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Summary: An intimate look at the training of a warrior
Review: Dick Couch, a former SEAL, takes an in depth look at the BUD/S, the training school that future SEALs must go through. I am an avid Navy SEAL fan and have read as much as I can on the subject. This is THE book I would recomend if somebody asked me which ONE book they should read on SEALs. After having learned about what a SEAL must go through to earn his Trident Pin (the official point at which you are a SEAL) I only have more respect for those men.As a former SEAL, Couch gets an unprecident look at this school. He is the only author I know of who has been allowed to truly document the training from Indoc (the first training session) all they way through their first deployment. You get a close look at the four phases of training and not only do you see WHAT they do, but Couch interviews many of the trainees and reveils what they are thinking and what keeps them going (or not as the case may be) despite being cold, wet, tired, hungry and in pain. What was especially interesting was the section on Hell Week. A period when the trainees must work for five straight days with only about four hours of sleep total. Of the 60 or so trainees who made it to the begining of Hell Week, only 15 or so made it out. I consider this book a must have for anybody who is a SEAL buff. However, I also believe that it was a wider appeal as a look at the pysche of men who never, ever stop trying no matter how hard the situation.
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Summary: The Warrior Elite is a must read for all proud Americans....
Review: The true story of how the world's toughest and best fighting teams are molded - one day at a time. It is an extremely well-written, fast-paced account giving us a rare glimpse into the making of Navy SEALS. The chapter on Hell Week alone is worth the price of admission. This is one book where the journalistic and writing skills of the author places the reader smack in the middle of the action. I felt as if I was living the experience of the officer and enlisted trainees as they endured bitterly cold ocean temperatures, endless physical training, and numerous psychological uncertainties. The joy of graduation day for those who finish is impossible to fathom for an outsider, but the author managed to project the feelings and emotions to the extent that I was grinning and yelling HOOYAH in my living room! Captain Couch has written an outstanding book that every American can be proud of. Its timing is obvious--no doubt some of the fine young men described in the book are laying it on the line in Afghanistan and points elsewhere as we speak. There are plenty of lessons for life and business within the story of SEAL Class 228--stuff that can be applied by everyone who strives to be the best, persevere, and contribute as a team player. Hopefully many of our esteemed civic and political leaders, present and future, will pick up a copy. As for the graduates of SEAL Class 228 and their brethern, let's jusy say that after reading The Warrior Elite, I believe you will realize how fortunate we are to have them on our side.
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Summary: Breath taking!!
Review: This book is one of the best books I've ever read. I couldn't put it down. These guys are the real deal!! it makes me feel safe that we have specialist's that are trained that well protecting our country!!
Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT!
Review: This is absolutely the best book on BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolitions/SEAL) Training that I have ever read. Most of the SEAL training you hear about is the infamous Hell Week. This book does an excellent job of showing you that Hell Week is merely a speed bump in a SEAL's training. Retired Captain Dick Couch is a 1967 graduate of the US Naval Academy and Honorman of BUD/S Class 45. In this book, he takes the reader through all six months and three phases of BUD/S. Due to training requirements, he isn't really allowed to fraternize with the BUD/S trainees, but he does a good job of portraying some of the students of Class 228. So much so, in fact, that I found myself getting a bit choked up reading about their graduation ceremony. It felt like I was there, sitting proudly in the audience as I watched a family member or friend graduating from BUD/S. It's amazing that you learn that the average SEAL is not a hulking mass of muscle like you would be apt to think. Many are under 6 feet tall and weigh in the area of 160-170 pounds. Certainly not the stereotypical Rambo-like visage one would expect (note: Rambo was a Green Beret, not a SEAL; you will also find out through other reading that most Green Berets are not like Rambo, either). One learns that what separates these elite men from others who fail the BUD/S course is heart, will, and determination. Strength, stamina, and endurance are important, but the strongest and fastest do not always make it. It is the heart of these warriors that stands above others. Couch takes it a step further and touches upon post BUD/S training, the future of Navy SEALs and their possible role in the war on terrorism, following the 9/11 tragedies. He mentions in this book that he is currently working on a new SEAL book scheduled for release in the spring of 2004. "It follows the path of a BUD/S graduate as he earns his SEAL qualification and prepares for operational deployment with his SEAL platoon. As with 'The Warrior Elite', [he is] following a group of men through their advanced SEAL training--the training BUD/S graduates must successfully complete before they are awarded their Naval Special Warfare Insignia, the Trident...[he is] also oberserving SEAL platoons and SEAL teams preparing for operational deployment." I can't wait for this new book! I HIGHLY recommend this book to potential SEAL candidates and anyone interested in the training of this elite fighting force.
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Summary: I would have done things differently!!
Review: I am so impressed with the story told by Dick Couch about the training and selection process for Navy SEALs. He shows that guys who make it through 'Hell Week' are not just strong, tough guys who won't quit, they're lucky too. Avoiding injury through such physical stress is the real limiting factor for those who are mentally tough enough. The mental toughness though, that's the really fascinating part of the story. Every guy, in some part of his mind wonders, 'If it came down to it, do I have what it takes?' This book shows that Navy SEALs do! I wish I had this book when I was younger. I wouldn't be so cocky as to say that I could do this, but I would have loved to have tried. Great book for a young man, but entertaining for anyone. The trials that these warriors endure puts our every day complaints into perspective.
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Summary: Hooyah Mr Couch!
Review: After reading this book, you will have a good understanding of just what it takes to be a SEAL. The book is supplemented with many color photos, to give you just a taste of the real life behind those mental images you have built up. This is a MUST READ for SEAL enthusiasts and fans of hard charging, tough as nails military reality. Hooyah!
Rating: 
Summary: Save your cash
Review: This book is definitely written from an conventional Navy officer's perspective. Despite Couch's past SEAL career, he basically comes across as one of the "conventional" thinking SEAL officers that Richard Marcinko repeatedly complains about in his many best selling books. Dick Couch paints the modern SEALs as like some prima donnas and discounts their past "badboy" image and history. He even goes so far as to call the SEALS of the Vietnam era, seventies and eighties era as "streetfighters" rather than warriors. I found this disrespectful to the many enlisted SEALs and mustang SEAL officers who developed the SEAL mystique during the post Vietnam era. Couch obviously favors Naval Academy grad officers from the things he says in his book. His Naval Academy bias comes thru loud and clear. He talks little about the many fine "Mustang" SEAL officers who have made the SEAL community what it is today. Many of the more innoative SEAL officers are former enlisted SEALs, who after first becoming enlisted SEALs went onto college, then went to OCS and became SEAL Commissioned Officers. Richard Marcinko is one of these "Mustang" SEAL officers, who earned everything he had and was given nothing. Couch's opinion at the end of the book that the earlier era SEALs were "streetfighters" rather than real warriors is just plain disrespectful to the many sixties, seventies and eighties era SEALs who built NAVSPECWAR into what it is today. Those men were the pioneers...who rebelled against the conventional Navy and built the current SEAL reputation. Those "streetfighter" SEALs Couch talks about were doing SEAL things long before special ops became popular or hip or cool. In fact they were doing it when special ops was actually UNPOPULAR in the Vietnam and post Vietnam era. Thank Goodness I rented this book from my local library. Rather than shelling out the cash to buy it. I actually thought it was a good book initially, but due to the author's disrespectful opinions and slants which come thru clearly in this book, Im glad I didnt buy it with my own cash. This book to me displays a very conventional side of the Navy SEALs and its a side I doubt would be very useful in the war against terrorism. We need more "streetfighters" SEALs to fight dirty in this war against terrorism.
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Summary: Where the is Harry Pell?
Review: I was in 228, got rolled to 229 after twice failing the Survival Swim (one of the 'easy' evolutions), got injured and quit. 238 I just got injured and quit, and two years later my back is still messed up. Whopdeedo, eh? Not much to brag about, but I do know that Mr. Couch did a good job, though he missed a few things. One of those things is exactly how we did our surf-runs that first PT on the first day of trng. Too funny to print, I guess.
Good book, though. If anyone knows how to get ahold of Harry Pell, one of the best guys ever not to make the Teams, tell him parl2001 at yahoo is looking for him.
And, just in case anyone believed that earlier review, this book does not take place during "the Vietnam Era," but rather in the fall of 1999.
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Summary: how Navy SEALs are trained
Review: The training to become a US Navy SEAL is one of the toughest programs of any special operations unit in the world. From what I've read, the only other units that might come close or match the SEAL training is perhaps the Air Force's Pararescue and Combat Controllers program. This book affords us a rare opportunity into the world of the basic training stages of SEAL candidates. Basic Underwater Demolition and SEAL training (BUD/S) is approximately 6 months but as pointed out in this book, it takes at least a year of training to become a full-fledged Navy SEAL. After one finishes BUD/S, he must go for SEAL Tactical Training (STT) and function as part of a SEAL team for another six months before he is eligible to receive his coveted SEAL trident pin. BUD/S is the focus of this book however. We get to know a number of SEAL candidates fairly well from the first day of indoctrination to the final day of BUD/S and beyond. Class 228 began with 114 trainees who were selected from a much larger group of applicants. Of those 114, only 10 of them managed to go straight through all of the phases and graduate. The majority seem to volitarily drop out of the program at some point in the program (particularly during the infamous "hell week"). Anyone can volitarily quit and any time in the training by simply telling an instructor "I quit". Trainees quit for a number of reasons, but some of the more common reasons are because of the constant exposure to cold water and the inordinate lengths of time trainees must stay awake. The trainees body temperatures are allowed to drop to what most medical professionals would regard as dangerously low. Trainees passing out in the pool is not uncommon in BUD/S. Some of the trainees begin to hallucinate and become irrational and delirious from sleep deprivation. The focus on certain trainees makes this book all the more compelling. We meet a young man who wants to become a SEAL very badly but he's dropped for not being able to meet the physical demands. There is another man who is trying BUD/S for the second time; he's very strong and has no problem with most of the training evolutions but he eventually gets a pulmonary edema and hence is forced out of the program. Then there's a man who doesn't seem to have a weakness at all and breezes through everything until he's forced out of the program due to sinus problems. I'll stop and leave with a quote from this book which I found interesting: "warriorship is as much a tempering of the spirit as a physical rendering"
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Summary: Warrior Elite: The forging of Seal Class 228
Review: I've read just about every book there is to read on Special Forces/Special Forces training. Usually they fall into 2 categories: Too much rah rah by an ex-SF guy, or not enough detail. This is THE best Special Forces book written to date, hands down! And without argument it is the most descriptive and incisive book on the Navy Seals ever written. But what makes this book so good is the style of writing. No glory embellishments, no rah rah. Just the facts, which are far more seat-of-your-pants exciting than anything else out there. Captain Couch let's the men, the dangerous work they do, and initiation into the most elite warrior force in the world, tell the story. The book follows what starts off as 137 top-notch military performers, through the incredible physical and mental challenges that is Seal initiation and training, until ultimately only 13 of the original class makes it through. Additionally, the author spends time constantly attempting to uncover the mysteries of why one man makes it all the way through, and why another, who is seemingly cruising through, quits one day before the end of hell week. By the end of the story, you feel like you know every one of these guys. I've referred this book on many times. Not one person has not been awed by this incredible book. If you have any interest in Special Forces or the Seals, don't miss Warrior Elite. This is a must read! I cannot wait until his next book comes out.
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