Not to say I haven't read them...the 200th anniversary biography of Abraham Lincoln was really well done. And I have copies of Ernie Pyle's book- Brave Men, Eisenhower's Great Crusade, and Charles B. MacDonald's Company Commander, still considered one of the finest WWII memoirs ever done. But overall, they are not my favorite types of history. Like military unit histories, most of them are merely exercises in "See how totally fabulous I was as I totally did XXXX" Kinda like Obama, but in reverse...actually DOING something. But I digress.
This book, despite all the kerfuffle about leaking state secrets, operational tradecraft, or the whereabouts of Jimmy Hoffa, seemed pretty darn sanitized to me. The author notes in the introduction that he had a former SPECOPS lawyer review the thing...and they did a pretty good job from what I can see. Obama and his team definitely spilled more secrets about the raid than this guy did.
I have to say, that overall, it was.....okay....not great....not bad....just okay as a war memoir. The author told much of the action in such a watered down, vanilla fashion, that you never really get a good sense of where the action is taking place as he relates his 10...yes...10...that's TEN freakin' combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. That number really floored me...wow, no wonder Osama never stood a chance...these guys can practically kill you in their sleep. I know he was trying to protect his buddies and avoid legal trouble....TRUST me, Obama and his gang will leave this guy alone...they don't want to get into a "Who leaked what pissing contest" cuz they're likely to lose.
The first half of the book zipped by his first 10 years of service, with a few interesting anecdotes but the second half is definitely better as he talks about getting ready for the Osama raid, then the first intense minutes of the raid as the first helicopter (which he was on) crash lands in the compound, and the nearly blow-by-blow account of the raid. He skips over most of the process and background on how the intell was developed that placed Osama deep inside Pakistan (Osama, Osama...Shocked, shocked the Paks were that the most HUNTED man on Earth was across the street from a Pakistani military academy...whoda thunk?....oh, can they have another $18 BILLION AMERICAN TAXPAYER DOLLARS in aid? Allies my ass...treacherous bastards) and describes how the team overcame the helicopter crash landing to successfully send Osama to meet Allah....or Satan...depending on where you stand.
The detailed diagrams of the raid were very nice...I like maps and diagrams...and the end of the story does make for some good drama as the SEALS race to grab as much intell stuff from the house as possible before Pakistani troops or police arrive.
This was a decent book....and it would make a great movie...if it wasn't likely to become a huge propaganda piece for the awesomeness that is Osama...I mean Obama...oh whatever....you that gun-tottin', straight-shootin' cowboy...oh, wait, was that Bush? No, it was definitely Obama that made the gutsy call to launch the raid...as long as it succeeded...otherwise there was some military flunky to take the hit...typical.
So, Kindle it, library it...it's worth a quick read.
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