The Teams: An Oral History of the U.S. Navy Seals

by Kevin Dockery (Editor), Bill Fawcett (Editor)

In Hunters and Shooters , fifteen Navy SEALs told their harrowing stories of fighting guerilla-style warfare in the jungles of Vietnam. Legendary in battle, the SEALs -- trained to fight on Sea, Air and Land - were founded in 1962 to fight terrorism, specializing in unconventional combat techniques like diving, demolition, and parachuting. Now, in The Teams six SEALs recount how the program got started - including their excruciating training sessions, first missions and amazing stories for Vietnam - showing how they became one of the most effective special military forces in the world. Richard Brozak takes readers thought the rigorous courses the SEALs took, where he lived off the land in the frozen Canadian Wilderness. Jack Rowell describes covering for his platoon chief in the midst of fierce cross fire during a mission to capture a VC commandant, and James Tipton - recipient of three Purple Hearts - recalls barely escaping in an assault boat while under heavy fire in Vietnam. The secret to the SEAL mystique is perhaps best summed up by Brozak, who characterized the SEALs as men "who knew how to keep going through almost anything without giving a thought to quitting."

Genres: Military Fiction, Military History, Nonfiction

336 pages, Hardcover

First published February 18, 1998

Reviews

[Coady Pickford · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Teams was a good book it was descriptive just like the author expected it to be.The author really got me interested when he was talking about different seals and their experiences in the different ops they encountered. The authors purpose was to describe how the SEALs came together and the experiences the first SEALs encountered while in mission.The authors point of view was in the eyes of the SEALs.The style he wrote it was like an interview where the reader is the media.

The theme of the book was how the NAVY SEALs started out and what kind of operations they had to encounter.The author sometimes used indirect statements to explain the operations they endured.

The style of this book was like an iterview to the first of the NAVY SEALs it was effective because it got me more interested because they went into deep detail about operations and encounterments.It was very descriptive about how they did things and why they did them every operation it made me feel like i was there and i was experiencing it myself.

I liked this book because it got into detail about how it was setup and why. It also got into detail about what the SEALs did to train and the operations they were sent on its not like anything i read before but it was a very intersting book i would read it again if i got the chance.

[Nick Hernandez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was conflicted on how many stars to give. For its content, it’s 5 stars. However, the book is laid out as if it was dictation from very long interviews. Imagine reading dictation of interviews for nearly 300 pages without any subtitles or topic headings whatsoever. It just rambles on and for that I’d say 3 stars because it was not organized at all. Consequently, I went right down the middle and gave it 4 stars.

[Al · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely worth reading if you're interested in the later days of the UDT and the early days of the SEAL teams. Reads as though you're listening to the writer speak off the top of their head over coffee.