US Navy SEALs (Elite) Review

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(More customer reviews)I was quite anxious to get this book as it's publication date was repeatedly pushed back since it's origianl publication date almost a year ago. What I finally got was very disappointing. Osprey and the author have done much better in the past, but stay away from this one. The cover of the book pretty much sums it up -- the title is US NAVY SEALS, but there is not a SEAL in sight on the cover. The section of the book descriping the naval spec ops community looks like it was cut and pasted verbatim from Specialoperations.com circa 1999. It spends alot of time descrbing the SEALS as there were a few years ago, but glances over the major changes that have occurred in the community recently and how they are currently structured and operate today. The artwork is poor and lacks the crispness and realism of other Osprey titles. There is nothing in it that has not been presented much better elsewhere. Wanna learn about the SEALS? Read Dick Couch's books. The Navy SEALS and the navy's Special Operations community deserves a better effort from Osprey, I hope that they give it another go.

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After the United States' failures in special operations missions during the late 1970s and 1980, a decision was made to revamp its unconventional military capabilities. The subsequent reorganization and redesignation in 1983 created the SEALs as they are known today, and later the all-encompassing command for US special operations forces under which they operate. Since then, these Navy Special Warfare (NSW) forces have operated in Grenada, the Persian Gulf, Panama, Somalia, Bosnia, Haiti, and Liberia. NSW units have also participated in the ongoing missions of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq. This book looks at the history, organization, training, uniforms, equipment and missions of the US Navy SEALs since their redesignation until the recent conflict in the Gulf.

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Ranger Handbook Review

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(More customer reviews)I went to Ranger School in 1973. After that the SF Q course. This book, so everyone knows, is small because it was not meant to be read in an armchair and sit in a library. It is the book that fits as the sole field reference book for a Ranger or Infantryman in general, in his BDU pocket. It is pocket sized for that reason only. Real Rangers and Infantrmen who would carry it to the field would put it inside a ziplock baggy to keep it dry and clean and stuff it in his rucksack or pocket and consider it a luxury item! I have about 6 or 7 editions/versions of this over my 30 year career. The book is printed by the print shop at Fort Benning, Georgia, and each Ranger school student gets a copy, and you can pick up a copy for free at the Fort Benning post publications center. You can also buy copies off base for a premium. The print of the Fort Benning issue copies is of course small, but very readable. And they are stapled together. Anything else is probably some publisher taking a copy, photocoping or camera copying the handbook, putting the resolutions in a computer, and printing their own version. The originals are printed under the USAIS (U.S. Army Infantry School) of which the U.S. Army Ranger School is a part of. This is a book that every member of the 75th Ranger Regiment )(the unit involved when someone says Army Rangers did this or that...). Going to Ranger school is not the same thing as being in the 75th Ranger Regiment, though nearly all members of the 75th RgrRegt have been to Ranger School, or will go as soon as they get a school slot. In the 75th all leaders of any rank have been to Ranger School. Only some of the newest privates who have volunteered to go, but not yet had a school slot have not been. Ranger School is just he "basics" of Ranger training for those in the 75th Ranger Regiment. Ranger school trained soldiers are common and in many units of the Army. The 75th Regt has a very elite and challenging work and training ethic befitting who they are and the missions given to them. This handbook is not their sole reference, not even close...FM 7-8, FM 7-10, FM 7-20, etc, etc are also their guiding books...but this is a handbook every Ranger has and often carries. If for no other reason that it is a lot simplier to look up the calculations, placement, and detonation for a specific demolitions charge for a specific target than try to memorize the tables. LOL The rest of the stuff in the book is trained on so throughly every Ranger pretty much could recite it, and more importantly, implement it when under fire in combat, automatically without hesitation and a second thought. Interested civilians might find this interesting. The handbook is a compilation of bits and pieces of information available in many other Army references (Field Manuals, Training Bulletins, etc) but is gathered together in the Ranger Handbook so it is in one small and useful resource.

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Paladin is now offering the most up-to-date version in print of the famed U.S. Army Ranger Handbook. This manual draws from bloody lessons learned from two centuries of special operations combat. Crammed with info on demolitions, booby traps, communications, patrolling, tactical movement, battle drills, combat intelligence and much more.

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