Robert A. Gormly

This is a nice little book describing Navy SEAL operations from the point of view of an operator, and then as a Commanding Officer of Team Six. Gormly wrote this in 1998 and he correctly foresaw the main threats to US national security as being drugs, Islamic fundamentalists, and terrorism. The author covers his time in Vietnam, Grenada, and the standoff with The Achille Lauro terrorists. There is a whole chapter refuting Marcinko’s version of things from his own book Rogue Warrior. Gormly tries to put his experiences into an evaluation mode so that improvements can, hopefully, be made for the greater success of future missions. He summarizes the Vietnam conflict (correctly) as well as the obvious Special Operations limitations that existed before the formation of SOCOM as illustrated in the Iranian hostage rescue mission. Although the writing style is unremarkable, this partial history of the SEALs’ is filled with information about how things were done at the time. Combat Swimmer is an important addition to the growing volume of memoir literature covering US Special Operations. Glossary, bibliography, photos, index.… (más)

Interesting read from a strategy-in-review standpoint. Gormly agrees with many Americans that Vietnam and many actions since then have been lost by the generals and the politicians and not by those in the trenches. He blames failure on the ground on inadequate training, equipment, and poor planning.

He describes very few actual conflict or battle scenes and those he chose are mostly less than successful missions. Each description ends with the promise that much was learned so that missions in the future were more successful. Either Gormly felt he had to apologize for his failures or he believed the action occuring during these events was more interesting than the calmer successes that followed.

Recommended to those old enough to be interested in Vietnam from an insiders perspective or anyone considering careers that may put them in the line of fire but not to the average reader for enjoyment. Due to the emphasis on the planning and on his career path, this is not an action or combat adventure book.… (más)