Book #3 - No Easy Day

 

On Thursday, I finished book #3 of the year, No Easy Day by Mark Owen. It's written by a Navy SEAL that was on the team that killed Osama Bin Laden. It was a really good book that walked through his training of becoming of SEAL and some of his missions. Here's the description from Amazon:

For the first time anywhere, the first-person account of the planning and execution of the Bin Laden raid from a Navy Seal who confronted the terrorist mastermind and witnessed his final moments.

From the streets of Iraq to the rescue of Captain Richard Phillips in the Indian Ocean, and from the mountaintops of Afghanistan to the third floor of Osama Bin Laden’s compound, operator Mark Owen of the U.S. Naval Special Warfare Development Group--commonly known as SEAL Team Six-- has been a part of some of the most memorable special operations in history, as well as countless missions that never made headlines.

No Easy Day puts readers alongside Owen and the other handpicked members of the twenty-four-man team as they train for the biggest mission of their lives. The blow-by-blow narrative of the assault, beginning with the helicopter crash that could have ended Owen’s life straight through to the radio call confirming Bin Laden’s death, is an essential piece of modern history.

In No Easy Day, Owen also takes readers onto the field of battle in America’s ongoing War on Terror and details the selection and training process for one of the most elite units in the military. Owen’s story draws on his youth in Alaska and describes the SEALs’ quest to challenge themselves at the highest levels of physical and mental endurance. With boots-on-the-ground detail, Owen describes numerous previously unreported missions that illustrate the life and work of a SEAL and the evolution of the team after the events of September 11. In telling the true story of the SEALs whose talents, skills, experiences, and exceptional sacrifices led to one of the greatest victories in the War on Terror, Mark Owen honors the men who risk everything for our country, and he leaves readers with a deep understanding of the warriors who keep America safe.

This was incredibly interesting book, especially after seeing the movie, Zero Dark Thirty. (If you haven't seen it, you need to see it.) The book tells the Navy SEAL team side of the story and his journey leading to the mission to capture/kill Bin Laden and the movie tells the CIA side of the story of tracking and finding Bin Laden leading up to the mission. After seeing the movie and reading the book, it was very interesting to see how they lined up and fit together. I definitely recommend both reading the book and seeing the movie. They give you a renewed pride in and thankfulness for our military and the other people that serve our country to keep us at home safe.