Gary R. Smith

Former Navy SEAL Gary R. Smith provides his first-hand account of 30 combat missions during an eventual five tours to the Republic of Vietnam. After a few chapters on his background and his training, he starts out with detailed narratives of select missions from that first tour. A lot of it was going out into the swamps of the notorious Rung Sat Special Zone south of Saigon and setting up ambushes, silently waiting, sitting or standing in rising tidal water, alert for a possible VC canoe or sampan coming into range during the day or, more likely, in the middle of the night. He offsets these accounts with comments on parties and pranks back at base, but it always comes back to putting it on the line in the Rung Sat. Very descriptive and useful in getting a clear idea of how the small SEAL teams operated in Vietnam. Glossary of military and gruntspeak in the back of the book, a black and white photo insert. Highly recommended for its gritty focus.… (meer)