Ordo Exercitus asked Stephen Templin:

Is writing part of buds? Why does it seem like it's the moonlighting job of all SEALs now days? :) Cultivated?

Stephen Templin We wrote in BUD/S, Ordo but not memoirs. I think the first big special ops book was Robin Moore's 1965 THE GREEN BERETS--then made into John Wayne movie. (In 1966, "The Ballad of the Green Berets" became #1 in the US.) 1976, Benjamin Schemmer wrote THE RAID, a Green Berets attempt to rescue 61 US POWs north of Hanoi. In 1983, the first Tier 1 biography came from Delta Force's founder Charlie Beckwith, entitled DELTA FORCE. (In 1986, Chuck Norris starred in action movie with the same name.) And the first hit Tier 1 TV series was THE UNIT. All this PR certainly helped the Army's special ops recruiting. If one looks at history, Navy SEALs don't have a monopoly on writing. Thanks for the question.

flag