Unconventional Warriors

Unconventional Warriors

Author: Matthew B. Hill

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2018-02-21

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 1440835055

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Tracing the "American Guerrilla" narrative through more than one hundred years of film and television, this book shows how the conventions and politics of this narrative influence Americans to see themselves as warriors, both on screen and in history. American guerrillas fight small-scale battles that, despite their implications for large-scale American victories, often go untold. This book evaluates those stories to illumine the ways in which film and television have created, reinforced, and circulated an "American Guerrilla" fantasy—a mythic narrative in which Americans, despite having the most powerful military in history, are presented as underdog resistance fighters against an overwhelming and superior occupying evil. Unconventional Warriors: The Fantasy of the American Resistance Fighter in Television and Film explains that this fantasy has occupied the center of numerous war films and in turn shaped the way in which Americans see those wars and themselves. Informed by the author's expertise on war in contemporary literature and popular culture, this book begins with an introduction that outlines the basics of the "American Guerrilla" narrative and identifies it as a recurring theme in American war films. Subsequent chapters cover one hundred years of American "guerrillas" in film and television. The book concludes with a chapter on science fiction narratives, illustrating how the conventions and politics of these stories shape even the representation of wholly fictional, imagined wars on screen.


SEAL Warrior

SEAL Warrior

Author: Thomas H. Keith

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2010-07-06

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 9780312628031

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With the depth and honesty of "Steel My Soldiers' Hearts, SEAL Warrior" sheds light on the operations of the SEAL teams in Vietnam, and how the SEALs laid the foundation for modern guerilla warfare in use today.


The Real Team

The Real Team

Author: Richard Marcinko

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2000-11

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 0671024655

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The retired naval commander chronicles the real-life exploits of the Navy SEALs who inspired the characters in his best-selling Rogue Warrior series, profiling the members of his team, their training, their combat missions, and the characteristics that made them successful warriors.


I Am a SEAL Team Six Warrior

I Am a SEAL Team Six Warrior

Author: Howard E. Wasdin

Publisher: Macmillan + ORM

Published: 2012-04-24

Total Pages: 205

ISBN-13: 1250017491

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When the Navy sends their elite, they send the SEALs. When the SEALs send their elite, they send SEAL Team Six—a secret unit made up of the finest soldiers in the country, if not the world. This is the dramatic tale of how Howard Wasdin overcame a tough childhood to live his dream and enter the exciting and dangerous world of Navy SEALS and Special Forces snipers. His training began with his selection for Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S)—the toughest and longest military training in the world. After graduating, Wasdin saw combat in Operation Desert Storm as a member of SEAL Team Two. But he was driven to be the best of the best—he wanted to join the legendary SEAL Team Six, and at long last he reached his goal and became one of the best snipers on the planet. Soon he was fighting for his life in Africa, hunting the Somalian warlord Aidid. But the mission fell apart when his small band of soldiers found themselves cut off from help and desperately trying to rescue downed comrades during a routine mission. The Battle of Mogadishu, as it become known, left 18 American soldiers dead and 73 wounded. This is Howard Wasdin's story of overcoming numerous obstacles to become an elite American warrior.


The Warrior and the Wolf

The Warrior and the Wolf

Author: Rich Hungerford

Publisher: Balboa Press

Published: 2021-05-28

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 1982290560

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There is an arduous path that warriors walk, no matter where they live in the world. True warriors seek to learn what serves them and what does not, what is selfish and what is selfless, and how to decide in favor of light over dark. Like everyone else, the warrior owns the consequences, good or bad. In a how-to manual, modern-day warrior Rich Hungerford offers guidance and support to a new era of warriors desiring to positively impact the world while navigating the challenges of life. Intertwined with his often deeply-personal insights gathered from his own life journey is philosophical guidance on how to successfully walk the warriors’ path. Within the three stages of the journey, Hungerford candidly describes both the difficulties and rewards that accompany a warrior’s commitment to personal growth, provides an awareness of the importance of developing the mind, body, and spirit along the way, and encourages the acceptance of and surrender to a personal destiny with grace. The Warrior and the Wolf shares wisdom, insights, and advice for warriors seeking guidance on how to walk a spiritual path to develop the higher self, live true, and truly live.


Rogue Warrior

Rogue Warrior

Author: Richard Marcinko

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2009-11-24

Total Pages: 436

ISBN-13: 1439187835

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A brilliant virtuoso of violence, Richard Marcinko rose through Navy ranks to create and command one of this country's most elite and classified counterterrorist units, SEAL TEAM SIX. Now this thirty-year veteran recounts the secret missions and Special Warfare madness of his worldwide military career—and the riveting truth about the top-secret Navy SEALs. Marcinko was almost inhumanly tough, and proved it on hair-raising missions across Vietnam and a war-torn world: blowing up supply junks, charging through minefields, jumping at 19,000 feet with a chute that wouldn't open, fighting hand-to-hand in a hellhole jungle. For the Pentagon, he organized the Navy's first counterterrorist unit: the legendary SEAL TEAM SIX, which went on classified missions from Central America to the Middle East, the North Sea, Africa and beyond. Then Marcinko was tapped to create Red Cell, a dirty-dozen team of the military's most accomplished and decorated counterterrorists. Their unbelievable job was to test the defenses of the Navy's most secure facilities and installations. The result was predictable: all hell broke loose. Here is the hero who saw beyond the blood to ultimate justice—and the decorated warrior who became such a maverick that the Navy brass wanted his head on a pole, and for a time, got it. Richard Marcinko—ROGUE WARRIOR.


Masters of Chaos

Masters of Chaos

Author: Linda Robinson

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Published: 2009-03-05

Total Pages: 418

ISBN-13: 0786738154

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Special Forces soldiers are daring, seasoned troops from America's heartland, selected in a tough competition and trained in an extraordinary range of skills. They know foreign languages and cultures and unconventional warfare better than any U.S. fighters, and while they prefer to stay out of the limelight, veteran war correspondent Linda Robinson gained access to their closed world. She traveled with them on the frontlines, interviewed them at length on their home bases, and studied their doctrine, methods and history. In Masters of Chaos she tells their story through a select group of senior sergeants and field-grade officers, a band of unforgettable characters like Rawhide, Killer, Michael T, and Alan -- led by the unflappable Lt. Col. Chris Conner and Col. Charlie Cleveland, a brilliant but self-effacing West Pointer who led the largest unconventional war campaign since Vietnam in northern Iraq. Robinson follows the Special Forces from their first post-Vietnam combat in Panama, El Salvador, Desert Storm, Somalia, and the Balkans to their recent trials and triumphs in Afghanistan and Iraq. She witnessed their secret sleuthing and unsung successes in southern Iraq, and recounts here for the first time the dramatic firefights of the western desert. Her blow-by-blow story of the attack on Ansar al-Islam's international terrorist training camp has never been told before. The most comprehensive account ever of the modern-day Special Forces in action, Masters of Chaos is filled with riveting, intimate detail in the words of a close-knit band of soldiers who have done it all.


The US Special Forces

The US Special Forces

Author: John Prados

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2015-05-05

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 0199354308

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The assassination of Osama bin Laden by SEAL Team 6 in May 2011 will certainly figure among the greatest achievements of US Special Forces. After nearly ten years of searching, they descended into his Pakistan compound in the middle of the night, killed him, and secreted the body back into Afghanistan. Interest in these forces had always been high, but it spiked to new levels following this success. There was a larger lesson here too. For serious jobs, the president invariably turns to the US Special Forces: the SEALs, Delta Force, the Green Berets, and the USAF's Special Tactics squad. Given that secretive grab-and-snatch operations in remote locales characterize contemporary warfare as much as traditional firefights, the Special Forces now fill a central role in American military strategy and tactics. Not surprisingly, the daring and secretive nature of these commando operations has generated a great deal of interest. The American public has an overwhelmingly favorable view of the forces, and nations around the world recognize them as the most capable fighting units: the tip of the American spear, so to speak. But how much do we know about them? What are their origins? What function do they fill in the larger military structure? Who can become a member? What do trainees have to go through? What sort of missions do Special Forces perform, and what are they expected to accomplish? Despite their importance, much of what they do remains a mystery because their operations are clandestine and the sources elusive. In The US Special Forces: What Everyone Needs to Know, eminent scholar John Prados brings his deep expertise to the subject and provides a pithy primer on the various components of America's special forces. The US military has long employed Special Forces in some form or another, but it was in the Cold War when they assumed their present form, and in Vietnam where they achieved critical mass. Interestingly, the Special Forces suffered a rapid decline in numbers after that conflict despite the fact that the United States had already identified terrorism as a growing security threat. The revival of Special Forces began under the Reagan administration. After 9/11 they experienced explosive growth, and are now integral to all US military missions. Prados traces how this happened and examines the various roles the Special Forces now play. They have taken over many functions of the regular military, a trend that Prados does not expect will end any time soon. This will be a definitive primer on the elite units in the most powerful military the world has ever known.


Strategic Influence

Strategic Influence

Author: J. Michael Waller

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2009-03

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 0979223644

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In this vital book, thirteen experts in public diplomacy, counterpropaganda and political warfare lay out the components of what the U.S. and its allies need to win the war of ideas around the world. Strategic influence is much more than strategic communication. Communicating with others has somehow become a goal in itself, when the real issue is influence - to modify the perceptions, attitudes, and most of all, the behavior of people, movements and governments around the world. This book is designed for the diplomat, intelligence officer, warfighter and policymaker.