiastically, though that doesn't mean that my stomach was not turned by some of the horrible details. The author does not talk about how he was able to reconstruct his missions. I assume he finally found freedom from PTSD by writing and therapy. I also benefit from his work, offering this review as thanks!
Several areas of SEAL life are described in detail: the hazardous training; the things that men love that go bang, or pop, or boom; the exact description of what each man on a given mission carried, the weapons and their capabilities, down to ammunition size and grains of powder; the kinds of boats, helicopters, and semi-submarines they used to get to and from their targets. Somewhat TMI for me, but I do appreciate the necessity to have total command of the information that made for their effectiveness.
Because of the unpredictability of the Cong, the SEALS had to be unpredictable, so they often operated outside authoritarian systems, officers and enlisted men functioning as equals; they were really not understood by more conventional military, who tended to fear their bravado, long haircuts, different weapons, and willingness to steal a jeep -- any jeep.
This book made me stay up after midnight way too many times. Because of the small unit size (six to eight men) I was better able to follow this sort of combat than the more typical stories which have many more moving parts.
There were several irritations of jargon which I was able to understand more or less by the end of the book.
I recommend this book enthusiastically, though that doesn't mean that my stomach was not turned by some of the horrible details. The author does not talk about how he was able to reconstruct his missions. I assume he finally found freedom from PTSD by writing and therapy. I also benefit from his work, offering this review as thanks!
September 22, 2025
The Element of Surprise by Darryl Young is a fascinating first-hand account of U.S. special operations in the 1970s. Its main strength lies in the level of detail and authenticity, giving readers an unfiltered view of what it was like to be an operator during that era. However, the book tends to feel repetitive, as the missions often follow a similar pattern, and over 275 pages the lack of variety can become noticeable. This is a great read for those interested in military history and unconventional warfare, though readers looking for a more varied narrative might find it a bit long.
January 26, 2025
great book, navy seals in Vietnam
The author has written a historical account of his experiences in combat. The preparation, the training, and the missions themselves were very challenging and difficult. The country owes men like Mr young and all who served a debt of gratitude. I highly approve.
The author has written a historical account of his experiences in combat. The preparation, the training, and the missions themselves were very challenging and difficult. The country owes men like Mr young and all who served a debt of gratitude. I highly approve.
March 3, 2022
A lot of anticipation...
I enjoyed the anticipated thrill from a operation that never came. Maybe this book should have been written as a fictional novel instead of a training manual to keep the readers interested.
I enjoyed the anticipated thrill from a operation that never came. Maybe this book should have been written as a fictional novel instead of a training manual to keep the readers interested.
March 7, 2022
Excellent, great read, will read another like it.
The author wrote his account; from his memory and perspective. This was exactly what I was looking for, to read about the Vietnam experience without politics coloring the narrative.
The author wrote his account; from his memory and perspective. This was exactly what I was looking for, to read about the Vietnam experience without politics coloring the narrative.
January 12, 2024
Good read, considering the material is over 50 years old.
June 19, 2024
ok but not great
Some info on how they used firepower and found traps etc was good but the author seemed a bit full of himself. There are better recounting out there I do think the seals were the best trained and equipped of those that infiltrated into enemy territory
Some info on how they used firepower and found traps etc was good but the author seemed a bit full of himself. There are better recounting out there I do think the seals were the best trained and equipped of those that infiltrated into enemy territory
June 29, 2025
Good memoir - in depth on training and operations.
August 19, 2019
Repetitive
Read
February 9, 2017Darryl Young really did a great job when he wrote the book Element of Surprise. This book is about the very intense training of a Navy Seal. Darryl Young start’s this book from the beginning of his training, and all the way to the end of his training. Darryl Young wrote this book to inform people on the excruciating training of a Navy Seal. Darryl does a great job describing all of the training with a lot of detail. He goes in depth when he describes his day to day training. This book combines his own life experiences of his training, and his terrifying experiences in Vietnam.
When reading this book you are able to decipher a theme pretty easily. Darryl Young tells his readers that mental and physical toughness can help you achieve great things. When Darryl’s training began he was in a class with eighty-five men. Each day the number of men in his class slowly began to decline. It declined because those men gave up and quit. They didn’t have any mental/physical toughness. They couldn’t handle the sociological and physical pressure put on them. That is why he stresses on how important physical and mental toughness really is.
Darryl Young’s style is narrative. He narrates what he went through everyday in his training and what he went through on his tours in Vietnam. A quote from the book to support his style is “ The morning calisthenics were grueling: hundreds of sit-ups, push-ups, miles of duck walks, deep knee-bends, and more pull-ups than one could count.”(Young xi). The detail that he goes into when he describes his morning calisthenics shows that he wanted to tell the readers how much work the Navy Seals put in. I believe that his style is effective. A quote that lets you know why the Seal’s underwent so much training is “Each training exercise was designed to hone the skills necessary for a successful mission behind enemy lines.” They trained so much because they wanted to obtain these skills. They took their training very seriously because soon they would need it, and end up in a life or death situation.
I really enjoyed the book The Element of Surprise. I really like how it is so descriptive, just like most military books. I thought that it was a very good book, and I think he should make a sequel. I wouldn’t change much in this book, but if I could change one thing, I would change some of the military lingo. He would use military terms, and I didn’t know what most of them meant. This book is very similar to a lot of books that I have read. All of the books I read are about the armed forces, so this book was an easy read!
When reading this book you are able to decipher a theme pretty easily. Darryl Young tells his readers that mental and physical toughness can help you achieve great things. When Darryl’s training began he was in a class with eighty-five men. Each day the number of men in his class slowly began to decline. It declined because those men gave up and quit. They didn’t have any mental/physical toughness. They couldn’t handle the sociological and physical pressure put on them. That is why he stresses on how important physical and mental toughness really is.
Darryl Young’s style is narrative. He narrates what he went through everyday in his training and what he went through on his tours in Vietnam. A quote from the book to support his style is “ The morning calisthenics were grueling: hundreds of sit-ups, push-ups, miles of duck walks, deep knee-bends, and more pull-ups than one could count.”(Young xi). The detail that he goes into when he describes his morning calisthenics shows that he wanted to tell the readers how much work the Navy Seals put in. I believe that his style is effective. A quote that lets you know why the Seal’s underwent so much training is “Each training exercise was designed to hone the skills necessary for a successful mission behind enemy lines.” They trained so much because they wanted to obtain these skills. They took their training very seriously because soon they would need it, and end up in a life or death situation.
I really enjoyed the book The Element of Surprise. I really like how it is so descriptive, just like most military books. I thought that it was a very good book, and I think he should make a sequel. I wouldn’t change much in this book, but if I could change one thing, I would change some of the military lingo. He would use military terms, and I didn’t know what most of them meant. This book is very similar to a lot of books that I have read. All of the books I read are about the armed forces, so this book was an easy read!
April 7, 2012
This was the first book I ever read about the SEAL teams. It covers SEAL actives in Vietnam, and I cant recommend this book enough. If you have even the slightest interest in the subject matter, get this book.
October 28, 2014
This is an interesting look at the special forces missions in Vietnam. It is well-written, but I wish there had been more live action battle stories.
May 31, 2016
The Navy Seals in Vietnam…these guys were great. Filled with unbelievable mission details on the rivers and in the jungles.
April 17, 2018
Excellent book! Easy to follow and is exciting!!
Read
July 16, 2018While I thank the writer for his service, the book was boring, but had some interesting info. I found myself reading to finish it, rather than to enjoy it.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews