Ambush

Seals #1

by Steve MacKenzie

In the deadly world of modern warfare, the art of combat is taken to its awesome limits. Only one fighting unit has the skill and ruthlessness to handle all this killing power, making every corner of the globe its field of fire; using with chilling efficiency every method of infiltration, demolition, deception and destruction this side of Hell. They're Navy. Those who know about them speak in awed whispers of the men they call the SEALS.

Hobo Woods, Vietnam. Under a devastating attack from a vicious and seemingly countless enemy, Fire-Support Base Crockett is doomed in spite of the heroism of the GIs. Bravery is not enough. Neither is air power. There's only one way to stop the bloodiest assault since Heartbreak Ridge, and that's something nobody's ever had the imagination, the guts or the damned fool craziness to try before...

181 pages, Mass Market Paperback

Published July 1, 1987

About the author

Pseudonym of Kevin D. Randle

Reviews

[Benjamin Thomas]

Kevin D. Randle has more than 80 books to his credit, mostly in the field of UFOs where today, he is considered a prominent expert. But in the 1980’s he wrote a series of 14 novels about US Navy SEALS in Vietnam under the pseudonym, Steve MacKenzie. In Vietnam, Randle piloted UH-1 helicopters based at Cu Chi, and Tay Ninh. His knowledge and experience in Vietnam and later in Iraq is evident in this series.

This first novel in the series opens with US Navy Lieutenant Mark Tynan having trained up a new group of SEALs in preparation for action during the Vietnam conflict. But he knows there is no substitute for real combat in a wartime situation so he prepares a sort of “final exam”, infiltrating enemy lines and ambushing a small group of VC. While their mission is a success, they uncover what appears to be a large surprise operation in Hobo Woods to take out Fire-Support Base Crockett. Tynan’s attempts to warn his superiors fall on deaf ears; seems the intel folks don’t like to pass on unsubstantiated rumors. So Tynan takes his squad of rookies along with a couple of experienced SEALS and attempt to scuttle the surprise VC action before it can get started.

I really enjoyed this novel, far more than I expected to. LT Tynan demonstrates excellent leadership skills time and again and his SEALS are extremely competent warriors, although they aren’t perfect. In typical SEAL fashion, they implement creative solutions rather than brute force firepower. But when it’s called for, the military action is intense. Not all of the characters make it through the culminating battle but I’m looking forward to book two to see what’s next for the survivors.

[Mikepottz]

The buzz of insects, the hum of the birds, tracking a VC through the dense jungle each step feeling for pressure plates, any tugs might be a tripwire. The Seals in Vietnam, the snakes deadly, the venom able to kill within taking 2 steps. The Seal team take out a VC camp, M16 sprayed bullets, arms, legs, heads ripped off bodies, grenades exploding flesh. Saigon with its beautiful buildings and luxurious limousines with the dirty streets, rivers of mud, thousands of tired and poor people selling everything. A cosmos of rich and desperate. Tynan the Seal team officer didn't like the Intel he was given and decided to send in his team. One of his man took a bullet, dead, Tynan didn't feel a thing. He still had man to protect. A VC stripped apart by artillery but miraculously his lung separated intact was kicked across the rice field by a Seal. Tynan and his team will cut throats, explode more grenades and drop bodies dead before they hit the ground.