The United States Navy SEAL Teams were only founded as recently as 1962, on the orders of President John F. Kennedy, but they already have a reputation as one of the best special forces units in the world. The US Navy SEALs tells the story behind these Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) specialists. The book begins with the SEALs' origins in World War II, when the Navy's Underwater Demolition Teams (UDTs) prepared beaches in Normandy and the Pacific for US amphibious landings. The UDTs also served in the Korean War. A new conflict in Vietnam demanded a new type of unit, and the SEALs were born out of the UDTs as a maritime special operations unit capable of a multitude of missions. The SEALs served with distinction in South East Asia, targeting the Vietcong infrastructure and earning a fearsome reputation. Since the American withdrawal from Vietnam, the SEALs have seen action in Grenada, Panama, the Persian Gulf, Kuwait, Somalia, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq. They carried out the notorious mission that led to the demise of Osama bin Laden. The book describes the full combat record of the SEAL Teams, and details their organization, equipment, uniforms and insignia.
Illustrated with black-and-white and colour photographs and artworks, and with an authoritative text, The US Navy SEALs is a definitive history of one of America’s elite fighting units.
About the Author
David Jordan is a Senior Lecturer in Defense Studies, King's College, London. He is the author of Wolfpack, Aircraft Carriers, The Fall of Hitler's Reich and Atlas of World War II. Dick Couch is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and has served with the Navy UDT and SEAL Teams. While a platoon commander with SEAL Team One in 1970, he led one of the only successful P.O.W. rescue operations of the Vietnam War.
- ISBN10 1908273194
- ISBN13 9781908273192
- Publish Date 15 November 2011 (first published 30 September 2003)
- Publish Status Transferred
- Out of Print 13 October 2016
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Amber Books Ltd
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 256
- Language English