Ágætis saga af meðlimi í sérsveitum bandaríska sjóhersins og gerist að mestu leyti í Víetnamstríðinu. Lifandi og oft léttleikandi frásögn af starfsemi sérsveitanna. Hún er dálítið hetjukennd sem verður til þess að ég tek sumum lýsingum með varúð en engu að síður fjölbreyttar og skemmtilegar lýsingar af því hvernig sérsveitirnar störfuðu í stríðinu. ( )

It's the second book about navy seals in Vietnam I read and while this author appears to revel in the killing less it's still a very similar story devoid of any introspection. At no point does the author considered what he was doing or the conduct of the troops. Closest he gets is to mention that soldiers in Vietnam stole from the military (of course the author did not) and that Vietnamese soldiers were cowardly and officers corrupt. Project phoenix? Total success! No idea what all the fuss was about. ( )

This is an incredible book. It is one of the most informative and well told personal accounts of the Vietnam War. It's easily the best book I've read, on the subject, since "Chicken Hawk". ( )

Low key memoir of an Underwater Demotion Team member who goes directly to a SEAL team and a Vietnam Tour. The focus of the book is Constance's life and not always war stories although there are plenty of valuable reflections that give many tactical details not found elsewhere. Relations with CIA, Phoenix program, Special Operations around the world are linked to his family life. The sadness of Constance's life, even as he accomplished so much for the United States' Military goals, is told in an honest confessional manner. I did not know what to expect from this author but I really appreciated the hard work of honest evaluation even of his perceived failures. The author gradually becomes more critical on himself than others had been (even those involved in criminal conspiratorial acts against him). The author ends the book as chief of police for the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center which is one of the VA hospitals operating in Southern California. ( )

I had become so bored of fictional novels that I decided to read one of my non-fiction books and this one just happens to be an autobiography. It is an autobiography on a decorated Vietnam vet who was one of the US Navy's "Elite SEAL Team Two".

I haven't been able to put it down since I started it. One of the things I love about it is the fact that is NOT fictional! I don't have to read it while trying to figure out whodunit or what's going to happen next ... Something else I love about it is how it's, literally, changed my thinking on ... life, choices, and war.

Harry Constance is the author of the book (with Randall Fuerst). He admits to being trained to kill ... He can go watch a sappy movie and be choked up by it and then turn around and blow someone's brains out and then go get a beer. It's what he was trained to do. He has no qualms about it, he's not ashamed of it. It is what it is, it is who he is, and if it wasn't he would be long dead by now because someone would have killed him long before he killed them ...

I have *always* disliked (hated?) when someone who used to be in the military/service will complain about their training. There was a "gym teacher" at the JCC who used to be in the Army and he was saying to someone one day, "You wouldn't believe the brainwashing they give you in the service. What they train you to do." It angered me so ... I wanted to say to him, "Then I guess it's good you got out, clearly you don't have the balls to be a real soldier and we're better for it that a pansy like you is no longer faking it." I didn't ...

What I like about this book is how honest the author is to what war is like ... It's kill or be killed and there's no way around it. He could read a Vietnamese sometimes and see that they were fighting in the war because they were forced into it (their family's safety was threatened by the VC), in those cases he would take them prisoner and make sure the family was safe and then get intelligence from the prisoner.

I absolutely love this book because it has changed my thinking on life and war. I literally feel more knowledgeable about choices, life, and war. Choices -- who you vote for. Life -- how who you vote for actually effects things, and how your own choices effect your life. War -- it's NOT what you see on TV and, actually, the media, and by extension, the general public should just, really, stay out of it and support the men and women in battle.

It's so weird to come to that conclusion! It's, like, "OMG! The things that people were saying, how the media twists things to fit their agenda -- a liberal agenda -- it's actually kind of, really, true!" The Vietnam War wasn't lost on the battle lines because of the terrain or the men and VC guerrilla-war tactics ... The Vietnam War was lost because of the politics and public resentment -- public resentment brought on by color TV and national coverage of things they had no understanding of. People have said ... and people are now saying ... the Iraq War and war in Afghanistan are like the war in Vietnam, and now I understand why they're saying that! It's not because it's a war we can't win -- the Vietnam War was a war we could have won -- it's because it's not so much a "war" in the sense of the word ... it's a political battle where the soldiers are being controlled by politicians and not generals and commanders, and the public is no longer in support of the war or the soldiers ... and that's because of the media coverage of things the uneducated public knows nothing about.

How can you shoot people in the back?! Well ... they're still carrying their gun ... If I *don't* shoot them in the back then they still have the chance to shot *me* tomorrow. They're the enemy ... Let's think about this? Well, why are they the enemy? Because they have a gun pointed at me. This isn't very difficult.

Adrianne ( )