First Seal

Rating:
Summary: Amazing account of the one & only "First Seal"
Review: "First Seal" is a aweinspiring account of Roy Boehm's military career, from his not so glorious beginnings during the Second World War through his Vietnam and Cold War experiences during the Cuban Missle crisis and beyond. This book tells the grit and determination it took to create what is perhaps the most elite of all the U.S. Special Forces - THE SEALS!! Anyone who has any interest at all in U.S. history at all, should read this book. (and when you are done with this book, you will have a newfound appreciation for what Roy Boehm and countless others have done for this country.) Even if you are not a military/history buff, you owe it to yourself to take the time and check this book out. A rating of 5 stars is an unjustice. Much like the Navy Seals which he created, this book is ELITE among the Elite.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing account of the one & only "First Seal"
Review: "First Seal" is a aweinspiring account of Roy Boehm's military career, from his not so glorious beginnings during the Second World War through his Vietnam and Cold War experiences during the Cuban Missle crisis and beyond. This book tells the grit and determination it took to create what is perhaps the most elite of all the U.S. Special Forces - THE SEALS!! Anyone who has any interest at all in U.S. history at all, should read this book. (and when you are done with this book, you will have a newfound appreciation for what Roy Boehm and countless others have done for this country.) Even if you are not a military/history buff, you owe it to yourself to take the time and check this book out. A rating of 5 stars is an unjustice. Much like the Navy Seals which he created, this book is ELITE among the Elite.

Rating:
Summary: Fabulous!!!! Feel what it's like to be a SEAL!!!
Review: A great book going from WWII UDT up to creating the SEALs and what went into them. This was a great book that I couldn't put down.

Rating:
Summary: Boehm dealt with the bureaucrats accordingly.
Review: Boehm's conception of the SEAL Team became reality despite the bureaucrats in Washington. His persistence and "patience" paid off. Boats also proved that a big heart and not age will blow mountains away. Good job, Roy!

Rating:
Summary: Better Then Fiction
Review: Do yourself the PLEASURE of reading this book! The life and times of Roy Boehm are better then any fiction. He shares victories and losses, GUT WRENCHING fear and the honest bravery of his exceptional life. By the end of his book, you'll understand the Honor of being a Team Member.

Rating:
Summary: Better Then Fiction
Review: Do yourself the PLEASURE of reading this book! The life and times of Roy Boehm are better then any fiction. He shares victories and losses, GUT WRENCHING fear and the honest bravery of his exceptional life. By the end of his book, you'll understand the Honor of being a Team Member.

Rating:
Summary: It Roars Loud and Clear Who was the First of Many...
Review: Few men ever acquire the stature of true leaders of men. David Hackworth was one and now Roy Boehm has established himself as one. They are true warriors and patriots who fought battles for their country and for the men who served them. It was their mission to not only win the war but get as many a man they could back in one piece to the home front. When you read this book you will be enlightened to the sacrifice and commitment this man makes for his country and how grateful we should be for being told his story. Mr. Boehm is a humble man who cared not for his own career or status within, but for the men whom served in his team. He is the epitomy of a Warrior and everything a leader should be. He had the fortitude to take on those who kept their all-knowing butts in the rear and didn't lift a finger or bend an ear to help the men in the trenches fight a better fight or make a war a shorter war. It was with pride that I read this book and shall treasure it all of my days. You should find it as fascinating as it really is. Roy Boehm never minced words and neither does the book. Deserves a 10

Rating:
Summary: An ego-centric narrative
Review: Historical inaccuracies abound in this book. Chief among them the statement on p. 149 that "On 7 January 1961 OPNAV made the decision...backdated to 1 Jan., Navy SEALs were commissioned." SEALs were commissioned on 1 January 1962; Team One at NAB Cornado, Team Two at Little Creek. In pp. 68-70 we read that 1)SCUBA wasn't introduced ot the U.S. military until after WW2 2) that UDTs had several designations and 3)that LT Mark Starkweather "was predecessor of America's undersea commandos..he was first." Dr. Christian J. Lambertsen's Amphibious Respiratory Unit (LARU) was introduced to U.S. military in 1940. It was utilized by the Office of Strategic Services Maritime Unit. As an OSS MU officer, Lambertsen taught its use to Operational Swimmer Groups as part of his underwater missions program of demolition, sabotage and ship attack in conjunction with Motor Submersible Canoe employment. When 5th Amphibious Force CO, Read Adm. Richmond K. Turner gained authorization for Underwater Demolition Teams in Dec. 1943, they were called UDTs "to differentiate them from Naval Combat Demolition Units (NCDUs)." NCDUs,established in June 1943, were already operating in the S.W. Pacific. UDTs were never known by any other name. LT Mark Starkweather was in charge of volunteer salvage divers, hastily trained at Amphibious Scout & Raider School (Joint), tasked with removing a boom blocking entrance to the Wadi Sebou River so the USS Dallas and her 260th Infantry radiers could proceed upriver and complete the assigned mission in Operation Torch's 7-8 Nov. 1942 North Africa landings. They were the Navy component of a Special River Party commanded by an Army engineer officer; the other part comprised of Army combat engineers. They were brave men who, on the second try, completed their mission under fire, earning Navy Crosses. No underwater work was required. The Scout & Raider boat crews who guided assault troops ashore under fire were also brave men. They too earned Navy Crosses, having trained since their Aug. 1942 formation. They were the first Navy special warfare unit. Though a brave leader, LT Starkweather was not an"undersea commando predecessor." On p. 71 the author states that UDTs were sent to the Mediterranean...(participating) in the southern France landings; that "one went to England..." No UDTs served in the Med. theater, nor in England. NCDUs did participate in the Normandy landings and Operation Anvil-Dragoon at S. France. Page 90 contains two distortions; that Draper Kauffman's foresight may have created UDTs; that it was (LtCdr. Francis D.) Fane's insight that prevented their extinction (after WW2)." RADM Richmond K. Turner "created" the UDTs. The Teams were not in danger of extinction after WW2. Six UDTs, though undermanned, were retained, with 4 officer/50 man Teams 1 & 2 assigned to the west coast; 2 & 4, eas coast. Fane, with Lambertsen and Atlantic Fleet submariners expanded UDT ops to the underwater realm. Jumping ahead to p. 299, we read, "it's now 1966 and the Marines have just been introduced in-country." U.S. Marines had advisors in Vietnam since late 1950 and more of them as of 1962. That same year their "Shufly" helicopter unit began operating out of Soc Trang. In 1964 Marines began working with SEALs and others at NAD DaNang. This book also suffers from gratuitous profanity and personal attacks. Its major flaw is its ego-centric narrative, barrages of "i" and "me" that violate the core ethos of US Navy SEALs, the "we" of the Team.

Rating:
Summary: Boehm is one of the few ultimate warriors the world has!!!!
Review: I agree with the views of Boehm and the difficulties he faced creating and arming his new team of ultimate fighters shows the way things are in this world.We are in a process of softening day by day and thew powers that be do not find the need for a special highly trained unit which would (according to them)do more harm than good.As far as facts show these elite group of men actually destroy less and are more accurate than all these fighter bombers killing hundreds in a misguided raid.These men achieve a hundred times more in their missions than the air farce or the triggerhappy ground soldiers ever do. All in all they are a credit to the United States who are in threat from terrorists of various stripe (fundamentalists or extreme militias).I would say he deserves a Medal of Honor for what he had achieved .....Such men get lesser and lesser by the day unfortyunately...

Rating:
Summary: Spectacular book
Review: I first checked out this book at Borders years ago, but didn't come around to reading it until my father was given a copy by some SEALs in the Phil. Navy, after he served with them in Mindanao.

Well, First Seal by Roy Boehm and Charles Sasser is an interesting book. SEAL history won't be complete without the story of the man that started it all: Roy Boehm, the so-called Godfather of all SEALs. His narrative perfectly captures the high tension of World War II and the impending dangers the Cold War brought. From large-scale conflicts the US military was geared for, to the low-intensity conflicts and unconventional warfare it wasn't quite familiar with, Boehm had amazing insights about the nature of unconventional warfare. As early as the late 1950's, he already figured out that Vietnam would be America's next battlefield. He also delved deeply on the Bay of Pigs invasion (further detailed on in Grayston Lynch's Decision for Disaster).

Boehm has an eye for some personal details about his early years in the Navy, and vividly retells the stories about his wartime service. The chapter where he lost his close friend to a shark made for some horrifyingly painful reading.

It was a surprise for me that Survivor and Combat Missions' Rudy Boesch (yes, that's him) was also mentioned in the book because he was one of the first members of SEAL Two.

Just like Richard Marcinko's commentaries about the Navy establishment and politics in his Rogue Warrior book series, Boehm also drives home his all-so-true writings on the same subjects, given the numerous courts-martial he faced and the red tape he had to cut through, simply because he pulled out all the stops to make sure that the SEALs he would form will be just as good as the Army's Special Forces.

It's a very sad fact that true-blooded Warriors like Roy Boehm are getting fewer and fewer everyday. Boehm is indeed a man who would rather get down and dirty in the mud battling the enemy than lead from behind a desk, because leadership in battle is about being out in front of your men, and defined in just two words Boehm takes to heart: FOLLOW ME!

I just found this book this afternoon after disappearing somewhere inside the house for three years, and I couldn't wait to read it again. It's a really cool book. Read it, you won't be disappointed.