Hunters & Shooters: An Oral History of the U.S. Navy SEALs in Vietnam – Elite Warriors' First-Person Accounts of Covert Operations and Brutal Firefights

by Bill Fawcett

The U.S. Navy SEALs have long been considered among the finest, most courageous, and professional soldiers in American military history—an elite fighting force trained as parachutists, frogmen, demolition experts, and guerrilla warriors ready for sea, air, and land combat. Born out of a proud naval tradition dating back to World War II, the first SEAL teams were commissioned in the early 1960s. Vietnam was their proving ground. In this remarkable volume, fifteen former SEALs—most of them original founding team members, or "plankowners"—share their vivid first-person remembrances of action in Vietnam. Here are honest, brutal, and relentlessly thrilling stories of covert missions, ferocious firefights, and red-hot chopper insertions and extractions, revealing astonishing little-known truths that will only add strength to the enduring SEAL legend.

Genres: Military Fiction, Nonfiction, Military History, History

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Bill Fawcett has been a professor, teacher, corporate executive, and college dean. His entire life has been spent in the creative fields and managing other creative individuals. He is one of the founders of Mayfair Games, a board and role-play gaming company. As an author, Fawcett has written or coauthored over a dozen books and dozens of articles and short stories. As a book packager, a person who prepares series of books from concept to production for major publishers, his company, Bill Fawcett & Associates, has packaged more than 250 titles for virtually every major publisher. He founded, and later sold, what is now the largest hobby shop in Northern Illinois.

Fawcett’s first commercial writing appeared as articles in the Dragon magazine and include some of the earliest appearances of classes and monster types for Dungeons & Dragons. With Mayfair Games he created, wrote, and edited many of the Role Aides role-playing game modules and supplements released in the 1970s and 1980s. During this period, he also designed almost a dozen board games, including several Charles Roberts Award (gaming's Emmy) winners, such as Empire Builder and Sanctuary.

Reviews

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

An inside look into the gritty world of SF soldiers. None of the Hollywood storeys here. Just real people in the surreal world of war.

[Carol Storm · Rating 3 out of 5]

An okay book for research purposes, but these interviews with early SEALS focus more on administrative issues and a few wild nights out than on heavy combat or family issues.

[Herbert Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly boring due to almost all the stories were the same.

[T · Rating 5 out of 5]

GOOD READING

Good reading about a special group of guys in the Vietnam war. What they went through and how they were treated.

[Peter Nielsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very well done collection of the memories of the beginnings of the Elite Navy SEALs and their memories of Viet Nam.

[Jerome Otte · Rating 3 out of 5]

The great thing about this oral history is that you get a personal feel for the characters as they talk about their experiences. The wide range of experiences are reflected in the wide range of personalities that the history is drawn from. The accounts are honest and sincere. Each account begins with a brief editorial introduction and summary of a different aspect of the SEALs unit formation and operational history in Viet Nam. This helps the reader to understand the subject as a broad total of experiences rather than just a bundle of yarns slapped together. The editor did a great job of putting the accounts in an informative sequence which gave this reviewer a greater background understanding of the following accounts as I progressed through the book.

[Cathy Postmus · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember being so impressed with Rudy Boesch when I read this book many years ago. I also remember being so excited when the first "Survivor" show aired - I recognized this guy's name and remember being impressed by his story. Then I watched a few episodes of survivor and decided I didn't like the guy after all. It was a complete let-down.

[David Ward · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hunters and Shooters: An Oral History of the US Navy Seals in Vietnam by Bill Fawcett, Editor (William Morrow and Co. 1995)(959.704345). This is a collection of stories from the Special Forces sailors in Southeast Asia. It is an OK collection; I would not recommend it or read it again. My rating: 4/10, finished 2005.

[Rendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

US Navy SEALs live and jobs