Down Range
Review by Gary Hunt
Down Range
by Dick Couch
Random House $25.00
|
Dick Couch graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1967, went through Special Forces training and was deployed to Vietnam where he commanded one of the first SEAL platoons in the field. He later served as a CIA case officer and is now a writer of both fiction and non-fiction as well as being your neighbor here in the Wood River Valley.
Down Range, his most recent book, is an insider’s view into the Special Forces’ role in the war on terrorism as it is being played out in Afghanistan and Iraq and contains amazing first hand accounts of actual missions against the bad guys. Most of us picture the SEALs in flippers and wetsuits rather than in the caves of Afghanistan or the streets of Baghdad, but its clear that they will drop out of a Blackhawk helicopter wherever they have to in order to get their man, who, in this book, is an al-Qaeda terrorist or some equally evil insurgent.
The Navy SEALs are by nature a close-mouthed band of warriors but as one of the initiated Dick Couch is able to provide us with a revealing glimpse into their world. In two previous books, “The Warrior Elite”, and “The Finishing School”, he goes into detail about the training and preparation of the SEALs, and in “Down Range” we follow them into the battle zone where they strike with their characteristic surprise and violence of action. There is a chapter on a direct action that took place soon after 9/11 that is particularly chilling. A SEAL platoon was sent to secure an area close to the Pakistani border where a network of caves had been constructed in the hillsides. What they discovered was a sophisticated terrorist training camp stockpiled with millions of pounds of weapons and explosives, no doubt earmarked for western targets. It took a week of precisely targeted missiles to blow up the entire cache to keep it out of the hands of the evildoers, and it becomes clear that our national security is somewhat dependent upon the ability of the Special Forces to accomplish these kinds of missions.
The SEALs continue to be deployed in Afghanistan and in the war in Iraq, where their overall greater experience and training make them a critical component of the war effort. The book ends on a cautionary note, as Dick Couch warns us that we are beginning to lose this warrior elite to the private sector, and because it takes so long to identify and train a new recruit we should give them greater incentives to stay in the force and continue to fight at the vanguard. Apparently the payscale in the military doesn’t quite match that of the corporate world, and you can bet that these guys are in demand as international security specialists when their term of duty is up.
Return to Reviews Page
|
