Damn Few
Making the Modern SEAL Warrior
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- $139.00
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- $139.00
Publisher Description
**THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER**
With all the SEALs' recent successes, we have been getting a level of attention we are not used to. It's been flattering but something important has been missing from the discussion. People keep describing what we do, but no one has even scratched the surface of how and why. The unique psychology behind it.
Operating in the world’s most hostile environments, the Navy SEALs are highly skilled warriors, finely tuned and ready for action. Now, for the first time, Lieutenant Commander Rorke Denver offers a compelling and profound insight into the extreme bravery, borderline lunacy, and touching camaraderie of this elite brotherhood.
Packed with tales from the gruelling training process and real-life operations, Rorke Denver recounts his evolution from a young SEAL hopeful pushing his way through Hell Week, into a warrior engaging in dangerous stealth missions across the globe, and finally into a lieutenant commander directing the indoctrination programmes and the “Hero or Zero” missions his graduating SEALs undertake.
From hunting Osama bin Laden to hostage rescues in Somalia and momentum-shifting operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, the SEALs hit hard and fast, moving in and out of conflict zones without leaving a trace.
Through the course of Denver’s story, you’ll see what it takes to become one of them and why they are the damn few.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Denver and journalist Henican (Home Team) take readers from Hell Week to the battlefield and back to base in this portrait of the grueling life of a Navy SEAL. Having led over 200 missions as a SEAL officer, Denver is acutely accustomed to the bizarre mix of lucidity and confusion that can descend on the minds of even highly trained soldiers in the midst of war. It's his job to make sure that heady blend doesn't come as a surprise when it matters most. Denver explains that joining "the greatest man club in the world" requires "talent, training, and instinct," and each of these is subjected to systematic honing in the leadup to induction. The program begins with a six-month marathon course of "medieval ferocity," during which 70% 80% of the class drop out. After that comes the infamous "round-the-clock relentlessness" of Hell Week, five 24-hour days of punishing physical challenges. The titular few that survive then enter into a kind of liberal arts program of war making courses run the gamut from parachuting to computer hacking and language studies. The result: warriors "in every sense of the word." Interweaving tales of battle and reflections on what it means to be a professional killer, Denver crafts an awe-inspiring sketch of soldierly excellence. 16-page b&w photo insert.
