Rating: 
Summary: Things You Have To UNDERSTAND About Marcinko
Review: Alright listen. All you people who are saying things about Marcinko just being a helpless drunk who kills people in his free time need to take another view real fast. Marcinko is not an idiot. He many times uses guises to trick his enemy to believe what he wants them to believe. He has class as well. Richard Marcinko cares for our country more than about 90% of the population, and has put his life on the line for it more times than almost everyone in this country. His autobiography and novels reveal that even though he is a vulgar, violent, and fornicating behemoth of a man he would gladly die for his country and his men. If he were more like the people that wrote bad reviews for him and people who look down on him we would have lost many more soldiers in Vietnam because he would be skulking around in Canada. And the statements about Marcinko's rank aren't right either. Marcinko did not WANT to be a paper-pushing man, he wanted to be in command of his men. That's all. He wanted combat, he wanted to help his country as much as he could. As for his books, they are among the best I have ever read, and I have read many many books. They are a real eye opener, and will tell you many things about the country you live in. Anyone interested in foreign policy, the military, or just the way the world works needs to read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: The positives Outweigh Negatives in this Man
Review: As a person who have read everyone one of his books I am an avid fan of Mr Marcinko. I find Marcinko to be a leader of men among men among men- and the best of the best are willing to follow him when the going gets tough and there is no way out but in .I should say I am not a drinker and do not rate drinking and being out of control as anywhere near acceptable. I do say that Mr Marcinko has negative traits as everyone else.We cant expect someone to be Jesus Christ.So I should tell the people who write such reviews saying he has an oversized ego or that he overstates things or thinks big of himself ---by thinking of what they themselves did for America or for the world for that matter.Did they face extreme dangers to fulfil missions or ever be in situations he has been. The megalomaniac ego he probably has-- is the self confidence needed to fulfil the mission-impossibleS he did during the 1970s-1980s.Whereas DELTA failed (due mainly to the fallibles of the bureaucracy)during Tehran,SEAL SIX was created to succeed or ship out.There was NO room for failures.
Many of the things about fraud that might have occured later in the 1980s which put him behind bars could be true.I would say the people on top should reward men who accomplish impossible missions (by giving them some incentives) rather than treating them like beggars as had been in 1980-1985-1990s to SIX.A Navy Vendetta cannot be ruled out.Made up accussations can also be a probability .Politicians who make money by fraud get away on a daily bases.Especially the one about Commodore Ted Lyon III makes be laugh about the shoelace episode.We deal with such birdbrains everyday.Also Mr Marcinko is humble enough to admit his own mistakes and fallibles.Not a lot of people or politicians or anybody we know do that these days.He tends always to say things with humor and a touch of irony.My only regret is that his drinking and brashness rubbed himself and others the wrong way.Admiral Marcinko would have sounded neat---we really need more men like him --without the drink of course. From a reluctant but ardent Marcinko disciple
Rating:
Summary: This man should run for president!
Review: Having read this book many times now i feel compeled to add a few words of my own. This book should be read by every military officer in the army, if only more people would listen to the views of men like Marcinko then the world would be a far safer place. Yes Marcinko spends a lot of time talking about himself, but once you have read this book you will understand why.This man is a true HERO and today there are far too many people who like to think that they are the real article, well if you want to read a book about a real hero by a real hero then buy this book and turn off the phone, you will not wish to be disturbed. I can only hope that one day i will get a chance to meet this great man and speak to him about his theories of life which he explains so easily in his books. If you haven't read this book, strong message follows, BUY IT NOW!
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting at least
Review: I doubt Marcinko's version of what he experienced. But his version is, afterall, best for his book (complete with his pretty mug on the cover). Sorry, sailor, but you're a braggart. No wonder you didn't survive the military.
Reader's beware. Marcinko is a typical short-sighted navy drone who can't think farther than he can throw a grenade.
Talented? Yes. Devoted? Certainly. Smart? Um, no.
Even Captain Kirk made it to Admiral before the Enterprise went down.
Rating:
Summary: Very Interresting, Indeed...
Review: I have never served my country in combat. I have never walked he streets of a war torn city. I have never had to face some of the political games that seem like are part of the lives of high ranking military/governmental types. But, through this book, I got a look into one mans ups & downs in the world of the military. Being a Police officer myself, I could relate with some of the conflicts between the people who go out and get things done versus the political machine. I thought that Marchinko was a tragic character who did what he thought was right, even though he knew he would pay for his actions at some point. It takes guts to stand up for what you believe in and not to "Run of the glory"(Sell yourself & your beliefs out). Marchinkos account of himself and of war was very interresting, indeed. This Book takes you from Marchinko as a poor little boy with a wild side to Vietnam as a Seal to some of the behind the sceens goings-ons with the Iran hostage situation to the creation of Seal team six.
Rating:
Summary: One Of My All Time Favorites
Review: I have read this book at least three times, and will read it many more. I can't get enough of it, every time I read it I wish it wouldn't end. It's a very interesting insight not only into Marcinko's life, but the good, bad, and the ugly in the Navy as well.
Rating:
Summary: Blunt talk from a guy who was SOF before it was hip
Review: I read this book not long after Marckinko's interview with 60 Minutes. At the time, I was very impressed with Marcinko's testosterone filled prose. However, as time went by I began to see Marcinko more as sort of a loud mouth alcoholic than as a guy to be taken seriously. Marcinko definitely went "rogue" after his SEAL Team Six command was up and he created Red cell.Personally, I believe Marcinko would have gone much further in the Navy chain of command had he stopped drinking. Had the guy had the sense to cut the boozing out, he probably would have made Admiral. I seriously doubt he would have ended up in prison had he cut out the booze. Its obvious the guy lives for booze and is a hardcore alcoholic. Because of his boozing, I dont see Marcinko as someone to look up to, like say I would look up to Colonel Charlie Beckwith or Dick Meadows. As for the book itself, its basically a more flamboyant, testosterone filled version of Charlie Beckwith's "Delta Force." Marckinko describes basically the same exact problems in establishing SEAL Team Six that Beckwith encountered in establishing Delta Force. Principle among these problems were intense disagreements over the SEAL Team Six chain of command. Marcinko describes how he was oftentimes more at war with the conventional Navy bureaucracy and the established SEAL community of the early eighties era than with international terrorists. Marckinko describes how conventional SEAL officers of the early eighties era fought vigorously to keep SEAL Team Six in the east coast SEAL chain of command. Basically keeping it regular Navy and having total Navy control. Whereas Marcinko wanted Team Six in the brand new, "high speed" JSOC chain of command that Delta Force was part of. Marcinko wanted Team Six as part of the JSOC, whereas the east coast SEAL Headquarters and conventional Navy resisted this severely. It was only thru repeated bypassing of the normal chain of command that Marcinko got his way. And he obviously made a ton of enemies within the regular Navy and even the conventional SEAL community doing this. Marcinko was an independent officer who did his own thing, rather than bowing down to the conventional Navy and the conventional SEAL officers of the late seventies and early eighties. Again, many of his problems are exactly what Charlie Beckwith describes in his own book "Delta Force," written in the early eighties. In addition, some of the things Marcinko mentions in his book are pure bull. Such as his claim that his men had to be able to bench press 500 lbs to climb special ladders to clandestinely board ships underway. Being able to bench press 500 lbs has little to nothing to do with being able to climb ladders or ropes. In fact, the muscle groups used in these activities are totally different. Again, much of this book is testosterone filled bull, from someone who is obviously a megalomaniac. Despite this, its still a good read and Id recommend it to anyone interested in SEALs or SOF. One thing I admired about Marcinko was his total lack of respect for bureaucracy and conventional thinking. Its my personal opinion that had he stopped drinking in the late seventies or early eighties, Marcinko probably would have made Admiral and might have ended up commanding the SEAL community when USSOCOM was formed. Or he might have been able to have become the second or third in command officer at JSOC. Instead, he ended up going to federal prison. After reading this book and Marcinko's other books the basic message Ive gotten is threefold and simple. First, you cant have a real SOF unit without a clean, direct, bureaucracy free SAS type chain of command. Secondly, in the real world the SEALs take a backseat to Delta. And thirdly, booze destroys good men.
Rating: 
Summary: Of Men and Egos...
Review: Interesting book about a former Navy seal. The author talks about what it was like to be a seal, talks a little bit about his Vietnam experience, including a section in which he describes how he killed somebody. The rest of the book is about some counterterrorist unit that he created and commanded, whose purpose was to wreak havoc on the military to determine its readiness. Mr. Marcinko obviously has an enormous ego and he loves relaying how his counterterrorism unit outsmarted the military. The author wrote numerous sequels to this book that were "fictionalized" accounts of his experience as a counterterrorism expert. A good read, but obviously not great, because I've never had the desire to read one of his sequels.
I will now conclude with my signature hiaku:
Richard Marcinko
Big Beard, Big Arms, Bigger Ego
Can Seals Really Write?
Rating:
Summary: This Navy vet think's he's at least 50% full of it
Review: Ok, I believe the author was in the Navy. I believe he went to UDT school, he MAY have been a SEAL. What I don't believe is that anybody this uncouth and uneducated was EVER an officer. I wasn't a SEAL, but I did have some contact with them, and it just doesn't ring true to me. When Marcinko goes on about dealings with purchasing equipment, I KNOW he's full of it. He claims the higher ups told him to buy an American car for undercover ops in Europe and he disobeyed, claiming the US nameplate was a dead giveaway so he bought a Mercedes instead. Yes a US car may have been a bad idea, and yes brass may have ordered one without thinking. I do know however that the procurement system does NOT intail giving a Comander a check for several thousand dollars and telling him "go buy a car". I don't think the navy has ever acknowledged this yahoot and it wouldn't surprise me to find out he was a E3 Yeoman that got thrown out for drunken brawling. Apparently he never expected anyone that was station at roosevelt Roads naval station to read this book. In the opening scene he describes an action where his team was sent to recover a stolen nuke, they were not told it was an exercise, didn't check their loads to dicover blanks, and were apparently dumb enough to believe terrorists would hide their pilfered nuke on the Naval gunnery range on the island of Vieques. Which for 2 years I could see from my bedroom window. 3/4 of this island was owned by the military! What kind of moron would hide something you stole in the house of the person you stole it from? OK Jon Benet Ramsey's parents, but other than that?
Rating:
Summary: Rogue Welfare Warrior?
Review: Richard Marcinko details his interesting career as a SEAL, which is mostly unknown to the civilian and military populace, explaining the tactics, missions, personalities, and the realities of the consequences of training and actual battle. He then progresses through the bureaucratic organization of the Navy, as he learned the social rituals dictated by didactic protocol. He performed the ritualistic and superficial "ticket-punching" that career officers must do in order to make themselves look more appealing on paper, thus receiving promotions. He also notes the politics, "bureaucratize" jargon, power-tripping, dysfunction, and "pinky in the air" cocktail parties involving the upper echelon officer culture. Some personal anecdotes were very interesting and fun to read. In one example, he drank the poison sacks of a Cobra in Cambodia at a Khmer dinner in Cambodia. The Khmers were testing him. As this true story unfolds, we are confronted with a major commonality in society: in large bureaucracies people who don't "fit in," or "play by the rules," or conform to norms and protocols often are weeded out, made scapegoats, and/or have their career destroyed by an oligarchy of self-centered bureaucrats. Such is the Navy. Perhaps more bureaucratic and ritualistic, but not very much unlike any other public sector organization or private corporation as a whole. Marcinko noted the fraud and hypocrisy of many officers who actually applied for and received medals that they didn't deserve nor qualify for in battle, in an effort to help their bureaucratic career. An interesting phenomenon that the reader may come to realize is how much taxpayer money went into the training, travel expenses, and exercises carried out by Seal Team Six. These training missions involved courage, were daring, and at times fatalities did occur during training. Was all this worldwide travel training ever put into use? Perhaps. Of course, a lot of what they due is classified. In the end some members of Seal Team Six were court-martialed and convicted for filling out false expense reports and pocketing the money. Marcinko himself went to federal prison for related activities. He did not go into details over this, which the reader will notice. It also leads to suspicion that the allegations were true or partially true. Since the Navy is good at railroading its own, we'll really never know. What I respected and liked about Marcinko was that he was willing to do anything that he asked his men to do. He began as an enlisted man and often challenged the officers and upper echelons of the organization by telling to to "stick it" in more ways that one when he felt it was necessary to say and do so. The book ends in a surprising way. Without many of the details told, it leave the circumstances enigmatic, and also sets the reader up for the following book by Marcinko. Fair enough. Read this, then check out his next.
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